First put together, 7/25/84
Vs. 1-5.
1) David desired to show a kindness to his friend by showing kindness to his son.
2) There is always someone around close to us to cast doubts upon the motives of others. Furthermore, just because that person might be in a trusted place in our heart, does not mean they are right. David's motives were pure and should have been accepted as pure by Hanun until something proved them different.
3) Notice the bad advice given to Hanun.. Let me give you a couple of practical things here:
A) There are people outside of the faith who sincerely desire to do right. Now, they are not saved, but many times they have a better morality than those within the faith.
His name means GRACIOUS, but does not mean GOD IS GRACIOUS. That would be Haniel. In other words, the world does have a graciousness, and sometimes their graciousness is better than is that of the Lord's people. So we see this young man had been taught to be gracious by his dad, evidently according to the world's or according to mans standard of being gracious, and he attempted to be gracious to David's men. (Nahash = oracles. Ammon= a fellow countryman.)
B) Hanun had been taught better, and he knew better, but he listened to the bad advise that went against his proper upbringing. The wisdom of this world whispered into this new king's ear, "Here is what is really going on...."
C) But Hanun was not the only one who had a problem following his upbringing.
a) The prophet of God told David to get into Judah for his safety, but his men talked him out of it, 1 Sam 22:5 - 23:3.
b) Solomon's son Rehoboam (1 Kgs 12:10), had been taught better but he listened to the young men and their bad advise.
c) 2 Sam 13:3, Amnon had been taught better, but he listened to his friends advise.
d) Gen 19:2, Lot's daughters had been taught better, but the younger listened to the elder. (Jessica, Heather, you have more influence upon your younger brothers and sisters than do their parents.)
e) Gen 16:2, Abraham knew better, but he listened to the advise of his wife. The result was Ishmael.
Of course, it all comes back to Eve. She knew better, but she listened to the serpent.
It doesn't matter where the advise comes from, all the way from an angle of light, serpent, close friends, advisers, wife, family, if that advice goes against the word of God and good common sense, it will be disastrous. The results will be swords, murders, fightings, wars, perversities of all kinds.
4) Notice another thing here.
Even though someone might give us wrong advise, we are still
accountable for it.
5) Cut the beards.. in the orient there could not have been a greater disgrace. Even as late as 1764, this was such an insult that it was a cause for war and for kingdoms to fall. (Keil, vol 2, 375.)
Notice, v. 5, no matter how great the insult we will grow out of it. The beards grew back. Most of the time we make more out of something than what needs to be made and only get ourselves in deeper trouble.
Vs. 6-14
Evidently, David was not really looking for this war, but it found him anyway. This war changed David's life. At the peak of his walk with God, at the peak of his power, at the height of his glory, this war takes place. David has probably been on the throne about 20-22 years when these events are set into motion. We have parallel records in 1 Chron 19 & Pa 44 & 46.
David seems to be willing to let it rest. Probably when the advisers saw the effect which the insult had on David, they gave more bad advise: hire the neighbors and go to war with David.
1) They followed bad advise with more bad advise. If the children of Ammon had left it alone, David probably would not have moved against them. This passage does not say that David was now going to war over the insult. He probably had left it in the Lord's hands, although he most certainly considered this insult to his men an insult to himself.
A) An insult to the ambassadors of King Jesus is an insult to Him. But His patience is waiting and when the cup of evil if full, He will move.
2) If Hanun had asked forgiveness after he saw that they stank before David, he would probably had been forgiven.
A) If we refuse to humble ourselves and admit we are wrong and are sinners before the Son of David, we will reap His wrath. This reminds me of Ps 2, kiss the Son, lest he be angry...
3) Notice what is taking place here: Hanun sinned against David. Rather than admit that he had sinned, he tries to do three things:
A) He sought to overthrow the king whom he had sinned against.
B) He united the nations to help him in his evil effort.
C) He used money to try to bring the nations together to overthrow
the king.
He tries to buy his way out of the mess he created. He tries to fight his way out of the mess he created.
Ammon (1 Chron 19:6) sent 1,000 talents of silver to hire Syria. That is about 1/2 million pounds. 500,000 lbs of silver is a lot of money, even at our current deflated value. It probably is around 32 million at $4.00 an oz. In David's time this would be an extremely large sum of money. But when money is seen as the answer to ones sin and it is trusted in to prevent one from reaping the results of that sin, no amount is to large.
This situation is just as applicable for us today as though it took place last week. The reason that the Word of God always applies is because it tells the truth about sin and how sinful men act and react.
First, fallen man is extremely hard headed. Hanun the Ammonite sinned against the king. He got himself into a barrel of problems and rather than face up to the fact that he has sinned, he tries to get others to join with him in his sin.
Second, fallen man, rather than repent, will try to buy his way out of the results of his sin.
No matter how many others we "hire" or get to agree with us and help us in our pride before the Son of David, He will have the victory in the end. When we make the King, the Son of David mad, all the world's gold will do us no good.
