Key Text: King David said to Ornan, nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost (1 Chronicles 21:24).
God’s people returned from almost 50 years of exile in Babylon and the Chronicler wanted the people to remember that they were the people of God. He also wanted them to remember the time when David was a great king, learn to trust God, and live faithfully in ways that God expected them to live even under adversarial conditions. It was under these conditions Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel. So, David commanded Joab to go and number the army of Israel which excluded the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, a census count. This numeration displeased God and He directed Gad to speak to David, “Thus says the Lord, three things I offer you; choose one them: either three years of famine; or three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtake you; or three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but let me not fall into human hands” v 10-13. So God sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand persons fell. Then the Lord sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As the angel stood by the threshing floor of Ornan (the Jebusite), the Lord relented. David and the elders, clothed in sack-cloth, fell on their faces when David looked up and saw the angel standing between earth and heaven, with a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David said to God that it was he who gave the command to count the people with exclusions. “But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but do not let your people be plagued” v 17.
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David that he should go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. When David saw Ornan, he said, “Give me the site of the threshing floor at full price that I may build on it an altar to the Lord” v 22 –so that the plague may be averted from the people. Ornan wanted to give it all to David – the site, the oxen and the wheat; but, David paid six hundred shelves of gold by weight for the site. So, David built an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. David called upon the Lord and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar. Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. David continued to sacrifice there from that time on. AMEN!
Anderson Chapel CME Church | Another Executive Order:Trump ends Disparate Impact Act which was used to win Civil Rights cases of discrimination. =================================DEIAffirmative ActionDisparate Impact |
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