The Costly Offering of the Great King
2 Samuel 24:10 (ESV) But David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
David's heart is convicted of his sin of counting the military. He is given choices of punishment and he chooses to fall "into the hands of the Lord for (David knew) His mercy is great" (Verse 14). And so 3 days of pestilence captures the land and 70,000 men die. It should be noted that this number is 5% of the previously counted army. Modern people struggle with God's judgment but consider that only 1 in 20 members of the army perished while 19 in 20 remained. God's mercy FAR outweighs His judgment.
When the Lord brings judgment upon the nation, He stops the destroying angel over Jerusalem and the future site of the Temple. This is significant. Scripture is speaking to something far larger than this current event:
2 Samuel 24:16 (ESV) And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
David next offers himself for the people. He wants to be their mediator and bear the cost of sin to save them.
2 Samuel 24:17 (ESV) Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”
Both David's actions here and this site are pointing to the fulfillment of God's purposes in bringing about a substitute for the sins of all people at the very place God chose to put His name. You see, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite is also the place where Abraham offered Isaac. We have to go to Chronicles to make the connection:
2 Chronicles 3:1 (ESV) Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan (alternate name for Araunah) the Jebusite.
When the Lord brings judgment upon the nation, He stops the destroying angel over Jerusalem and the future site of the Temple. This is significant. Scripture is speaking to something far larger than this current event:
2 Samuel 24:16 (ESV) And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
David next offers himself for the people. He wants to be their mediator and bear the cost of sin to save them.
2 Samuel 24:17 (ESV) Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”
Both David's actions here and this site are pointing to the fulfillment of God's purposes in bringing about a substitute for the sins of all people at the very place God chose to put His name. You see, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite is also the place where Abraham offered Isaac. We have to go to Chronicles to make the connection:
2 Chronicles 3:1 (ESV) Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan (alternate name for Araunah) the Jebusite.
Remember, this is the place God sent Abraham to offer his son...
Genesis 22:2 (ESV) He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
We remember that in the Abraham and Isaac episode too, God's angel stayed his hand and did not allow Abraham to kill the boy.
It is always incredible how scripture comes together. The site of the temple Solomon builds will sit on the place where God's mercy was exhibited even though righteous judgment was deserved.
When David comes to the place where the plague stopped to purchase the property, Aruanah meets him and offers him all the sacrificial items necessary as well as to give David the plot for free. But notice David's response.
2 Samuel 24:24-25 (ESV) But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.
This is the Gospel! The end of 2 Samuel seems out of place and irrelevant to the rise and reign of David. But you see, the Bible is not about David. The Bible is about Jesus. This moment is beckoning us to look beyond David to his true Son who will bear the cost of NOT His own sins, but ours. He gives at great cost to save us while all we can offer is a few sacrificial items that cannot atone. He is the Innocent Righteous King who suffers for us and makes His offering (like the Temple was for Israel) THE PLACE for us to enter the presence of God.
Amen.
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