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(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Chronicles 19:1–5, “Now it came to pass after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his stead. And David said, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father shewed kindness to me. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. So the servants of David came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him. But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away. Then there went certain, and told David how the men were served. And he sent to meet them: for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.”
David was a godly man and behaved with dignity and grace towards all his neighbouring kingdoms. When the king of the Ammonites died, David sent some of his top advisors to convey their respects to the dead king and sympathy to the new king. The new king’s advisors told him that David hadn’t sent his ambassadors out of respect but to spy the out the land. Often new kings would try to show that they were powerful and force the other kingdoms to accept that the new king was more powerful than the previous king. The new king of Ammon, Hanun, decided to insult David, Israel and their God by embarrassing the ambassadors. The men were humbled by this great insult and David told them to wait in Jericho until their embarrassment was eased.
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