Fresh Thoughts On Absalom

David Copeland November 17, 2009 12:22 pm

2 Samuel 18:18

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom's place.

I was reading this during my devotion last week when two thoughts jumped off the page at me:

First, verse 18 says Absalom said "…I have no son…"

But 2 Samuel 14:27 tells us Absalom had three sons and a daughter…

Whether it was because men in this day had so many wives and so many children by other wife's that there was not adequate nurturing going on or what… even with three sons, Absalom felt that he did not have a son to follow in his footsteps.

The story of Elijah and Elisha is a picture of a spiritual father and his spiritual son. Elijah poured everything he had into Elisha, so when he died, his ministry not only continued, it doubled.

Then in 2 Kings 13, Elisha died and was buried. A band of Moabites invaded the land one day and as some soldiers were carrying the guy home for his funeral, a band of Moabites came on them and he was "let down" into tomb of Elisha. When the dead man's body touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life again. While that is a great miracle there is another underlying thought.

Nowhere in scripture after death of Elijah do we find Elisha raising up a spiritual son. No one evidently pursued Elisha enough to warrant becoming his spiritual son. Or, maybe Elisha had to work so hard to get the double portion anointing he just wasn't interested in giving away something he had worked so hard to receive. Elisha went to the grave with that same double portion anointing having never imparted it to anyone else!

Can you imagine what would have happened if Elisha had chosen one of those sons of the prophets to pour himself into…that the anointing would have continued to double…

One of the greatest tragedies of our lifetime is the lack of spiritual fatherhood…

Paul told the Corinthians "…though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers…1 Corinthians 4:15

Because leaders either refuse, or don't know how to raise spiritual sons, each generation has to go back to square one when it comes to the transfer of a generational blessing…the transfer of a generational anointing…

Americans don't understand this because we think each generation needs to learn it the hard way…we think that experience is the best teacher.

Our culture refuses to believe in and teach the transfer of the generational blessing, because we have never had it transferred onto us from our fathers/grandfathers

God, please restore the spirit of fatherhood to us!!!!!!

Then he said "…to keep my name in remembrance….

Absalom was not only battling a Fear of abandonment, but also a fear of being forgotten!

Many of us have stayed in religious structures afraid of stepping out on our own because we were afraid the relationships we have worked so hard to establish would forget about us.

You know, out of sight, out of mind…

So Absalom raised up a monument inscribed with his name, and to this day it's called Absalom's Monument.

Men have built denominations, networks, buildings and ministries in their own name because they were afraid of being forgotten!

Some preachers have never been able to step out on their own and establish what God has wanted them to establish because of a fear of being forgotten!

So we build buildings…build ministries…build denominational structures with our names and influence, instead of investing them our names and influence and anointing into other ABLE MEN AND WOMEN who can carry the NAME OF JESUS TO THE NATIONS as well as to the next generation!!!!!!

God, set us free from the fear of being forgotten!