“Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight,”
– 2 Samuel 10:12
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever showed genuine attention to a kid – or a guy or gal, misconstrued by the kid – or by the guy or gal, as a nefarious attempt to take advantage of him or her? Have you ever had something thoughtful that you did for a kid – or a guy or gal, backfire on you when the kid – or the guy or gal, misinterpreted your thoughtfulness as you wanting to get on his or her good side? Have you ever made a compliment to a kid – or a guy or gal, misunderstood by the kid – or the guy or gal, because he or she has a mistrust spirit embedded in him or her? David found himself one day in one of these uncomfortable moments when his efforts to communicate sympathy was misjudged by the intended recipients when they concluded that David had found the excuse that he had been looking for to spy out their city for the purpose of conquering it. This misfortunate event was precipitated by the death of Nahash – who was an Ammonite people group’s king, led to 47,000 guys being killed. Nahash’s kid Hanun replaced his dad as the Ammonite people group’s king. Because Nahash had always been kind towards David, David – when Nahash died, felt compelled to return the benevolent friendship that Nahash had curried over the years with him by sending a formal letter with a delegation of his guys to Hanun to express his sincere sympathy to Hanun for his dad’s death. Instead of welcoming David’s emissaries as his dad would have done, Hanun listened to the counsel of his nobles who were convinced that David had ignominious intentions. Hanun had David’s envoys seized. Before Hanun’s guys sent David’s couriers back to David, Hanun’s goons shaved off as an ultimate insult one side of each guy’s beard and as a consummate degradation, they cut off each guy’s garment at buttock level. When David was told what had happened to his guys, David told his humiliated guys to hang out in the city of Jericho while he . . . word probably quickly got to the Ammonite people group leaders that they had become a stench to David.
Have you ever been caught up doing something that was the right thing to do but which ended up escalating in an unexpected appalling outcome? Samuel in his second Samuel Book – in 2 Samuel 10, recounts this incident that David had with Hanun and some Ammonite people group guys that got out of control because misguided nobles misinformed an inexperienced young king to do something idiotic that led ultimately to David sending his Israelite people group army – that David had Joab and Joab’s bro Abishai lead, to fight against the Ammonite people group army and a 20,000 Aramean people group foot soldier contingent that had been hired by the Ammonite people group from the districts of Beth Rehob and Zobah to help them fight against David’s army – which was the Israelite people group’s army. Verse 12 has Joab telling his bro. “Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight,”’ Instead of doing what they were being paid to do, the Aramean people group mercenaries – when they saw that Joab was advancing on them, took off running for their lives. When the Ammonite people group army saw the Aramean people group guys fleeing, the Ammonite people group army returned to their city to hunker down. When Hadadezer – who was king of Zobah, heard about his guys’ cowardice, Hadadezer had Shobach – who was his army’s commander, rally his guys to take a stand against the Israelite people group’s army. This time the Aramean people group guys stood their ground until . . . then they turned tail and ran. The Israelite people group’s army killed Shobach and 40,000 of his foot soldiers and 7,000 of his charioteers.
Where do you think the line is between having blind trust and open-eyed distrust? Raúl Pedraza was a really good friend of your grandmaa and grandpaa when they lived in Bolivia as missionaries on South America Mission’s field missionary team. Raúl told your grandmaa and grandpaa one day that they were to never tempt a Bolivian guy to oversee a fund of money as the guy will invariably succumb to using the money for himself. Over the years that your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Bolivia, they found what Raúl told them was too often true. Several times your grandmaa or your grandpaa had a Bolivian ask your grandmaa or your grandpaa for money that came with a promise that the money would be given back when . . . Zacarías and Justina Choque also became very good friends with your grandmaa and grandpaa when they lived in Bolivia. The two summers that your grandmaa and grandpaa took on the responsibility of a South America Mission summer team during the three years when they were the administrators of the rural resident Bible education and leadership training center in Concepción, Nuflo de Chavez, your grandpaa left money with Zacarías for him to make the daily food purchases and to cover any other expense that were relevant to any of the centro de capacitación students or to any of their family members. Through helping Zacarías and Justina start a church in their house patio area, your grandmaa and grandpaa learned that they could totally trust Zacarías and Justina. Your grandpaa sometimes tells a guy or gal when he or she is heading for an underdeveloped, emerging country – such as to Bolivia or Guatemala, is to let a cynical spirit guide him or her in interactions regarding money that invariably will take place between him or her and a host country guy or gal. The best way though to get through a minefield from a request for money from a host county guy or gal is to let God – as God the Spirit, be your guide.
2 Samuel 10 (1081)