Date: December 14, 2022|Series: Youth for Jesus|Number: Vol. 5, No. 31
“So Hanun seized David’s men, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them away.” (2Sam 10:4NIV)
Why did Hanun, king of the Ammonites, treat David’s men in the manner described in our opening bible text? He did so because he thought he was being cautious. But was he really being cautious or suspicious?
As the account shows us, Hanun’s father, Nahash had been a friend of David before he died. And though we are not told how they became friends, we are told that the reason David sent his men to give his condolences to his son, Hanun, was that he was a very kind person to him (2Sam 10:1-2). That, of course, was one of the things that characterised David’s way of life. He was not someone that would forget those who had been good or kind to him. Rather, he was someone that was always seeking them out, so that he could show his gratitude to them in whatever way he could. (Cf. 1Sam 30:26-31; 2Sam 9; 2Sam 19:31-39)
Unfortunately, on this occasion, his kind gesture was totally misrepresented by Hanun, the son of his late friend. And it was misrepresented because the officials with the young man misled him. They sowed a seed of evil suspicions in his heart, even though there was no reason for him to be suspicious. (Cf. 2Sam 10:3)
David, before that time, had done nothing to Hanun’s country to make him think of him as an enemy. He had been nothing but a good and loyal friend to his father. And even if he had wanted to be cautious, probably because he was not really close to David, all he would have needed to do was to give instructions to his men to watch the activities of his ambassadors. Then their report would have cleared his doubts and prevented him from being unduly suspicious.
But because he was a foolish young man, instead of acting with caution at that time, he acted in evil suspicions and shamelessly maltreated ambassadors of an ally country that only came to sympathise with him for the loss of his father. That, of course, resulted in an unfortunate war between him and the nation of Israel, which was a stronger and more powerful nation. And because of the war he lost his men, his land, his crown and his reputation. How sad! (Cf. 2Sam 10; 1Chro 19:1-20:3)
Well, this story is teaching us one thing, which is that there is a great deal of difference between caution and evil suspicion. To be cautious means that we do not assume that we know what people will do or how they will function under any circumstance, if we do not know them to be true children of God or have not known them for a very long time. Therefore, we do not carelessly let them into our lives or affairs. Instead, we put appropriate boundaries in place in our dealings with them, so that we may, in the course of time, learn how well we can trust them.
But to be suspicious means to have a feeling that something is wrong or that something may go wrong in our dealings with someone. And is it altogether wrong to have this feeling? No! It all depends on who we have such feelings about, why we have such feelings about them and what we do as a result of such feelings that we have about them.
If someone, as Paul says about himself and his ministry companions, does not have any record of being injurious, manipulative or corrupt in dealing with us or others that we know, we have no reason to be suspicious of them (2Cor 7:2). Otherwise, whatever suspicions we have about them will only be evil suspicions, something that the word of God warns against (1Tim 6:4).
Then even if we have reasons to be suspicious of someone because we don’t know them well enough, because we have seen them act in some ungodly manner before or because someone gave us some bad news about them, our suspicions should only drive us to be cautious and on guard in dealing with them. We should not allow them to drive us to disgrace or embarrass them when they have not done us any wrong and we have no real proof that they are going to hurt us in any way. Otherwise, our suspicions about them will be nothing but evil suspicions.
Now when we allow evil suspicions to drive us to hurt, disgrace or embarrass others who have done nothing wrong to us, we, like Hanun, may end up having an unnecessary and unfortunate war to fight. And that may forever shut some doors of goodness that could have come to us through them against us. Only God, then, knows how many people have been denied certain measure of His goodness that could have been theirs in life because of these things. They, out of suspicion, treated shamefully or abusively certain individuals who merely wanted to help them or do them good. And they have to live with the sorrow and loss that came with doing so for the rest of their earthly lives.
More so, when we allow evil suspicions to drive us in relating to others, even if our suspicions are right, those watching and who have seen the kind of bad treatment we have given to them may never get to know that our suspicions are right. Therefore, instead of being seen as the victims of those who want to hurt us, we will be seen and treated as the villains. And who knows how terribly that will affect us? Only God knows.
So, yes, be cautious in all your dealings with men. But give no room in your heart for any form of evil suspicion. That is because it can only harm you; it has no good to offer you.