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Context No. 527 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 19:14-19: in context

14So Joab and the people who were with him came near to the front of the Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him. 15When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem. 16When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Israel, they sent messengers and called out the Syrians who were beyond the River, with Shophach the captain of the army of Hadadezer leading them. 17David was told that, so he gathered all Israel together, passed over the Jordan, came to them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him. 18The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrian men seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand footmen, and also killed Shophach the captain of the army. 19When the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and served him. The Syrians would not help the children of Ammon any more.

This is the end of a battle that began when the Ammonites, expecting David to attack, hired the armies of Syria as mercenaries to fight alongside them. Now the two allies face Israel together, and the battle goes against them. And watch what happens the moment things turn. When the Ammonites saw that the Syrians had fled, the text says, they likewise fled and shut themselves in the city; the coalition collapses. The Syrians regroup with reinforcements from beyond the River, David meets them and defeats them decisively, and then the telling detail: the Syrians made peace with David and served him, and they would not help the Ammonites anymore. The hired ally, once beaten, abandons the partner who paid for its help and never comes back.

That is the nature of an alliance built on hire and self-interest. The Ammonites had bought the Syrians' loyalty with silver, and bought loyalty holds exactly as long as it is winning and profitable. The instant the fighting turned costly, the mercenaries looked to their own survival, cut their losses, and left their employer to fend for himself behind his city walls. There was never any real commitment there, only a transaction, and transactions dissolve the moment the price outruns the payoff. The Ammonites learned, too late, that the support they had counted on would not stand with them when it actually cost something.

That is worth examining in my own reliances. Some of the things I lean on for security are exactly this kind of hired ally, relationships of convenience, support that flows to me while I am useful or winning, alliances that feel solid until the day they would cost the other party something real. Like the Ammonites, I may not discover how hollow they are until the hard day comes and they quietly withdraw. What am I counting on that is really only a transaction, and would stand with me only while it pays, and am I resting my security there instead of on the God who does not desert his people when it costs him?

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