When the king of the Ammonites passed away, David had compassion for the son in having lost his father. Instead of just looking at the change of kings and the political affect, David looks at the life situation of another human and does something to extend an offer of care and compassion. David sent a couple of men over to Ammon to show kindness to the son.
The counsel of these princes is harsh and seemingly baseless. I can't help but wonder if the son, Hanun, was ambitious and glad to finally rule his way now that his father had passed. Whether it was this or listening to bad counsel, it was as if Hanun accused David of sending spiess. To disrespect these men in this way was to disrespect David.
Shaving off half their beards and cutting their garments at the hip put these men to disgrace and was seen as an act of war. The beard was an ornament to a man and a symbol of masculinity in this culture; oaths and pledges were sworn by the beard. Free men had beards, slaves had their faces shaved. Because of these things, most men had a beard their whole life and they would rather die than shave their beard off. (See Lev 19:27, 21:4-6; Is 15:1-3). Isaiah 50:6 is a picture of Jesus on the way to the cross; in this we see his beard plucked out.
In addition to the embarrassment of nudity brom their garments being cut off, there is some thought this was symbolic of castration. This also displayed their circumcision which was an offense to the pagans. David had these men stay in Jericho until their beard grew back to avoid the humility of returning this way.
Now that the Ammonites saw they'd made David mad they went and hired the Syrians to go to war with them. David sent Joab and the mighty men to deal with the Ammonites. Poor counsel of the princes or ambition of the son led to this war. The Ammonites stoodd before Israel and the Syrians stood behind them. At this point, many armies might have retreated or been looking for a way out but Joab splits the men with his brother Abishai. We can see the courage, commitment and trust in the Lord from Joab and Abishai. We can picture these brothers surrounded and knowing they may die that day. They promised to help each other, encouraged each other to be strong and show themselves courageous for the people and the cities of God. This scene must have been very inspiring to others. They had prepared, they had a plan and recognized that the outcome was ultimately in the Lord's hand.
It may be that the Syrians had not seen such courage. The Israelites didn't wait to be attacked but moved to attack them. The Syrians broke and ran; this led to the Ammonites doing the same. The Syrians gather a larger army and came back for another round. David heard of this and brought the remaining army of Israel before them. This must have been an epic battle and once again the Syrian army fled. The last part of verse nineteen is classic in that the Arameans decided they didn't want to help the Ammonites any more after David killed 40,000 men. They probably didn't have enough army left to help anyone. These battles must have been incredible. I wonder how long the battle took.
©2016 Doug Ford
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