1Ch 21:23-24 | 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 21:23-24

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.