Theological Commentary: Click Here
1 Chronicles
19 is a great lesson in the counsel of the wise. David sends a peace envoy to the Ammonites
when their king dies. Up until this
point, the Hebrew people under the leadership of David and the Ammonites had a good
relationship. There was no warfare
between them.
Hanun, the
son of the king with whom David had a good relationship, gets bad counsel. His advisors think that David is sending the
peace envoy as a ploy to spy on the Ammonites.
To be fair, we know that this happened in the ancient world
frequently. Envoys of peace on the
outside were also subtle spies on the inside.
You can’t fault the advisors for thinking that there might be more to
the act than good will.
We still use
this tactic. When we want to find
something out, we go in peace to test the water and learn what we can. We collect information under the guise of
peace and then go back and strategize about what we learned. When in doubt, we get more out of being
pleasant than we do by antagonizing someone.
Had Hanun
been skeptical and merely watched David’s party, things would have been
okay. I’m willing to bet David would have
not only understood but expected a little skepticism. It would have been natural. Hanun doesn’t do this, though. Hanun goes beyond the skeptical and humiliates
the envoys. In a single moment of poor thought,
Hanun spoils a moment that could have solidified the Hebrew people with the
Ammonites.
Instead,
David marshals the army. He cannot allow
his men to be humiliated. The army goes
out to war and defeats the Ammonites.
Not only does his army defeat the Ammonites, he defeats the Syrians that
had been hired to help in the battle! In
the end, the Ammonites end up defeated, embarrassed, and became subjects of
David.
They could
have been friends. They could have lived
in peace. Instead, Hunan listens to bad
advice, loses his position, and turns his nation into a vassal state of the
Hebrew people. It’s scary what a single
moment of bad advice can bring.
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