1 Chronicles 19:6. "When the Ammonites saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, from Arammaach, and from Zoab." Spoiler alert: even with all these hired chariots and horsemen, and the help of Syrian forces, the Ammonites and Syrians will end up fleeing from the Israelite army without even engaging in battle.

Hanun had made himself odious to David in the first place by dealing dishonorably with David's messengers, who had been sent to console him on the death of his father. Hanun, as a new, inexperienced king, had allowed himself to be convinced that these messengers were in fact spies. David had had a good relationship with Nahash, Hanun's father, but rather than remembering that past relationship and giving David the benefit of the doubt, Hanun acted rashly with David's messengers, and then, again rashly, geared up for war rather than trying to diplomatically apologize to David for his bad treatment of the messengers.

Hanun assumed that David would react the way he would react to such dishonor. This is a trap we all can fall into, and when we do, we can make enemies out of friends and loved ones. In our immaturity, inexperience, or high emotion, we often project our own feelings, thoughts, fear, biases, and even intolerance onto others. Then, when we think we have done something unforgivable due to some misunderstanding or exacerbated emotion on our part, we treat the person we've harmed as an enemy, without even trying to apologize and talk to them first! This, of course, makes matters so much worse, and often forces the other party to have to engage with us as an enemy, just as David had to muster his army to go out and meet the Ammonites.

We can do this with God, too. When we sin, we can be convinced we've made ourselves odious to God, and instead of going to confession, turn further from Him, projecting our shame or inability to forgive ourselves onto Him. Once we start thinking of God as an enemy, it is easy to turn to His enemies, the forces of evil, for backup, and they are only to happy to lend "support" (at least until they have to actually face God, when they will flee, just like the Syrians did!). In these times, we forget our past relationship with God, and that He does not think like us. God is love. He has revealed to us over and over again that He wants nothing more than to forgive us and love us, even when we've made the worst mistakes and insulted Him terribly!

We should never let sin lead us to call on God's enemies for ineffectual and dangerous aid, but rather always let it convict us to turn back to Him, where He will welcome us with open arms!