An Offering Pleasing to God

“But the king (David) replied to Araunah, ‘No, I insist on buying it for I cannot present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing. So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped.” -2 Samuel 24:24-25 NLT

The context of these two verses from 2 Samuel is important to understanding the verses I have chosen for today’s devotional. David ruled for forty years, and brought the nations of Judah and Israel under one kingship. He ruled from about 1005 B. C. to 965 B. C. David going to Araunah’s threshing floor to worship God happened after David had greatly displeased God with the manner in which he took the national census. He did not follow the law, and he showed a sense of selfishness in wanting to know, through the census, how many men in the “united Kingdom” (Israel, north, and Judah, south) were able to serve in the military. This numbering of military-able men showed a sense of self-sufficiency instead of dependence on God. It also showed pride on the part of King David. We remember the adage: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Even though General Joab, head of David’s armies, told King David he was going about the census in the wrong manner, David still proceeded with his plans. The census revealed 800,000 able-bodied men of military age in Israel and 500,000 in Judah, or a total of 1,300,000 possible recruits for the army. Even with this great number of men who could serve in the King’s defense system, David began to feel great anxiety, for he sensed, possibly, that he had been selfish in seeking to find out how strong his military force could be. He could boast of military prowess to other nations and they would not dare invade Israel because they had a “sufficient king and a sufficient kingdom.” Although David was called “a man after God’s own heart” in I Samuel 13:14 and by Paul the Apostle in one of his sermons in Acts 12:22, Second Samuel 24 helps us to see David’s vulnerability. He began to feel anxious. His prophet, Gad, talked to him. God offered three choices, one of which David was to choose for punishment because of his mishandling of the census. And yes, the whole nation had to suffer because David had been disobedient. Our sins does affect other people. The choises were: (1) Three years of famine throughout the land; (2) Three months of fleeing from enemies; or (3) Three days of plague. David chose the third, possibly because of the lesser duration of the punishment God was to send. In the plague, 2 Samuel 24:15 reveals that 70,000 people in the nation died those terrible three days. But God put a stop to the death angel before the plague wiped out Jerusalem.

In the two verses selected for this devotional, David had gone to the threshing floor of a citizen named Araunah near Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. Araunah offered the place free and also wanted to provide oxen for the sacrifice, but David bought both for fifty pieces of silver (an ordinary workman earned 10 pieces of silver for a whole year’s work). David affirmed that a sacrifice would not be a sacrifice if he had put nothing into it that belonged to himself. David confessed his sin. He offered prayers and sacrifices for his misconduct. Being a man after God’s own heart, he confessed his sins, shaped his life again into God’s plan, and cemented his recommitment to God by offering sacrifices. God had promised David that his kingdom would last forever. He was an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth in human form to be a sacrifice for the sins of all people who will believe in Him and accept God’s forgiveness. Someone has said that G-R-A-C-E stands for God’s redemption at Christ’s Expense. And Christ’s kingdom will be forever, thus fulfilling God’s promise to David that someone in his line would be king forever and ever. David, as sinful as he was at times, always asked and received God’s forgiveness. And he was an ancestor of the Lord God who through grace, forgives all who turn to Him in faith.

No longer do we have to offer burnt offerings of oxen and sheep for our sins. Christ made the once-and-for all sacrifice for us. But our love offerings—something we put ourselves into—should be our own pleasing-to-God sacrifice. - Ethelene Dyer Jones August 26, 2018

Listening to Wise Counsel

“Then a wise woman called from the city, ‘Listen! Listen! Tell Joab, ‘Come here that I may speak to you And he came near her, and the woman said, ‘Are you Joab?’ He answered, ‘I am.’ Then she said to him, ‘Listen to the words of your servant’ And he answered, ‘I am listening.’ Then she said, ‘They used to say in former times, ‘Let them but ask counsel at Abel,’ and so they settled a matter. I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord?’ Joab answered, ‘Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy! That is not true, But a man of the hill country of Ephraim called Sheba, the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give up him alone, and I will withdraw from the city.’ And the woman said to Joab, ‘Behold his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.’ “ -2 Samuel 20:16-21 [Read 2 Samuel 20

King David, although restored to his throne in Jerusalem after the revolt led by his own (third) son Absalom, and the son’s death at the hands of Joab, commander of King David’s army, the nation was still in chaos. Jealousy, strife and contention were on every hand. In 2 Samuel 20, we see the unusual interference by a brave, wise woman to help the situation and prevent more fighting and bloodshed.

The situation, briefly, is that a man named Sheba, a Benjamite was leading a rebellion against King David.. We are told in 1 Chronicles 5:13 that Sheba was from the tribe of Gad. He wanted to take advantage of the factions between what was the “Southern” Kingdom (Judah, that lay between the Dead Sea and ended at the border of the city of Jerusalem; and the “Northern” Kingdom of Israel, which was northward from just beyond Jerusalem through to Mt. Herman in the north and eastward across the Jordan River that cut the northern area in half to the land of Aram-Damascus in the northeast, Ammon in the east, and Moab in the south. It is interesting to note this division on a map of Old Testament lands.

Sheba tried to gain a foothold against King David and “dethrone” him. But Joab, still a commander in King David’s army, met up with an unlikely person to give advice, a woman at the town of Abel where the rebel, Sheba was hiding out. She dared to approached Joab with the adage, “They used to say in olden times: Let them ask counsel at Abel.” When Joab and his army were besieging and about to tear down the town of Abel with battering rams, this brave lady came out to talk to the army commander. She asked a probing question: “Who will swallow up the heritage of the Lord?” She definitely counted her city as “the heritage of the Lord” and did not want it destroyed by war.

It seems in 2 Samuel the name of the town was shortened to Abel. Scholars hold that the full name of the small town was Abel-Beth-Maachah, known for its wisdom; and hence a dear place to the woman who dare to approach and beg Commander Joab for mercy on her town. She was able to get the citizens of her town to deliver the head of Sheba to Joab, and hence prevent a massive war destroying the city of wisdom, peace and non-war-like people. Her example strongly indicates that God uses believers to accomplish His purposes, even though sometimes it takes great bravery and determination to approach someone with much more power than the person making the appeal. God averted another war with much bloodshed, as just shortly before this incident, in the Forest of Ephraim, David and his retinue had exiled to Mahaniam east of the Jordan River in the hill country of Gilead because of his son Absalom’s rebellion. To be able to avert a full-scale war is an achievement on any level. Thank God that this wise, brave woman was concerned enough to make a plea for peace.

Prayer concerns: Pray for our country and its leaders. God’s leadership of King David and his kingdom, of whom God had promised “a decendant of David on the throne forever,” and made David an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ, is an excellent case study in the truth that God is the Lord of all nations, even ours; and even if our leaders do not always acknowledge God. Pray! - Ethelene Dyer Jones 08.05.2018