Job said who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered? 9:4.
The world's answer is that we can go our own way as long as we have enough funds. If there is a problem, the answer is not to repent before the King of kings, but to throw enough money at it to solve the problem. But no matter how much money they try to throw at the problem or how many others they get to join with them, humility before the Son of David is the only answer.
This is why the AIDS crowd can ask for the total national defence budget for research and never bat an eye. And they fully expect to receive it because to those who are in rebellion against the King, money will protect them from the wrath of the King.
The cry today is "More money will cure the problem of bad education, disease, peace with God, victory without God, or even "victory over the Son of God." "If we can get enough money together we can overthrow the Son of David, King Jesus." And what makes it even worse, they are using tax money in their antiChrist effort.
5) David hears of the plans against him and responds by sending the best that he had against this united force, Joab, and all the host of the mighty men.
It is interesting that fallen man today does not think that the King Jesus knows what is going on here on His earth.
July 12, 1992
Vs. 11, 12.
Joab says, "Do the best you can and if you need help, I'll
come help. I'll do the best I can, and if I need help, you come
help me. And the Lord will do as he sees fit."
Joab was a strange man. He sounds, at times, like the Lord Himself talking, yet he could commit cold blooded murder and never bat an eye.
Joab's advise here is excellent advise. God's people should be busy, but while we are busy in our area of responsibility, we should be looking over our shoulder to see if a brother needs help.
1 Cor 3:9, for we are laborers together with God.. Not only are we co-labours with the Lord here on this earth, but we are co-labours with fellow Christians. If they go down, we go down. If Ammon defeats them, then we are defeated.
It's a shame to the name of Christian when people in the same camp under the same Commander will not help one another. It is especially sad when people within the same local congregation will not help one another. The fighting, envy, selfishness and pride in the camp will cause the army to fall to Ammon. It will also cause the Commander to chastise His soldiers.
V. 8, entering in of the gate...
Even the gates of hell will not prevail before the Kings army
if they will unite and go against it in the name of their commander.
V. 12.
There seems to be self-glory here on Joab's part. Notice his
charge to the people to go into battle.
It was for:
1) our people
2) the cities God has given to us.
But notice what is missing... He says nothing about the battle being for the Lord or for the name of the Lord, or for the glory of God.
As we follow Joab through, we will see that he never refers to the necessity of protecting the name of the Lord during his entire military career.
Joab had already killed Abner to protect his position. But even though God still used him, he paid the price. He died on the alter when Solomon came to the throne. In fact, on his death bed, David told his son Solomon that he was to kill Joab. Why did David put up with Joab? Only the Lord knows.
Observe:
We do not know what people's motives are. There can be God-given
victories even with the motives of pride, as we see in Joab. I'm
sure there has been great victories won and marvelous works built
with pride as the main motive, but we will not know until the
King of kings reigns. Our primary responsibility is to protect
our own motives. I would have to probably say that if only the
work which was done with pure motives for the Lord was successful,
there would be extremely little accomplished. We still live in
a fallen sinful body.
The Lord do that which seemeth good...
This is the way we must enter into the difficulties of life.
1> make the best preparation that we can.
2> see that we are right with God
3> Fight as hard as we can
4> Leave it up to the Lord, for the battle is the Lord's.
However, Joab does say, for the cities of our God...
V. 12, make our plans, do our best, and leave the results up to the Lord. And be content with doing our best, and rejoice no matter how the Lord causes things to turn out.
Vs. 15-19.
Joab was being victorious.
The Syrians called for reinforcements.
David gathered more of Israel together and led them into battle.
(If he had done this in the next chapter, there would have been
a lot of heartache avoided.)
The Syrians fled and David killed 7,000 men of 700 chariots and
40,000 other soldiers, horsemen & footmen.
Compare the battle here with 1 Chron 19:18.
Observe:
1) Even though the Syrians knew they were being smitten before God's people, they refused to give in. Rather they gathered themselves together and fought harder.
This is all to typical of fallen man. Even though he is being destroyed before the King, he refuses to submit to the King. He would rather die than submit to King Jesus.
2) The Syrians flee from David rather than be subdued by David. Again, how like fallen man. He would rather flee from the Son of David than be subdued by Him. But, as the Psalmist said, where will he flee to? If he descends in to the depths of the sea, the Lord is there. No matter where the sinner tries to hide, the King will find him.
3) We will cover this at length in Exodus, but here we see that the Lord hardened their heart that He might destroy them before David.
4) notice that we had better be careful who we join up with
or we may find ourselves in the same fix as did the Syrians.
5) Finally, no matter how many nations join against the Lord
and His people, they will finally be subdued by the sword of the
Spirit, to the King of king. Every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father.
Also notice that the modern day hatred of Syria against Israel is not new; it has deep roots.
The children of Ammon brought a reproach upon David, v. 3.
The children of Ammon started the fight.
God avenges Himself because a reproach upon His people is a reproach
upon Him.