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