Good Morning Friends,
“On that day Gad went to David and said to him, ‘Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’ So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, ‘Why has my lord the king come to his servant?’ ‘To buy your threshing floor,’ David answered, ‘so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.’ Araunah said to David, ‘Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king.’ Araunah also said to him, ‘May the Lord your God accept you.’ But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.” (2 Samuel 24:18-25)
As punishment for disobedience, God sent a plague upon the people of Israel and 70,000 died. When the plague reached Jerusalem, David was deeply grieved, realizing the guilt for the disobedience was his but the punishment had fallen upon his people. He pled to the Lord and the Lord, through a prophet, told David to make a sacrifice at a particular spot, the threshing floor of Araunah. David immediately acted to obey and went to Araunah to buy the threshing floor so an altar could be built and a sacrifice made.
In a gesture of great respect, Araunah offered the threshing floor to David as a gift. David refused the gift and wanted to pay fully for the land he was taking. His reasoning was this, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
There is a principle of giving to the Lord that comes clearly out of David’s statement: If it doesn’t cost, it doesn’t count.
God is not pleased with gifts that are just leftovers, with gifts that are things we don’t want anyway, or with gifts we give that someone ekse paid for and cost us nothing. God is pleased with gifts that come out of our sacrifice. He is pleased when we give time that we have to take away from things that we enjoy doing. He is pleased when we take on tasks that require an effort of us. He is pleased with financial gifts that represent giving up things that would bring us pleasure.
You see, it is not the value of the gift that impresses God. God doesn’t need our gifts. Rather, it is what a gift expresses about our heart that God seeks. God seeks hearts that are so in love with Him, so committed to Him, that they are willing to sacrifice on His behalf.
So – if it doesn’t cost, it doesn’t count!
Does what you are giving to the Lord cost you anything? Does it represent a sacrifice that comes from a heart of love for Him?
His, by Grace,
Steve
PS In an interesting historical note, the threshing floor of Araunah which David bought for this altar and sacrifice would become the site of the Temple that Solomon would build!
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