Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – 1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1
Set – 1 Chronicles 21; 1 Thessalonians 2
Go! – 2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21; Psalms 30; 1 Thessalonians 2
1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1
Messenger (commanding Gad): 18 Tell David to build an altar to the Eternal on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.19 David obeyed the instruction of the divine messenger.
20 When Ornan saw the messenger, his four sons who were with him hid among the wheat. But Ornan continued threshing. 21 As David approached, Ornan glimpsed the king, left his chores, and prostrated himself before David.
David: 22 Sell me this threshing floor so I may build on it an altar to the Eternal. I will pay you the full price so the plague against the people may end.
Ornan: 23 Take it; it’s yours to do with as you please. I will donate the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing tools for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you, my king.
David: 24 No, I must buy it for the full price. I will not give your possessions to the Eternal as if they were my own, nor will I give a burnt offering which costs me nothing. I must sacrifice something for this offering.
25 So David paid Ornan 15 pounds of gold by weight for the property. 26 There David built an altar to the Eternal, sacrificed burnt offerings, and gave peace offerings. David requested His presence, and He accepted the altar and sacrifices by sending fire from heaven onto the altar of burnt offering. 27 Then the Eternal commanded the divine messenger to sheath his sword. 28 When David saw how the Eternal had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite by coming to the altar as fire and by stopping the plagues and the destruction of Jerusalem, David offered a sacrifice there instead of at Gibeon. 29 (The congregation tent of the Eternal, which Moses had built in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were in the high place at Gibeon at that time.) 30 But David could not go to Gibeon to commune with God because he still feared that the Eternal’s messenger would slay him.
22 David: Now this is the house of the Eternal God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel. We will no longer need to travel to Gibeon to sacrifice to God.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
David did a foolish thing requesting a census of the fighting strength of Israel. He had Me on his side and that was enough. Joan tried to tell him not to take the census. His other advisors tried to tell him his action was foolish, but he didn’t listen. He wanted to count his men. The price was a plague that swept across the country and killed thousands. David finally prayed to Me to stop the plague when he say My slayer at Ornan’s threshing floor.
When David understood his foolishness, repented, and prayed, I heard his cry and stopped My messenger from continuing his path of death. My messenger instructed Ornan to tell David to raise and altar to Me on the site. David went to Ornan to purchase the site. Ornan offered it free, but David insisted on paying full price for the land and the materials he would use for the altar and the sacrifice.
Several lessons come from the story that are relevant to you today as you think about your service to and worship of Me. First, repentance is the first step in My hearing you. You and I operate on different plains. I created you above all other creatures, but I am still God. When you disobey My commands, repentance is the right attitude to take in approaching Me.
David didn’t listen to My commands when counted the number of fighting men in his kingdom. All of his advisors tried to stop him. I put into the heart of every one of his advisors the foolishness of his actions and they did everything they could to dissuade David, but he wouldn’t listen. His foolish actions caused the lives of thousands.
Second, worship and offerings to Me must cost you something. David recognized that when he refused Ornan’s offer to give him the threshing floor and all the material to build the altar for My worship. David refused and payed the full price plus for the property. David used his personal wealth, not the kingdom’s coffers to pay for the altar. The land, the altar, the offering needed to come from him, not something given to him. An offering that doesn’t cost you anything isn’t an offering.
Think of it this way, I sacrifice Myself for you. If you are going to honor Me with your offerings, can you do less than sacrifice something in worship to Me? An offering that costs you nothing is no sacrifice. An offering that costs you something touches you. It reminds you that you made the sacrifice in the same way I sacrificed Myself for you. It comes from the heart.
Ornan was ready to sacrifice all of the material to Me and David refused because he knew Ornan would receive the blessing he needed. David needed to make that same sacrifice and purchased the land and materials from Ornan. Not to supersede Ornan’s offering, Ornan still received his blessings from Me for his part in stopping My messenger, but to make the offering his own.
I am a God of love and blessings, but I am also a God of wrath when evil comes near Me. As a holy God, I cannot be in the presence of evil. Only through My perfect sacrifice on the cross, My Son, all man yet all God, can I cover the sins of people who accept that sacrifice. But even then, there is a cost. You must give Me yourself. You must give Me your obedience. You Must die to self and live for Me.
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