Ammonites and his son

10 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. ² David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.

When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, ³ the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” ⁴ So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.
⁵ When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”
⁶ When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.
⁷ On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. ⁸ The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were by themselves in the open country.

David wanted to honor Ammonites' king but the king and his people thought badly of David and thought that He is out to threaten and kill him. Fear, fear of the things David can do cause them to react this way. Fear is a powerful tool for the wicked. But fear is also a great stumbling block for the good. The Ammonites knew David has the power of God with Him and He can conquer any lands and get the land. So, they were in great fear of David. Even to the point that David was good-naturedly sending envoys to express his sympathy and pay Hanun a visit, it was mis read as a threat. I think sometimes we act like this to God too. We treat God like this. We fear Him, we fear of the things that He can do, and we take our own action, put matters into our own hands and try to solve it. But, in the process we turn away from Him. It good to have reverend fear of God but one should not be afraid of God. We see thats what happens when fear rules our life, then the result will be beyond what we want or foresee.