1Ch 21:21-26 | KingComments | STEP | Gad receives from the angel of the LORD – that is from the Lord Jesus, Who often appears in the Old Testament as ‘the Angel of the LORD’ – the instruction to go back to David. He must go and tell him to build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. An altar serves to bring a sacrifice on it. To bring a sacrifice David cannot go to Gibeon, because the sacrifice has to be brought quickly (cf. ). Therefore God points this place out to him on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite, to build an altar there. David obeys “the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD”. He goes “up”. The threshing floor is high. The altar and later the temple are built on a high place. David comes to Ornan when he is threshing wheat. The four sons of Ornan hid at the sight of the angel. When Ornan sees David, he comes down from the threshing floor and bows down respectfully before him. David asks Ornan to give him the threshing floor and also tells him what he intends to do with it. He does not want to negotiate about the price. He wants to pay the full price, for it is about nothing less than stopping the plague that has come upon the people. Ornan wants to give David everything. If David had accepted that, it would not have been his altar and his sacrifice, but that of Ornan. That is why he wants to pay the full price. David says it this way: “For I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing” ( ). This beautiful word contains an important spiritual lesson for us. The lesson is that we can only offer God something of value to Him and to us if what we offer Him has cost us something. We can think of spending our time reflecting on the Word of God, reading it, and discovering Who the Lord Jesus is. What we have discovered, we can offer to God in thanks and worship. We can also think of the use of sound Bible study literature. Reading what others have written and said about a particular section is an important help in getting to know God’s thoughts. However, if we only parrot this in our thanksgiving, it is the bringing of a sacrifice that costs us nothing. It is about making what we may learn from others our own, by considering the section concerning God’s Word in our hearts, and then thanking God for it in our own words. David pays Ornan the impressive sum of 600 shekels of gold ( ). The height of the amount is striking when we realize that for a field in Anathoth seventeen shekels of silver ( ) and for the grave of Abraham four hundred shekels of silver ( ) has been paid. This makes it clear that this place is worth a huge amount to David.

‏ 1 Chronicles 21:21-26

David Must Build an Altar

Gad receives from the angel of the LORD – that is from the Lord Jesus, Who often appears in the Old Testament as ‘the Angel of the LORD’ – the instruction to go back to David. He must go and tell him to build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. An altar serves to bring a sacrifice on it. To bring a sacrifice David cannot go to Gibeon, because the sacrifice has to be brought quickly (cf. Num 16:47-48). Therefore God points this place out to him on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite, to build an altar there.

David obeys “the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD”. He goes “up”. The threshing floor is high. The altar and later the temple are built on a high place. David comes to Ornan when he is threshing wheat. The four sons of Ornan hid at the sight of the angel. When Ornan sees David, he comes down from the threshing floor and bows down respectfully before him.

David asks Ornan to give him the threshing floor and also tells him what he intends to do with it. He does not want to negotiate about the price. He wants to pay the full price, for it is about nothing less than stopping the plague that has come upon the people. Ornan wants to give David everything. If David had accepted that, it would not have been his altar and his sacrifice, but that of Ornan. That is why he wants to pay the full price.

David says it this way: “For I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing” (1Chr 21:24). This beautiful word contains an important spiritual lesson for us. The lesson is that we can only offer God something of value to Him and to us if what we offer Him has cost us something. We can think of spending our time reflecting on the Word of God, reading it, and discovering Who the Lord Jesus is. What we have discovered, we can offer to God in thanks and worship.

We can also think of the use of sound Bible study literature. Reading what others have written and said about a particular section is an important help in getting to know God’s thoughts. However, if we only parrot this in our thanksgiving, it is the bringing of a sacrifice that costs us nothing. It is about making what we may learn from others our own, by considering the section concerning God’s Word in our hearts, and then thanking God for it in our own words.

David pays Ornan the impressive sum of 600 shekels of gold (1Chr 21:25). The height of the amount is striking when we realize that for a field in Anathoth seventeen shekels of silver (Jer 32:9) and for the grave of Abraham four hundred shekels of silver (Gen 23:15) has been paid. This makes it clear that this place is worth a huge amount to David.

David Offers and Calls to the LORD

David builds an altar on the threshing floor he just bought and brings offerings on it as the king-priest. The LORD accepts all his offerings. In response to the call to the LORD He sends fire from heaven to the altar of burnt offering (cf. Lev 9:24; Jdg 6:21; 1Kgs 18:37-38). The fire burns the offering, and lets it ascend in smoke unto the LORD. Then the LORD speaks to the angel that he can put his sword back in its sheath. The repentance of David and the offering cause that the angel’s task is over.

What we see here is the beginning of a new worship service. It is a worship at the basis of a judgment brought to a halt by the burnt offering and the peace offering. These offerings speak of the Lord Jesus. The burnt offering speaks of the sacrifice of Christ as fully brought to God. The peace offering speaks of the sacrifice of Christ as a fellowship offering, through which there can be fellowship of the people with God and between the members of God’s people. God has fully accepted the sacrifice of His Son, and on that basis is able to forgive sins and accept sinners as His children.

The place where the plague is stopped is Mount Moriah. This is the mountain where Abraham sacrificed Isaac (Gen 22:1-2) and where Solomon builds the temple (2Chr 3:1). This new place of worship replaces “the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering”. The place where they stand at that time is the high place at Gibeon. There still sacrifices are offered, but from that moment on no longer by David. Fear of the sword prevented him from going there, for a sacrifice had to be made with great haste to stop the plague. That sacrifice was made on God’s instruction on this new altar at Mount Moriah.