Hear the word of the Lord from the book of Samuel:
Some time afterward, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him. David said, "I will deal loyally with Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father dealt loyally with me." So David sent envoys to console him concerning his father.
When David's envoys came into the land of the Ammonites, the princes of the Ammonites said to their lord Hanun, "Do you really think that David is honoring your father just because he has sent messengers with condolences to you? Has not David sent his envoys to you to search the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it?" So Hanun seized David's envoys, shaved off half the beard of each, cut off their garments in the middle at their hips, and sent them away.
When David was told, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, "Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return."
When the Ammonites saw that they had become odious to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Arameans of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah, twenty thousand foot soldiers, as well as the king of Maacah, one thousand men, and the men of Tob, twelve thousand men.
2 Samuel 10:1-7 – NRSV
Any leader is bound to make mistakes, and the mettle of any new leader is tested by how they make mistakes and learn from them. When you’re the king, though, the learning curve can be pretty difficult. Hanun’s problem is not that he makes a mistake; it’s that he stacks them like bricks. What mistakes did the young king make?
Mistake 1 – Misunderstanding a relationship. Hanun’s father had a relationship based on mutual loyalty with David. Had Hanun not been paying attention to the events in his father’s court? What kind of person did Hanun think David was? Perhaps Hanun and his friends had been listening to the enemies of David. Perhaps there were other people with other agendas than that which was best for Hanun and his people. Why do we so easily see evil in the actions of others?
Mistake 2 – Misreading a situation because one has misunderstood a relationship. Sometimes a messenger is just a messenger. Did Hanun really think that David would dishonor his father by using mourners as a ploy for military intelligence? When a person is hypervigilant, they read the wrong motives into every act: right, wrong, and indifferent. The narrator tells us that David meant to show loyalty, honor, and respect. I’m sure that those were precisely the words that David’s envoys used. Hanun has totally missed the intended message. Why do we so often struggle to believe the plain spoken words of another, and insist on misreading a situation as being its precise opposite?
Mistake 3 – Acting unwisely because one has misread a situation as a result of misunderstanding a relationship. It is one thing to believe that you don’t have a good relationship with someone. It is another thing altogether to misread the intentions of one of their actions toward you. But to take an aggressive action based on these two things shows that Hanun is not thinking things through. Did he not have the self-confidence to believe that another king might wish him well? Did he not take the time to consider, even for a moment, that David might have had a good motive? Apparently not. So, instead of hedging his bets by allowing for the possibility that he has misunderstood the relationship or misinterpreted the events, Hanun assumes that he is correct on all counts and makes the most aggressive move possible in the circumstances, short of assassinating the emissaries. Why do we believe that picking a fight is easier than praying for peace?
Mistake 4 – Making a bad decision by going to war to defend an unwise action based on a misreading of a situation because one has misunderstood a relationship. After Hanun humiliated these two men, he soon received conclusive evidence that he had enraged David. He could have reconsidered the evidence. He might have apologized. Perhaps he should have offered to make things right for the envoys that he humiliated. Instead, Hanun hires an army as one more ill-considered action in a chain of mistakes. Why do human beings so often choose war over peace?
Don’t you wish that we could say that we were different? Don’t you wish that our behavior was any more noble? The fact remains that we are going to make mistakes in our lives, especially when we try to interpret the words and actions of other people. The important questions, though, are:
Are we going to test our theories against other facts?
Are we going to listen to others who disagree with us?
Are we going to hear the plain spoken words of those whom we doubt?
Are we going to act in such a way that allows for the possibility that we might be wrong?
Do we have the courage to apologize when it becomes painfully apparent that we have messed up?
Let us test our hearts, our minds, our words, and our actions against these difficult questions.
Grace and peace,
Ron
