Sons Of The Flaming Throne – Ch. 23 | KT OLLA

WHEN a report that his usurper was close reached the king, the latter knew it was time he decided what to do with his son.

King David had stalled over making a decision all the whole while. Lest he hack down his own child in one hasty moment.

His wise chief counsel had equally lingered in advising him. The reason was that he was currently studying Absalom’s battle strategy.

So he’d promised to come up with the best counter just when it’d matter most.

That man had excused himself from the royal courts for days, too. But it was on the basis of his curious study that David excused him.

So, when other nobles went to find him, they took back reports to the king that he was truly observing the prince.

That he was studying the young man’s footprints everywhere he’d plotted things.

But then, that man was a sneaky old chap with a giant goal. As he wanted to be the one who stirred the hand which stirred the kingdom.

Well, he wanted to be seen and praised as the power behind the throne. He wanted to be the powerbroker who wore a giant title.

Yes, the one. The very one who made men kings.

But King David was convinced otherwise. He’d say it was rather God’s gentleness that had made him great.

Also, he’d maintain that people could only propose a plan. That it was God’s counsel that’d eventually stand.

That it was God alone who owned the glory the man sought.

Yet again, neither the king nor his sage talked about those matters. At least, not with the exchange of words.

Still both men made their stand abundantly clear. It was by the fire in their walk.

In that meantime, David continued to table his plans on the altar of prayer. Even when his best counsellor had given his counsel about them already.

And whenever he asked God’s verdict over those issues, the answer often came as his counsellor had previously advised.

Still the king continued to ask about every next step. And the child heart beneath his chest was the fuel that kept him burning.

But then again, David’s adviser burned as well. But it was a different kind of fire that flamed on his inside.

For the man waited patiently for the day of trouble, brewing already from David’s third son and pride.

That man had read the signs, but turned a blind eye. He chose to know nothing when, in actual fact, he knew all there was to know.

He waited for this trouble to spell out the words. That knowledge was the real power.

And now, the trouble had come.

For, as soon as Absalom’s troop came close to Jerusalem, David’s adviser bolted off in secret and escaped to meet the young man on the way.

It was the plot he’d schemed all along. To decamp to the enemy’s side at the last moment—

When the loss of him would ache far more than the loss of ten lives.

For in those days, that giant mind was this great and excellent. That they called him the Voice of God and Reason.

But he was only some mortal man who couldn’t promise tomorrow.

He was equally a man given time and chance like everyone else. Plus, the needed understanding to manage them.

He was David’s choice adviser. And they called his name Ahithophel.

Now with Ahithophel gone, David made his decision.

And it was what’d baffle his entire people.