Today I read 2 Samuel 10 where David sends some of his servants to the king of the Ammorites to comfort him with the loss of his father. The king thinks that David's men are spies and so humiliates them in public which of course causes a military response from the Israelites. I can certainly understand David's anger, he sends men on a peace mission and to have them treated like that would be very frustrating and make a person pretty angry I would imagine.
However, war has always baffled me and this is a perfect case. Why do we send hundreds of thousands of men to go and fight and probably die, just because a few men were insulted? Can you imagine if we behaved like that in every aspect of our social life? We used to, duels were fought and men died over the most trivial of things, but that is still better than having other men die because you feel your honor has been sullied. I can certainly understand having your blood boil and getting upset with someone else over things that happen, but to go to war over such things is very crazy to me. And I don't understand having hatred for someone you've never even met. To think that just because your government hates another people that all of its people share the same feeling is crazy to me. I can understand American people fearing Russian people during the Cold War, but hating Russians, I'm not so sure. There are times when it is appropriate to fight, such as defending ones home and family, but most of the time, I think the leaders who instigate wars are going to have a lot to answer for. Until tomorrow.
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