The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 24:24-25a,
"But the king [David] 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."
David had committed the sin of faithlessness. In Romans 14:23 we read, "everything that does not come from faith is sin."
David had sent the commanders of his army to take a head count to see how strong their military might was. In this single act of David's suspension of faith in the Lord, he expressed a temporary perception that all of the victories Israel had accomplished were due to their own military strength and not God's intervention on Israel's behalf. Joab protested, "May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing? Verse 3.
David was resolute, a counting of the troops was performed and the Lord judged the nation for David's lapse of faith. Although David became "conscience-stricken" over what he had done, verse 10, "the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died." Verse 15. When the angel the Lord had sent to destroy the nation got to Jerusalem, the Lord stopped him and sent the prophet Gad to tell David to build an alter on the threshing floor of Araunah, "the Jebusite." The plague was stopped and David sacrificed to the Lord, expressing his worship.
We read in David's worship of the Lord through the sacrifice on the threshing floor of Araunah, (re-establishing the acknowledgment of the Lord as Israel's savior), that David would not sacrifice anything of anyone else's. He would only worship the Lord with something that cost him personally.
Here is something to be learned about our worship of God, if it doesn't cost us something personally, it will not express our heart for the Lord nearly as much as if it had cost us something. Consider the Lord's observation in Luke 21:1-4, "As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 'Truly I tell you,' he said, 'this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.'"
The greater the cost to us, the greater the expression of love. The greater the cost to us, the greater the expression of worship. It is so simple, and so true. The question is, does the Lord get our best, our first, our most valuable? Whether it is time, energy, effort, money, "stuff", does the Lord get the best from us or simply what is left over?
As we look at what our worship of the Lord last week cost us personally, what does it express about the level of love, adoration and worship we claim to have for the Lord?
Convicting, isn't it?!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
"But the king [David] 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."
David had committed the sin of faithlessness. In Romans 14:23 we read, "everything that does not come from faith is sin."
David had sent the commanders of his army to take a head count to see how strong their military might was. In this single act of David's suspension of faith in the Lord, he expressed a temporary perception that all of the victories Israel had accomplished were due to their own military strength and not God's intervention on Israel's behalf. Joab protested, "May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing? Verse 3.
David was resolute, a counting of the troops was performed and the Lord judged the nation for David's lapse of faith. Although David became "conscience-stricken" over what he had done, verse 10, "the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died." Verse 15. When the angel the Lord had sent to destroy the nation got to Jerusalem, the Lord stopped him and sent the prophet Gad to tell David to build an alter on the threshing floor of Araunah, "the Jebusite." The plague was stopped and David sacrificed to the Lord, expressing his worship.
We read in David's worship of the Lord through the sacrifice on the threshing floor of Araunah, (re-establishing the acknowledgment of the Lord as Israel's savior), that David would not sacrifice anything of anyone else's. He would only worship the Lord with something that cost him personally.
Here is something to be learned about our worship of God, if it doesn't cost us something personally, it will not express our heart for the Lord nearly as much as if it had cost us something. Consider the Lord's observation in Luke 21:1-4, "As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 'Truly I tell you,' he said, 'this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.'"
The greater the cost to us, the greater the expression of love. The greater the cost to us, the greater the expression of worship. It is so simple, and so true. The question is, does the Lord get our best, our first, our most valuable? Whether it is time, energy, effort, money, "stuff", does the Lord get the best from us or simply what is left over?
As we look at what our worship of the Lord last week cost us personally, what does it express about the level of love, adoration and worship we claim to have for the Lord?
Convicting, isn't it?!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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