This God of Ours

This morning I was just reading again about David escaping from Absalom as he rebels against his father...Here is the situation. Absalom has risen up, according to Nathan's prophecy against David. Because David had destroyed Uriah's house - in his sin with Bathsheba - strife would never leave his own house. David is on the run and people are forced to take sides. Ahitophel, the great and wise counselor that was "as God" to David, opted to now serve Absalom. The fact that he was Bathsheba's grandfather probably had something to do with this...Hushai, the other famed wiseman decided he would continue to support David....David now turns to Hushai and asks him to play a secret part. He tells him to go back to Jerusalem and pretend to be one of Absalom's supporters. This way he can covertly work for David against Absalom. Hushai agrees...The first thing that has to be decided is what to do about David. What strategy should they use to destroy him? Ahitophel advises that Absalom should go immediately with such soldiers as he has and hunt David down. He alone would be killed. The rest of the people would then turn to Absalom as their king. This plan would be straightforward and prevent much bloodshed...Absalom listened. Then he decided to ask Hushai for his advice. Hushai vehemently protested Ahitophel's plan. He said David was much too fierce a warrior to be approached with only a few men. Instead, Absalom should wait a few days and round up many more soldiers to fight with him. Then they would approach David in strength and defeat him...The Bible says explicitly that Ahitophel's advice was good, Hushai's was not - it was not intended to be...So who did Absalom ultimately agree with? Hushai, according to God's plan. And what was the outcome of that? About 20,000 deaths...God saved David's life at the cost of 20,000 men, or thereabouts...Those 20,000 men were not innocent, in any absolute sense, of course. They had no right even to their own lives before God. But what a God this is, to make decisions like this. Any man making them would be culpable to the nth degree. But not God. Amazing. Indeed, as CS Lewis says, He is not a tame lion!