Day 96 - 2 Samuel 23-24 ()
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"Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel." (2 Samuel 24:24-25)
The last chapter of 2 Samuel, the book about the life of David, is a bittersweet ending of his life. It contains the last recorded sin of David, his sin of pride in counting the men of war in Israel and Judah. As punishment, God killed seventy thousand Israelite men. God instructed David through the prophet Gad to erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Araunah offers to donate the piece of land for the altar and David's response is the text above.
We can learn two important lessons from the last episode of David's much decorated life. The first is concerning the sin of pride. To most people, David's act of counting the number of his army may seem completely innocent and normal for a commander-in-chief but as Scriptures say, "the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7b) God saw David's motive that it was prideful.
We need to be very careful to always check our motives especially when our actions apparently look innocent or even good. For example, I just heard about one professional athlete on radio promote a donation of a new car he made to a single mom. Although it was a very good deed indeed, the fact that he promoted it on radio made me wonder about the motive of the athlete for his donation.
The second lesson we can learn from David's last act recorded in 2 Samuel concerns his refusal to offer something to God which does not cost him anything. How often are we guilty of this subtle sin in our own devotion or lack of devotion to God! I know many Christians who say that the only time that they spend alone with God is when they are driving in their cars. I wonder how they would feel if the only time that their own children have to talk to them would be when they happen to be riding in their children's car.
I hope that little illustration I just gave regarding some Christians' devotional life is convicting you and me about our own lack of devotion towards God. God gave us His very best in sending His own Son to die for us; how could we not also give Him our very best? Listen to God's own words in Malachi concerning those who treated Him with contempt:
"And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice,
Is it not evil?
And when you offer the lame and sick,
Is it not evil?
Offer it then to your governor!
Would he be pleased with you?
Would he accept you favorably?"
Says the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 1:8)
May God help all of us to never again treat the God of the Universe with contempt by what we offer to Him.
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