Samuel 24:18-25 - The Cost of Deliverance Must be Paid!

2 Samuel 24:18-25

The Altar on the Threshing Floor (1 Chronicles 21:18–27)

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And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”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 So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.

This end of the book appropriately ends in worship on an altar the LORD commanded king David to erect on the threshing floor (1 Chronicles 21:15, 2 Samuel 24:16) where the angel had been stopped from further destruction as a consequence of the king’s sin for counting Israel instead of trusting the number God gave was sufficient in His power and calling.  David obediently listened to the prophet Gad and obeyed God to build d this altar for worship and atonement for his sin.  Araunah offered to gift the threshing floor to honor the LORD for stopping the plague he brought on them all, but the man was given fifty shekels of silver at the insistence of David.  The king confessed that he had to buy it at a price and would not offer sacrifices that cost him nothing after the great price he paid in loves for his sin.  He counted the cost of sin and paid for its atonement for redemption.  Only them did the LORD God hear his prayers to save the land by withdrawing the plague from further destruction of just punishment.  As Romans 6:23 tells us, we all pay the price of judgment and death for sin until we are forgiven by grace as we face and confess the sin, turn from it to the Lord through the Angel of the LORD, Jesus Christ, to receive His sacrifice by the faith of Abraham (Romans 4:3, 9, Hebrews 11:17, Galatians 3:9, James 2:21) who offered his only son on the altar he was commanded to erect and who was stopped from destruction of His son that the Son of God would be later provided on the cross as the perfect sacrifice to atone for all our sins that destroy us and others around us.  Do we see our sins in this light as David did and confess our sins to him as 1 John 1:9 tells us and assures us of forgiveness for ongoing reconciliation with our Lord?  Do we then worship Him then for His sacrifice on the heavenly altar for our deliverance from certain destruction and praise Him for our certain hope?  Our lives are now to be given to Him in return to live for Him as the price we offer, because we know our deliverance did not cost the Father nothing; He offered His only Son at such a high price to provide the heavenly threshing floor for us to approach in worship (Hebrews 4:16) and thanksgiving as He delivered us (Matthew 3:7, 1 Thessalonians 1:10) from the wrath to come.  The cost of deliverance must be paid, and He paid it for us.  Praise Him!