DAVID’S SACRIFICE
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
1 CHRONICLES 21 1_22:1
Key Verse
“Nevertheless, King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will certainty buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing”.
1 Chronicles 21:24
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes even mature people who believe in God do not take advice and reject the commands of God. In doing so they displease God. What their action means is that they are not paying attention to the temptations of the Devil who always want us to disobey what God has told us to do.
In our Study, the beloved King David who God appointed, and with whom God had made a covenant to have the Messiah come from one of his sons, fell into the trap set by the Devil of doing what God did not like. He ordered his army soldiers to number the people of the nation without asking God if He wanted that to happen. His own cousin who was head of the army and the other army soldiers protested but David did not listen. Joab the army General told David it did not matter how many soldiers Israel had for God would always lead them to victory even if they faced an army of enemies larger than theirs. David insisted they do the census. So they obeyed David and they grumbled.
As we expected God was displeased with David and God told him through a prophet that he would be punished and he would choose the punishment. The first punishment was God could send a drought on the land for 3 years. The other punishment would be that God would allow his enemies to chase after him and the nation for 3 months. The third choice was to have God send a plague on the nation for 3 days.
David though about it and he chose to have God send a plague, for he knew that God was merciful and would not damage the nation like what would happen if he chose the first two options.
God send a destroying angel and the angel killed 70,000 people in Israel. David and the elders and rulers were shocked at the amount of death. They saw the angel with his sword ready to slaughter the people in Jerusalem. The angel was at the threshing floor of Ornan where this man and his 4 sons were working to thresh grain. They were terrified when they saw the angel with his sword.
David put on sackcloth, the garments of mourning and he prayed to God to stop the angel. He accepted the blame and the responsibility for the sin of doing the census. He told God the people were not the ones who did the sin. God should punish him David and his house for the responsibility for the sin lay with them.
God heard David’s prayer of repentance and God stopped the angel of death. God told David to build an altar and offer sacrifices to show he had really repented and wanted mercy.
David rushed to the threshing floor of Ornan and told him he wanted to buy the field and build an altar there to offer sacrifices. The man wanted to give David the land for free, but David refused this offer and told Ornan he would pay the full price of 600 shekels of gold. David emphasized he would never offer anything to God in sacrifice if what he was offering cost him nothing.
David paid the full price. He offered the sacrifice while the angel watched. God accepted the sacrifice of the animals who died in the place of David. Fire came down from heaven and burned up all of the sacrifice.
David made a vow to have the Temple of God built on that spot. He would move the altar and tabernacle from Hebron. David knew this was the spot that Abraham had taken Isaac to sacrifice him to God but God stopped him. So this place had great meaning to David and to Israel.
Notice that God wants His people in His family to be obedient to what He told them. They must offer sacrifices. We do not have to sacrifice animals for Jesus had died on the Cross as the prophesied sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Now believers in Him must offer spiritual sacrifices, doing good and helpful things, telling people about the salvation available only in Jesus Christ. This we must do for we are priests and kings now that we are in the family of God.
So let us learn to listen to good advice from parents, family, brethren, and the people around us who love us and who themselves are obedient to God and His commandments. Let us learn to obey God in everything, trust Him to protect and to guide us, and finally to take us to be with Him in glory in the New Jerusalem in the New Heaven and New Earth.