Insult Equals Battle.

I Chronicles 19:1-4
¹Some time after this, King Nahash of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun[1] became king. ²David said, "I am going to show complete loyalty to Hanun because his father, Nahash, was always completely loyal to me." So David sent ambassadors to express sympathy to Hanun about his father's death.But when David's ambassadors arrived in the land of Ammon, ³Hanun's advisers said to him, "Do you really think these men are coming here to honor your father? No! David has sent them to spy out the land so that they can come in and conquer it!" ⁴So Hanun seized David's ambassadors and shaved their beards, cut off their robes at the buttocks, and sent them back to David in shame. (Read the entire chapter, here.)

This complete misunderstanding of David's intentions on the part of King Hanun led to a battle wherein 47,000 lives were lost. 7,000 Charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers, including the commander of the enemies armies.

I shook my head in disbeief as I read this last night, almost amused. But then I wondered, how many battles do we fight because of misunderstanding and shame? How many times do we jump to conclusions, or someone insults us and we snap back. Shouldn't we always try to get the entire story before making a decision?