2 Samuel 10:1-5

Rejected friendliness.

The facts are:

1 . On the death of the King of Ammon, David resolves to send a kindly message to Hanun, in remembrance of favours received from his father Nahash.

2 . On the arrival of David's servants, the chief men of Ammon suggest to the new king that their message of condolence is a piece of trickery on the part of David for political ends.

3 . Listening to these insinuations, Hanun shows his contempt for David by cutting off one side of the beard of his ambassadors, and exposing the lower part of their person.

4 . On hearing of this humiliation, David sends a message to them on their way home, directing them to remain at Jericho till their beards were gown again. The question as to the chronological order of the events mentioned in this chapter as compared with 2 Samuel 8:1-18 . does not affect the character of the facts or the lessons conveyed. The supposition that David deserved the insult he met with at the hand of Hanun, in consequence of showing friendliness to one of Israel's traditional foes, is not justified, because of the explicit reference to David's remembrance of acts of kindness. As in the case of Mephibosheth remembrance of Jonathan's kindness is referred to by way of explaining the conduct described, so here it is evidently regarded as a corresponding excellence in David that he was mindful also of the kindness of aliens. The object of the historian is obviously to bring out into view the king's broad generosity. In this light, then, we may regard the narrative as showing—

I. THE EXISTENCE IN HUMAN INTERCOURSE OF UNREQUITED AND UNRECORDED ACTS OF KINDNESS . Had not this 2 Samuel 8:2 been written we might never have known that the pagan Nahash had showed kindness to the Lord's anointed. Possibly few in Israel knew of the actual service rendered by Nahash to David at some period of his exile. No record of it existed save in the king's memory; and Nahash died before his consideration for one in trouble was acknowledged in regal form. Possibly he may have felt it strange that no notice was taken of the past when David came into power. The fact that we have this incidental reference to the kindness suggests what we often observe to be true, that many kindly deeds are done of which history takes no note, and which in the hurry and strife of life are lost to sight and mind. There is more good in the world than is tabulated. Thousands of considerate friendly deeds, revealing the true brotherhood of man and the latent worth of human nature, are being daily performed, but of which the mass of mankind will know nothing, and which, perhaps, will lie for a long time, through unavoidable circumstances, unrequited. We ought to bear this in mind when we strive to form an estimate of the state of the world, and it should set us at ease if our own generous acts do not figure in the annals of our time, and are to all appearance disregarded and unproductive of reciprocal Conduct. It is the course of life; and yet nothing is lost, nothing is in vain.

II. THE GENEROSITY OF A TRUE HEART PASSES BEYOND CONVENTIONAL BOUNDS . To some it would seem strange that the King of Israel should cherish kindly sentiments towards an alien monarch, and even go out of the ordinary course to express those sentiments. Bigotry and a narrow interpretation of fidelity to the theocratic principle on which David's government was based would restrict generous feelings to one's own nationality. But David saw that man was before citizen, and the law of love before political expediency; and, as the Saviour later on saw a man and brother in the Samaritan and in every human creature, so now David saw in a kindly Nahash a kinship prior to and more radical than even the bonds which held him to his own nation. It is in these goings out of the best hearts of ancient times in kindliness towards the politically alien that we see a prefigurement of the broad evangelical charity which would embrace in its consideration every child of Adam. It is the delight of the good to recognize good in all men. The restrictive influences of sect and party, of nationality and race, are to be guarded against. The conventional is transitory; nature is permanent. The sentiments proper to nature must, if possible, rise above the accidental sentiments springing from the casual and fleeting forms of life.

III. IT IS SOMETIMES THE MISFORTUNE OF THE BEST CONDUCT TO BE MISJUDGED . David's conduct was pure in motive, correct in form, and beneficial in tendency; yet it, was regarded by astute men with suspicion, and repaid by the most malicious insult. This was no new thing in his experience. We have seen how again and again, during his early trials, he was misunderstood by Saul, and his very deeds of kindness returned by more bitter persecution. This is the portion of not a few in all ages. The world is dark, and men cannot or will not see the colours of good. It is one of the sad forms of confusion brought about by sin. The merciful Redeemer blessed men, but he was despised and rejected of them. The most lovely character that ever adorned the earth was clothed by the foul imagination of men with the horrible attributes of Satan ( Luke 11:15-18 ). The same treatment in a milder form was to be expected by his disciples ( Matthew 5:11 ; Matthew 10:17 , Matthew 10:18 ). We may be comforted, when the like experience happens to us, that it is all foreseen and provided for. The clouds that pass over the sky are not endued with permanence. They are incident to a changeful atmosphere.

IV. THE SOURCE OF THE MISJUDGMENT IS INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL . The men who persuaded Harem to scorn David's friendliness did not know David. It was ignorance of the actual intentions and the inner character of the king that gave scope for the base moral element to come in and impute to him vile motives ( 2 Samuel 8:3 ). They really supposed him to be a man like unto themselves, and, cherishing ill will, they found no difficulty in tracing his conduct to such considerations as would have influenced themselves had they been in his position. There is in all men affected by what is called the spirit of the world, a primary suspicion and distrust of others. It is a sort of first principle in business, in diplomacy, in casual intercourse. In the absence of perfect knowledge of the heart, the imagination is set to work to find out the possible motives at work. The existence of the slightest dislike will assuredly cause the imagination to see something evil, and hence the deeds most worthy in origin and design may be treated as base and deceitful. Ignorance and dislike combined to slay the Lord of glory ( John 8:37-45 ; 1 Corinthians 2:8 ). If such things happened to the Master, the servants may be patient and trustful should they also happen to them.

V. WICKEDNESS AND FOLLY , BY THEIR MISJUDGMENT , TURN AN ACT OF FRIENDLINESS INTO AN OCCASION OF DESTRUCTION . The conceit and ill will of these Ammonites, acting on Hanun, first misjudged David's conduct, and then, by a natural process of evil, gave rise to a deed which proved the occasion of turning the friendliness of David into retributive anger which issued in their ruin. The men capable of reasoning and feeling as these did were certainly capable of the deed of shameful insult to David in the persons of his ambassadors ( 2 Samuel 8:4 ). When men allow an ill-informed mind to be swayed by a malicious spirit, there is no telling to what lengths they may go in sin. Evil deeds are blind deeds. Their folly is parallel with their depravity. The most conspicuous instance of this is in the case of the people who misjudged Christ and rejected his friendliness. That which was to have been a rock on which they could build a great and blessed future became a stone to grind them to powder ( Matthew 21:40-44 ; Matthew 23:37 ; 1 Peter 2:7 , 1 Peter 2:8 ). It is also the wanton rejection of Christ's kindness which will prove the occasion of the bitterest woe to individuals ( Matthew 10:14 , Matthew 10:15 ; Matthew 11:20-24 ; cf. Proverbs 1:24-27 ). All rejections of friendliness involve ultimate loss; rejection of Christ's friendliness involves loss proportionate to his greatness and glory.