Dorè: David Attacks the AmmonitesWe might take a lesson from both David and the Ammonites today; and each of these lessons will save us suffering if we can be open to their message. From the Ammonites who expect insult and war, we see that when we take a bellicose stance, we guarantee our suffering. It seems we humans are often eager to fulfill our own dark hope. Nestled against Israel’s eastern boundary, this tribe may have felt a kind of national inferiority. Along with the Moabites, these descendants of Lot struggled to maintain peace within and along their borders. Rightly or wrongly, the young king Hanun took an aggressive stance against David when he rejected David’s offer of amity and instead sought allegiance against Israel with the Arameans, another small kingdom to the north. All hope for independence is dashed and in the end these Ammonites – whose rudeness stirs the Israelites to revenge – becomes subject to Israel, and the Arameans stand down from their aggressive posture. We can never know if David somehow plotted in hopes that this scheme would bring him a vassal state; but we can easily see that the ultimate outcome for the Ammonites was the same – or perhaps even worse. When we expect insult and take a bellicose stance, we guarantee our suffering.
Van Honthorst: King David Playing the HarpThe major player in this reading is, of course, David and from him today we might learn: We are most open to failure when we are at our most secure. From the HarperCollins Bible Commentary, “If, on the one hand, we think of the Ammonite war as after the events of chap. 8, we are struck by the rapidity with which what appeared secure has again become a threat. If, on the other hand, we read the war account as a flashback, we may be struck by the irony of the context in which David’s adultery and murder have been set. It is at the very peak of his power, when YHWY is giving him victory wherever he goes (8:14), that the king most conspicuously fails. Security breeds insecurity; success incubates failure. It is as the gift of the kingdom is being made complete that YHWY’s chosen one chooses to grasp most rapaciously what is not his to grasp. In short, it is at his most secure that David turns out to be most open to failure”. (Mays 269)
We know this statement to be true if we take an honest look at our own lives and at the lives of friends and enemies. Cinema and literature reinforce the universal concept that we learn from our mistakes rather than our successes. We also know that we are most conciliatory, most ready to listen, and most open to change when we are faced with multiple obstacles; and that we are most closed, most deaf to common sense, and most eager to control our environment and others when we are at the peak of accomplishment. All of this is perhaps because we have forgotten some central truths: that God is the author of all good, that we can choose to enter into this goodness with God or we can choose reject God in the belief that we alone are responsible for all that has gone well in our lives. In short, it is at our most secure that we turn out to be most open to failure.
In David’s actions and thinking, and in the actions and thinking of the Ammonites, we discover the hidden pitfalls of success and promises of disappointment. We find an openness to failure that is certain to bring great pain and a guarantee of hardship and suffering. None of this suggests that success is something to be avoided or that failure is the mark of holiness. On the contrary, we experience happiness and joy despiteour failures and along with our successes at precisely those times when we nurture an openness to God and forego our natural tendency to remain open to failure.
Descendants of Ammon, a son of Lot, the Ammoniteslived in a territory of Ammon that extended from the Arnonto the Jabbokand Jordan. But during Mosestime they had been driven to the east by the Amorites. Moses was not allowed to attack them (Deuteronomy 2:19) despite the fact that they worshiped idols, especially Molech, or the god Saturn.
Cursed by Yahweh’s prophets, this tribe had a long history of conflict with the Israelites. Today we see Saul gather three hundred thousand men from Israel and seventy thousand from Judah before he announces that he will deliver the people of Jabesh-gilead who have been overtaken by Nahash, the Ammonite. And when the messengers came and reported this to the inhabitants of Jabesh, who were jubilant, [they] said to Nahash, “Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you may do whatever you please with us”.They likely recognized that freedom from the enemy was upon them.
Conflict in this part of the world continues today; lessons in this ancient land reinforce division more than unity. Jeremiah’s words of prophecy pierce hearts but convert too few. Walking in hardness and obstinacy have become an engrained way of living; the day without remedy is infinite; the imagery of the potter’s flask and Topheth lie meaningless. And yet the Lord is near.
In New Testament hope we recall the words of the apostle Paul: For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus . . . There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)
Would that each of us might give over our interior conflict and place our hope in God. Would that each of us might surrender to Christ and the promise given to Abraham just as the people of Jabesh surrender in jubilation their trust in God.
For more on the story of Jabesh and how they showed their gratitude to King Saul, click on the image above or go to: http://lukedockery.blogspot.com/2007/11/gratitude-men-of-jabesh-gilead.html
The Noontimes 