Daily Devotional for Saturday, December 23

David the Diplomat

“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,” 1 Chronicles 19:2.

Have you ever tried to do something nice for someone, only to have it go unappreciated? Several years ago, my wife and I scraped and saved to raise enough money to buy our children a new game system for Christmas. They had asked for it for years, and for years we had to disappoint them. But that year we had the money, my wife had found a great deal, and we were able to get it for them. We just knew that they were going to be overjoyed when they opened that gift. Instead, we heard a couple of ho-hum statements like, “Oh, it’s a [name of game system],” and they set it to the side. They did not rip it open. They did not scream, “Can we play it now?” They were unimpressed. We were so deflated by their reaction.

King David did not try to gift a game system to Hanun, but he did try to show the king kindness. Unfortunately, the Ammonites misunderstood David’s gesture (1 Chronicles 19:3), and the princes convinced Hanun that David’s motives were not sincere. David was simply trying to be nice, but Hanun’s pride and the poor counsel of the princes eventually cost Hanun his kingdom. If Hanun had accepted David’s offer of kindness, the outcome could have been much different.

We live in a world where people do not trust each other. Kind gestures are met with apprehension, but God’s people should still be kind to others. Even if the world does not appreciate or accept our kindness, we should still show God’s love in all we do.

JUST A THOUGHT: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Show God’s love to someone this week.

Chris Floyd