Costly Sacrifice on the Threshing Floor

2 Samuel 24:18-25
    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  And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”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 So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.

After king David had sinned in doing the evil of counting the army’s strength without paying a redemption-price for each one in the census, he confessed his sin and erected an altar to appease the LORD and stop the plague brought upon the people by this disobedience.  The place was where David saw the angel of the LORD by the threshing floor executing the people.  The altar was built and the sacrifices made to fulfill the Law, just as the Law had prescribed the redemption cost of all who were numbered.  The owner of the threshing floor offered to freely give the oxen and yokes to burn, but David knew there was a price to pay for the responsibility of his sin, and insisted paying for everything.  He knew that the sacrifice he offered would not cost him nothing.  When the sacrifice was made along with intercessory atoning prayer in all humility and responsibility of his sin’s confession, the plague was taken back by the LORD who inflicted it.  We find that the lesson for us here is to confess our sin, taking responsibility and accountability for the consequences, but still interceding for those affected while willing to pay the price we owe - unless the Lord relents and gives mercy in His unmerited grace because we are quite willing to offer our lives as a sacrifice of atonement if need be as a consequence.  There is a costly price to sacrifice on the threshing floor of life in our sanctification.  Therefore, we take responsibility to pay the price in our disobedience and the just wrath we deserve, yet yearn for mercy as we seek grace from His throne of sovereign power and love (1 John 1:9, Hebrews 4:16).  Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13)!