Then the king called Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said, “I am giving Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You, your sons, and your servants will farm the land for your master Saul’s family and bring in the harvest, to provide food for them. But Mephibosheth himself will always be a guest at my table.” (Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.) Ziba answered, “I will do everything Your Majesty commands.” So Mephibosheth ate at the king’s table, just like one of the king’s sons. Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. All the members of Ziba’s family became servants of Mephibosheth.
Mephibosheth with one son and Ziba with fifteen, suddenly the tables were turned. David should have put in the back of his head that Ziba would one day want to take revenge (2 Samuel 16:1-4).
Some time later King Nahash of Ammon died, and his son Hanun became king. King David said, “I must show loyal friendship to Hanun, as his father Nahash did to me.” So David sent messengers to express his sympathy.
When they arrived in Ammon, the Ammonite leaders said to the king, “Do you think that it is in your father’s honor that David has sent these men to express sympathy to you? Of course not! He has sent them here as spies to explore the city, so that he can conquer us!”
Hanun seized David’s messengers, shaved off one side of their beards, cut off their clothes at the hips, and sent them away.
Hanun thought he was being clever, outsmarting David. In reality, his actions reflected a complete lack of wisdom that would eventually result in the destruction of his kingdom (2 Samuel 12:26-31). In a similar way, Roboam would one day listen to the foolish council of his childhood friends to the splitting of Israel in two (1 Rois 12:1-24). In our days there is likewise a complete lack of wisdom… Lord, may I act wisely!
They were too ashamed to return home. When David heard about what had happened, he sent word for them to stay in Jericho and not return until their beards had grown again.
May I likewise be sensitive to the needs of others, Father – particularly when it comes to saving face.
The Ammonites realized that they had made David their enemy, so they hired twenty thousand Syrian soldiers… David heard of it and sent Joab against them with the whole army. …Joab and his men advanced to attack, and the Syrians fled. When the Ammonites saw the Syrians running away, they fled from Abishai and retreated into the city. Then Joab turned back from fighting the Ammonites and went back to Jerusalem.
One stupid error compounding another. David was just reacting to a threat – his intention wasn’t to destroy the Ammonites. But the stupidity was only getting started and would soon bring about death… (James 1:15)