October 6, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 2 Samuel? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Samuel 10 (NIV)
David Defeats the Ammonites
1 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “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?...........Continue Reading
Once again David tried to show kindness and unfortunately it is greeted with such obvious humiliation and I love that David allowed them to hide themselves rather than use them to exploit what had happened.
Joab entered a seemingly losing battle with such confidence and instructed the men to be strong and courageous and have that confidence as well knowing that the battle belonged to God and God once again gave them victory.
The Ammonites are inhospitable toward David’s delegation to express sympathy for Hanun’s father’s death. The “stench in David’s nostris” didn’t have a prayer of succeeding.
2 Samuel 7-10
It is unfortunate when good intentions are misinterpreted and yet suspicious and insecure people tend to do that the most. To think all that happens in this chapter starts with David wanting to be kind and understanding. It would also be one thing to just send David’s envoys back, but it was unwise of these Ammonites to humiliate his men. Have they forgotten all the favor on David and all the victories he had won over their neighbors? We need to be prepared for people of the world to do the same thing in response to our good initiatives. But the important thing for us to do is not react negatively and let our offense lead us to wrong behavior. And David does well with that here. He doesn’t draw up battle lines first but only does that when they do. It is unfortunate that they don’t just apologize to David or engage in conversation. They just learn that David is upset and they react defensively. It’s another thing we need to be prepared for and it may be an opportunity for us to be extra gracious and smooth things over and make peace when people overreact. But David sends out Joab and it’s no surprise that they are victorious. What is good is they do not press the battle. The enemy was routed and they were going home, so Israel did the same. But then set up lines to attack again. SO David has to do the same.
Like I said, a sad course of events begun by David trying to be nice…..
2 Samuel 10
David tries to extend kindness and his men are met with humiliation.
I guess I kind of get it. The more I see nations interact today, the more I realized that other nations, and even some of our own leaders, are not motivated by kindness or the good of the people. I can see that a nation may be suspicious…..BUT there is a history of peace and kindness between the two nations, and it is good to approach diplomatic means cautiously….not respond rashly and with assumptions.