Describe the sin of Ahithophel and its results.

Ahithophel was a cherished friend and counselor of David, a mature believer whose advice was trusted as if one had inquired of the Word of God itself—yet his reversion was of the most subtle kind. He did not fall into sensuality as David had; the temptations he gave himself over to were arrogance, self-righteousness, and passing judgment on another believer. He was the grandfather of Bathsheba, and when David seduced her and had her husband Uriah killed and yet seemed to suffer nothing, Ahithophel secretly nursed his bitterness for years, until he joined Absalom's conspiracy against the very man God called "a man after My heart." When his sound counsel to destroy David was rejected, he knew David would triumph, and unable to face the king or the consequences of his own arrogant choices, he set his house in order and hanged himself—dying the sin unto death by his own hand, just as Judas would a thousand years later.