2 Samuel 18:1-18
Battle is about to be joined. But once again it amounts to civil war! And the poor king is in a tragic situation. Can he wish for victory when this must involve the defeat and the possible death of the son whom he has never ceased to love?
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). The hour of solemn "reaping" has struck for the wretched Absalom. The terrifying statement of Proverbs 30:17 applies to him, "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." The fine head of hair which was Absalom’s pride becomes the means of his destruction. The cruel Joab is the instrument by which God’s judgment is accomplished; that does not, however, excuse him by any means. In spite of the king’s orders, he is not afraid to commit this new murder in cold blood.
In rearing up a pillar to his own honour, Absalom had not envisaged that another monument would be erected "to his shame": this great heap of stones over the pit where his body was thrown (as for Achan —Joshua 7:26), a heap on which each man would cast his stone as a sign of contempt and of condemnation.