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ALTAR OF APPEASEMENT. II Samuel 24:18-25. 2/6/2022.
2 Samuel 24:18-25 [New King James Version]
18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. 20 Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. 21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.” 22 Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. 23 All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” 24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs 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 So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
1. The threshing floor of Ornan (Araunah)–see I Chronicles 21:18)
a. David = standing on threshing floor of Ornan
a1. God stops the Angel of the Lord (Christophany = OT image of Jesus) from destroying the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a2. Ornan and his 4 sons see the Angel of Lord
b1. They are terrorized
b2. Ornan is a Jebusite (Jerusalem was the city of Jebus before conquered)
b. The threshing floor is on top of Mt. Moriah
a1. Place where Abraham took Isaac to offer him
a2. The future site of the Temple
c. The Angel of the Lord commands God to tell David to erect an altar on Ornan’s floor
2. The purchase
a. Ornan bows down before David
a1. With both the Angel and David before him, he figures that he may be in trouble
a2. David informs him that he needs to erect an alter to the Lord on the threshing floor
b. Ornan tells David that he could have everything
a1. The land, floor, oxen, yoke, tools, and grain
a2. Ornan’s terror prompts offering everything
c. The terror of the Lord motivates holiness
a1. If we keep the terror (awe, reverence) of the Lord ever before us, we will give our all
a2. The knowledge of the terror of a holy God should be sufficient to walk reverently
a3. We should not have to be shown His terror to know his terror and respond to it
d. David refuses to take the land and oxen as a gift
a1. He will not sacrifice to the Lord anything that did not cost him (would not be his gift)
a2. David had owned the inn in Bethlehem where Mary will birth Jesus (1000 years later)
a3. Now David owns the land where the future Temple will stand
e. The purpose of the altar is to appease God so that the plague will be stopped (first of many millions of sacrifices on the same spot)
a1. Ornan expresses a fervent desire that God would accept David’s sacrifice
a2. God is pleased with Ornan’s offer to give all for the sacrifice (both Jew and Gentile
combine in effort, as at the cross)
3. Appeasement
a. David pays 50 shekels of silver for everything
b. David builds an altar and makes the sacrifice
a1. God accepts the sacrifices
a2. The plague is stayed
c. 1 Chronicles 21:30 David is fearful to inquire of God for an extended period of time
a1. The first time he has seen God’s sword
a2. David experiences the full measure of God’s wrath (as great as his mercy)
b1. Had never experienced this before
b2. God’s deferred judgment is not God’s precluding judgment
d. The terror of the Lord is recorded in His Word
a1. We do not need to experience it to believe in it and respond to it
a2. Holding God in our hearts and mind is a matter of faith and obedience, not force of rod