2 Samuel 10
10 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?” 4 So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.Before I had read any further I was visualizing what those poor men looked like....After visualizing I chuckled under my breath and then continued reading..........
5 When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”
6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.
My mind was begging the Ammonite king to go to David in humility and ask for forgiveness for disrespecting David's men.........The Bible clearly states that David had sent those men to show honor and respect.........surely the Ammonite king could see what he had done may have been funny at the time (to the Ammonites) but was obviously causing quite a stir with David and his men......Instead of asking David for forgiveness we are told that the Ammonite King hired soldiers to ready themselves for battle....
7 On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men.....
And for the next several verses after verse 7 we read about a battle........a battle that started because someone decided to do something mean to another, not ask for forgiveness but instead hold their ground......they even stepped it up a notch and 'got ready for a physical battle'
18 But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers.[a] He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there. 19 When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them.
The Ammonites lost the battle.........
Like I said in the first part of this blog post, my stomach churned after reading this story. It churned because of the way the battle started and then ended- so many lives were lost over something so trivial (the beards would have grown back and the cut off garments replaced...........the Ammorite king took 'fun and games' too far and could have asked for forgiveness before the ridiculousness of what was going on went any farther)......This had become an unnecessary battle with unnecessary destruction!
I started praying after reading it.... 'Heavenly Father what application does this story, that happened so many century's ago, have in my life....Why is this particular story seeming to soak down deep in my soul and bother me at my core....why can't I just laugh it off and focus on how funny those men must have looked with their cut tunics and half shaved beards..........'
I have shared several times on this blog that I have asked the Lord to help me be the wife that He wants me to be to my husband Matt (Matt and I love each other dearly but both of us have strong personalities that more often times than not will want to clash)
As I was mulling over the story above, asking the Lord for the wisdom to understand what I needed to learn from it, in sadness and repentance I realized how many times I have been an example of Hanun (the Ammonite king) in my marriage- Speaking hurt to my husband but making sure that it has the appearance of funny........When I see the hurt come over him and hear his reply I am quick to hire the twenty thousand 'foot soldiers' that come in the package of twenty thousand justifiable thoughts of ways that Matt has hurt me in the past. The battle lines are drawn and the fight begins...an unnecessary battle with unnecessary marital destruction.
As much as it grieves my heart to know that I have acted like Hanun, I can feel the truth of the Lord soaking in deeper than the grief........... 'A soft answer turns away wrath daughter (Prov. 15:1)...........my mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:23)..........I began a good work in you and will see it through to completion (Phil. 1:6).........'
Today is a new day with new understanding- a day full of choices to make..........a day that soft answers will turn away wrath
AMEN!
 |
| I LOVE MY MATT!!!!! |
No comments:
Post a Comment