May 11, 2017. 2 Samuel 10, 1 Chronicles 19, Psalm 20.

 

Perhaps one of the most humiliating encounter was recored in these two chapters in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles.  The king of the Ammonites dies and David, being the kind and respectful man he was, decides to send a few representatives to express his sympathies to the king’s son and successor, Hanun.

Hanun’s brown-nosing commanders start putting doubts into his head saying,

2 Samuel 10:3

“Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?”

And so Hanun does what any respectable young king would do and shaves off half of each man’s beard who were sent by David and cuts off their clothes at the hindquarters area.  (You know you have wanted to pants someone at some point in your life, don’t lie.)

The poor fellows return home and war ensues.

There are so many incredible lessons to be learned from this highly entertaining record of history.

Kindness is not always accepted or repaid, and in fact can be met with hostility.  This is where it is important to check your motive for showing kindness.  Are you being kind because you want to show the love of God to someone?  Or are you being kind to get something out of it?  If you are doing it for the latter, that is your first area to examine and adjust.  

But working on the assumption you are showing kindness for the former reason;  although it stinks to have someone you were just super sweet to pull down your pants in return, you have to remember that you were not being kind to them to get something from them.  You were doing it to show the love of God.  

You better believe that Hunan felt like a fool after realizing David was being genuine in sending his delegates to demonstrate his sympathies.  Because he was not able to accept the nice gesture as it was and feared David was actually planning an attack, he wound up starting a war himself.  And maybe you can relate to that.  You are suspicious when someone is being nice to you.  Be very cautious not to start a war by trying to avoid getting duped.

Spoiler alert: God brings David victory against Hunan and his friends in battle.

The Lord protects the righteous.

Psalm 20:6-7

The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Be kind.  Trust God to deal with the unkindness of others.  Do not put your trust in chariots and horses, put your trust in the name of the Lord our God.