SCRIPTURE:
“In the course of time, Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son succeeded him as king. David thought, ‘I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.’ So, David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. When David’s envoys came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to express sympathy to him, the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, ‘Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Haven’t his envoys come to you only to explore and spy out the country and overthrow it?’”
1 Chronicles 19:1-3
OBSERVATION:
Hanun and his commanders pre-judged David’s intentions and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Why? Possibly because they believed what they had heard about David and his battles rather than what they knew and perhaps had experienced first-hand. If they knew of David’s wherewithal to fight and conquer, why would they “poke the lion?” Wouldn’t it be a better risk to trust what they knew of the past in terms of Hanun’s father’s relationship with David? Yet Hanum himself was influenced by others and what they thought as opposed to what He knew about the relationship between David and his father.
APPLICATION:
What a great caution for me as I constantly hear from people about their perspectives, opinions, and suggestions about people, situations, ministries, the church, and me. I know that I want to be gracious, but I don’t want to be gullible and race to the wrong conclusions. I will receive, but use diligence and discernment, and most of all pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord, thank you for the check and caution to be careful of not jumping to conclusions and decisions based on others’ opinions, influences, and directives; but rather use discernment and diligence with prayer to do and respond by your will.
