2Sa 24:25 | KingComments | STEP | On the threshing floor of Araunah judgment comes to a standstill. This threshing floor is located on Mount Moriah. It is the same place where Abraham offered Isaac ( ). It is also the place where Solomon will build the temple ( ; ). The LORD commands David to go up and build an altar on that mountain. In this way up we see the way that is taken after humiliation under the powerful hand of God. The angel stands by the threshing floor of a heathen. The altar that comes there stands in a place where there is nothing that belongs to the people. David understands that he must buy the threshing floor for the LORD. When Araunah wants to give him the threshing floor (cf. ), David refuses. He wants to buy it for a price, “for”, as he says, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing”. This is an important rule: an offering must cost something, otherwise it is not an offering. When the altar is built and the burnt offerings and the peace offerings are brought, the LORD “was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel”. This is a wonderful reference to the only foundation on which God still allows Himself to be prayed and the plague that is raging among the people to stop. That foundation is the Lord Jesus in His work on the cross to God’s honor and glorification – what is reflected by the burnt offerings. This work on the cross is also the basis for our fellowship with God and with each other – which is reflected in the peace offerings. At the end of this book David has an altar. The last thing that is mentioned of him here is that he offers the LORD offerings. Whoever comes to God on the basis of the offering of His Son will experience that God answers prayers because the work of His Son is so precious. It is beautiful to see that this book ends with the atoning sacrifice that by grace averts the anger of God over His people. This sacrifice will be the foundation of the place where God and Israel can meet and the people will worship. In this chapter we have the sin of man, the judgment of God and also His relenting from it and therefore also salvation, but salvation through an offering. Here we have in short, the whole plan of salvation that Scripture shows us.

‏ 2 Samuel 24:25

The Altar

On the threshing floor of Araunah judgment comes to a standstill. This threshing floor is located on Mount Moriah. It is the same place where Abraham offered Isaac (Gen 22:2). It is also the place where Solomon will build the temple (1Chr 22:1; 2Chr 3:1). The LORD commands David to go up and build an altar on that mountain. In this way up we see the way that is taken after humiliation under the powerful hand of God.

The angel stands by the threshing floor of a heathen. The altar that comes there stands in a place where there is nothing that belongs to the people. David understands that he must buy the threshing floor for the LORD. When Araunah wants to give him the threshing floor (cf. Gen 23:6 ; 11), David refuses. He wants to buy it for a price, “for”, as he says, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing”. This is an important rule: an offering must cost something, otherwise it is not an offering.

When the altar is built and the burnt offerings and the peace offerings are brought, the LORD “was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel”. This is a wonderful reference to the only foundation on which God still allows Himself to be prayed and the plague that is raging among the people to stop. That foundation is the Lord Jesus in His work on the cross to God’s honor and glorification – what is reflected by the burnt offerings. This work on the cross is also the basis for our fellowship with God and with each other – which is reflected in the peace offerings.

At the end of this book David has an altar. The last thing that is mentioned of him here is that he offers the LORD offerings. Whoever comes to God on the basis of the offering of His Son will experience that God answers prayers because the work of His Son is so precious. It is beautiful to see that this book ends with the atoning sacrifice that by grace averts the anger of God over His people. This sacrifice will be the foundation of the place where God and Israel can meet and the people will worship.

In this chapter we have the sin of man, the judgment of God and also His relenting from it and therefore also salvation, but salvation through an offering. Here we have in short, the whole plan of salvation that Scripture shows us.