“In his own lifetime, Avshalom had taken and raised for himself the pillar which stands in the King’s Valley, because he said, ‘I don’t have a son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he named the pillar after himself, and it’s called Avshalom’s Monument to this day.“-2 Samuel 18:18
There’s another reason rooted in superstition why Absalom had a pillar erected to himself.
It was believed that a person’s spiritual essence continued on in the afterlife.
But that only happened if a certain condition was met.
The person’s name had to be remembered and spoken out loud.
If it’s true that Absalom disowned his sons, the offspring of those sons were no longer part of the family.
This meant there was no one left to keep his spirit alive by speaking his name.
That’s why Absalom had his name engraved on a public pillar dedicated to himself.
The idea was that when people came to visit it, they’d look upon the pillar and say his name out loud.
In this way, they’d perpetuate his spiritual existence even after death.
This was a superstition all ancient Middle Easterners believed in.
So what’s the takeaway here?
It’s that Absalom didn’t need to build a monument to himself.
Why?
Scripture has already recorded his name for all eternity.
Heck, I’m even blogging about him now in the year 2025.
But the thing is, he won’t be remembered for good.
He’ll go down in history as the man who betrayed his own father.
And the villain who rebelled against God’s anointed king.
That’s your lesson for today.
Absalom thought a monument could preserve his memory.
He banked on stone and superstition to keep his name alive.
But monuments fade.
And names engraved in pride end up carrying stories of warning, not glory.
The truth is, we all wanna be remembered.
Yet history proves even the greatest names fade into dust.
But there’s one place where names never fade:
God’s Book of Life.
And the only way your name gets written there is by walking in the Lord’s will.
So while Absalom’s name is remembered for rebellion…
If you are faithful and remain obedient to God…
Your name can be remembered positively for all eternity…
Not because you carved it into stone…
But because God Himself inscribed it in His book.
Now that’s the kind of immortality worth striving for.
Don’t you think so?
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“The one who is victorious will,
like them, be dressed in white.
I will never blot out the name
of that person from the book of life,
but will acknowledge that name
before my Father and his angels.”
— Revelation 3:5
“And I saw the dead, great and small,
standing before the throne,
and books were opened.
Another book was opened,
which is the book of life.
The dead were judged according
to what they had done as
recorded in the books…
Anyone whose name was not
found written in the book of life
was thrown into the lake of fire.”
— Revelation 20:12, 15
“Nothing impure will ever enter it,
nor will anyone who does what
is shameful or deceitful,
but only those whose
names are written in the
Lamb’s book of life.”
— Revelation 21:27
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