GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
1 CHRONICLES 21:20-25
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20 Araunah turned and saw the angel. His four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Araunah had been threshing wheat. 21 As David approached, Araunah looked up and saw him. He left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground. 22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of this threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD on it, so that the plague on the people can be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.” 23 Araunah said to David, “Take it for yourself! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.” 24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I must buy it for the full price. I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.” 25 So David paid Araunah 600 shekels of gold for the site.
For a moment, the storytelling focuses on the man, Araunah, and his four sons. It might seem as if we’re about to learn a lot more about them, but it is just a snapshot; it is a little scene, like a moment caught by a painter’s hand. Araunah’s dramatic turn shows his movement away from threshing– and he will not turn back to it. His four sons are afraid, and they hide themselves– and they remain hidden; they will not re-enter the story. The man, Araunah, is willing to give the site up to David, but David insists on paying. Was it fear, or respect, or had Araunah become a Jew? Was that why he was permitted to remain on the mountain after the other Jebusites were defeated?
The negotiation reminds us of Abraham buying the field and the cave of Machpelah from the Hittites (Genesis 23). The owner would give it, but the buyer insists on paying. The price is offered and accepted, and the place changes hands at once. Should we also remember that the Cave of Machpelah was at Hebron (Genesis 23:19), which was the place where David had first reigned over Israel as king?
There were five items here for purchase: The threshing floor itself, the entire site (which might have been the whole summit of Mount Moriah), Araunah’s oxen, the threshing sledges, and the wheat (all of which David bought). It seems to me that this accounts for the vast difference in the sum of money presented here as opposed to the much smaller 50 shekels of silver in 2 Samuel 24:24. That smaller sum was only for the threshing floor (an area of just a few yards), the wheat, the sledges, and the oxen. The 600 shekels of gold was for the whole site; the mountaintop, which might have included some unmentioned buildings or walls belonging to Araunah that dated back to the possession of this mountain by the Jebusites before David’s conquest, some twenty years in the past. More importantly, the Pool of Bethesda, northeast of the threshing floor, was surely included in the transaction (see John 5:2).
David’s words, “I will not sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing,” are an important example for us to follow. God does not want hollow devotion. Bringing offerings to the Lord in worship is a part of membership and life in the church. Christian churches in our country are not supported by the government. All of the money for the church, pastors, ministers, teachers, secretaries and bookkeepers, as well as all of the expenses and taxes for the church, not to mention come from the offerings of the people. There are sometimes individuals who think that churches never do anything except ask for money; this is not the case (far from it), but a person who listens for that message will convince himself that he’s right. (Some of our members do not know this, but a typical pastor’s call in our fellowship forbids a minister from seeking any other income beyond what the church provides; he cannot get a second job to support himself.)
Bringing offerings gives us an opportunity to teach our children many things. First, we can teach them the difference between bringing an offering and a sacrifice. There are no more sacrifices to be made. “There is no longer any sacrifice for sin” (Hebrews 10:18). The offerings we give are thank-offerings, brought from love and thanks and not from any obligation. The Lord commanded Moses, “No one is to appear before me empty-handed” (Exodus 23:15), but even in this case we are not bound by the law. At the same time, Christians must not be tempted to think that their offerings are a kind of vote or referendum on the work of the church, as if to say “I don’t like what they’re doing (or not doing) and until they change I won’t give anything.” That kind of attitude violates the Third and Fourth Commandments. It also betrays a spiritual immaturity that borders on unbelief.
Bringing regular offerings is the pattern set by the Apostle Paul: “Follow the directions I gave to the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week, each of you is to set something aside in keeping with your income, so that collections will not need to be taken when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Paul’s words were about a specific collection to be gathered, but the recommendation is excellent advice even today. Regular, small offerings are better than large, irregular ones. Our children learn the value of what an offering means (a gift of thanks to Christ). They learn what it does (helping to carry out the work of the church). And they learn what it does not do (it does not contribute anything to our salvation, Galatians 1:8-9). Paul says: “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Finally, giving regular offerings reminds us all that we are responsible to the Lord for how faithfully we use the possessions he gives to us, for “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 1 Chronicles 21:20-25 The purchase