You don't have to humiliate!

Enemies!

If you don't have any yet, just wait around a little while.

So, what do you do with them?

We know from the New Testament, as Christians, we are to love them. But, sometimes, we let the flesh rule us. And we can't always force our enemies to recognize our actions as loving.

I read in 2 Samuel chapter 10 about an incident during the times of King David.  

It seems that King David sent a delegation to the Ammonites to express sympathy to Hanun concerning the death of his father.

That seems like a nice gesture.

But Hanun listened to some bad advice and treated the men as spies.  Nothing much might have happened if he had simply said "Thanks but we're not interested in having you here right now."  

Instead - Hanun took the men, shaved off half of the beard and cut their clothes off right in the middle of their buttocks and sent them home!

Needless to say - King David was ticked!  

The final result of this was war and the Ammonites being defeated.

How foolish!  And yet - the desire to humiliate enemies never seems to go away.

The next time we're tempted to embarrass someone or to hold them up to ridicule, we might want to read this account in 2 Samuel 10 once again.

Pastor John