The Second Book Of Samuel. Day 30, War With The Ammonites, Part One

In the first portion of Chapter 10 we found David sending a delegation to King Hanun of the Ammonites to express his sympathy for the death of Hanun's father King Nahash. But Hanun's commanders gave him bad advice by telling him David was only pretending to extend his sympathies when in reality he wanted to spy out the city to plan an attack on it. Hanun accepted his commanders' opinion and treated David's men shamefully, cutting off half their beards and cutting their robes off immodestly before sending them away. 

David was horrified by the treatment of his men. The Bible doesn't say whether he planned to do anything to retaliate against King Hanun. I think it's likely he planned to turn the other cheek and just simply accept that he cannot be friendly with Hanun as he was with Hanun's late father. I think David would even have accepted an apology from this very new and possibly very young king. I believe Hanun could have salvaged the friendliness between his house and David's house if he'd shown sincere sorrow for his actions. Instead he prepares for war. We don't know whether he makes this decision on his own or whether he again allows himself to be led by older, more politically crafty men. "When the Ammonites realized 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." (2 Samuel 10:6) 

The Ammonites realize they went too far. If they were suspicious of David's men they could have turned them away at the gates instead of deliberately humiliating them. Refusing to see the men would have still been an insult to David's integrity but it would not have made the Ammonites so abominable in the Israelites' eyes. The Ammonites expect David to attack them because that's what they would do if they were in his shoes. They amass an army to go on the offensive and it's only when David hears about this army that he prepares his own army for war. This leads me to believe he may have intended to do something his son King Solomon would later regard as a virtue: "A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense." (Proverbs 19:11)

"On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were by themselves in the open country." (2 Samuel 10:7-8) David doesn't wait for war to come to him; he brings it to the Ammonites. He knows the king does not intend to relent. He knows there is no choice now but to see this thing through to its bitter conclusion.

When David's army commander Joab and all his fighting men arrive at the city, the Ammonites line up in front of David's army to defend their city from invasion while their hired soldiers line up to attack the Israelites from the rear. They think they have the Israelites surrounded and trapped---that fighting them will be as easy as "shooting fish in a barrel" as the saying goes. But they've misjudged the loyalty of the mercenaries they've hired. They've misjudged the bravery of the soldiers of Israel. And most of all, they've misjudged the power of Israel's God. Joab's forces may be surrounded by an enemy army but they are also surrounded by the protection of the Lord. Join us tomorrow as Joab makes a short but encouraging speech of faith before sending his men into battle and we find the enemies of Israel fleeing from them as fast as their legs and their horses can carry them. The Lord promised the Israelites that if they would love and obey Him, He would send their enemies fleeing from them in seven directions. (Deuteronomy 28:7) In tomorrow's text we'll see an example of this promise coming true.