A Pleasing Sacrifice
Is God pleased with what you are doing? In 1 Chronicles 21:14–30, king David’s transgression caused 70,000 people in Israel to die by a plague sent by God as punishment. He and the elders of Israel repented and David offered sin and fellowship sacrifices to God to atone for his sin and re-establish fellowship with God. God was pleased with David’s response. So He forgave David and ended the plague, and He confirmed for David that this was a new location of worship where the future temple would be built. I pray that each of us would offer God a pleasing sacrifice of our will to His, especially when we have sinned. And may He love us, bless us and restore us back into right relationship to Him. Amen
So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? LORD my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”
Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD. (1 Chronicles 21:14-19)
Because David took it upon himself to have the fighting men of Israel counted, God sent the death angel to spread a plague that began killing the people of Israel as punishment. God had given David three choices as to how Israel would be punished. David wisely chose to have God administer the punishment. The depth of love that God had for Israel caused Him to order the angel to stop short of further destruction of Israel. David’s sin was trying to determine his and Israel’s might by the size of her fighting forces, instead of putting his faith in God’s power to defend and protect Israel. David’s love for God showed forth in his admission of guilt and his plea to God to punish him instead of Israel. We always fail when we put our faith in our limited resources instead of trusting God who is our inexhaustible Source. In response to David and the elders of Israel’s repentance, God commanded Gad (a prophet) to tell David to build an altar to Him at the threshing floor of Araunah. The purpose was for David to atone for his transgression (taking a census of Israel’s fighting men).
While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”
Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. (1 Chronicles 21:20-26)
Araunah saw the angel of the Lord, so when David approached him about building an altar on the threshing floor, he offered to give it to David. But David refused to offer the Lord anything that didn’t cost him something. So David bought the threshing floor, animals and grain to be sacrificed to the Lord from Araunah. David built an altar to the Lord there and began offering the sacrifices to God. God showed that He was pleased with David’s sacrifice by sending fire from heaven to consume the altar.
Then the LORD spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD. (1 Chronicles 21:27-30)
Having been pleased with David’s repentance and sacrificial offering, God instructed the angel to put his sword away. The plague that was ravaging Israel was ceased. When David saw that the Lord had accepted his sacrifice, he offered more sacrifices. Although he offered sacrifices there at Araunah’s threshing floor, he did not go to Gibeon where the Tabernacle and the altar of burnt offering made by Moses were. God did not permit David to worship Him in Gibeon where the Tabernacle and altar resided. God’s supernatural act of sending fire from heaven, however, confirmed for David that God was desired worship at this site. In this way, a new location was established for worship of God, and the future temple would be built there.
Leadership matters! Because of David’s transgression, not just he, but the people of Israel suffered. 70,000 people died by the plague that God sent upon Israel…. All because of David’s vanity and his sin of trusting in numbers instead of God. When we fail to follow God, we and those who are led by us suffer. Our families, our communities, our organizations all suffer from our failures when we forget God. King David’s pleasing sacrifice led to forgiveness, restoration and blessing for he and the nation of Israel. God is pleased when you sacrifice your will to His… and then you will experience His forgiveness, restoration and blessing in your life. Amen
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise. ~ Psalm 51:17
"Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" ~ Romans 12:1
