What is the cost? - May 23, 2008
May 23, 2008
2 Samuel 24:21-25 GW
(21) "Why has Your Majesty come to me?" Araunah asked. David answered, "To buy the threshing floor from you and to build an altar for the LORD. Then the plague on the people will stop."
(22) Araunah said to David, "Take it, Your Majesty, and offer whatever you think is right. There are oxen for the burnt offering, and there are threshers and oxen yokes for firewood."
(23) All this Araunah gave to the king and said, "May the LORD your God accept you."
(24) "No!" the king said to Araunah. "I must buy it from you at a fair price. I won't offer the LORD my God burnt sacrifices that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 1 1/4 pounds of silver.
(25) David built an altar for the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. So the LORD heard the prayers for the country, and the plague on Israel stopped.
Recently I was invited to a pot luck supper for a social event. As we had at the time barely enough food for us to squeak by, I chose to decline the invitation. When I explained why I was not going the organizer of the event told me to come any way. I said that I had nothing to give and I could not take what I did not give to. He did not understand. It is a Biblical principle though. It is, in fact, taught in our Children's Church. When they take an offering they will get the usual change that parents gave the kids to put in (something that cost the children nothing) but they can also put in Bible Bucks. Now the Bible Bucks do not spend in the real world so some may say the kids sacrifice nothing. The children how ever, have to earn those bucks by bringing there Bible, answering questions in class and other ways. Once a month they get to spend them in the redemption store. So when they give them, they are giving of what they earned and they are loosing the spending potential that comes with them (like we do when we put in tithes and offerings).
David had sinned. The people were being punished. David had been told to choose a punishment and he left it in God's hands. Was it a good choice? I do not know. I do know that the people were dying and David had the way to stop it. He had to make a sacrifice. He had to give something in order to get something. As King he could have taken it and no one would question it. David knew however that it had to cost him something.
Someone else faced the same issue. The people were dying and He had to sacrifice what was dear to Him. But as a God, what is a sacrifice to give up? The only thing God could sacrifice for our being able to live was His son. And so, a little over 2000 years ago, Jesus was nailed to a cross to die. Like David, the sacrifice had to be something that He could give.
God gave His very best for us. Can we give any less?
Read through the Bible in one year in Historical order
Today
2 Samuel 24:1-25, 1 Chronicles 21:1-22:19, Psalms 30:1-12
Tomorrow
Psalms 8:1-9, Psalms 9:1-20, Psalms 10:1-18
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