1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1  Click here for Bible Verses

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1.  Let’s go!

1 Chronicles 21:18-19 (NIV) 
18  Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
19  So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD.

On verses 18-19:  After having allowed David and all of Israel to suffer a great plague because of David’s sin, here the Lord sends Gad the prophet with a message for David.  Gad tells David to build an altar at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the very place where God would command the plague to stop (see verses 15 and 27).  The fact that God would take the initiative to tell David to build an altar suggests to me an important lesson:  God is just as intentional about restoring a sinner as He is about disciplining them. This is a good lesson for parents.  When our kids go astray, it is important to discipline them, but after the discipline remember to reassure them of your love and to reaffirm the relationship. 

1 Chronicles 21:20-21 (NIV) 
20  While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
21  Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

On verses 20-21:   This story of David building an altar at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite is also told in 2 Samuel 24.  However, in this account in 1 Chronicles, the Chronicler seems to focus more on the supernatural and spiritual details of this event.  For example, one supernatural detail that the Chronicler mentions is that Araunah saw an angel at his threshing floor before he saw David.

What can we learn from this?  Even before David went to the place where God called him to go, God was already there.  God went ahead of David.  As David once wrote, “You go before me” (Psalm 139:5).  In the same way, whenever God calls you to go anywhere or to do anything, remember that God always goes ahead of you to pave the way.

1 Chronicles 21:22-24 (NIV) 
22  David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”
23  Araunah said to David, “Take it! 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 insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

On verses 22-24: David understood that giving God worship which costed him nothing is hardly worship at all.  So David insists on paying the full price for everything he is going to use to worship the Lord.  It’s a good reminder for those of who have already received God’s precious free gift of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ.   Don’t keep coming to church as a consumer who is there just to get more free stuff.  Come to worship and to give God a sacrifice that costs you something.  Come to give, not just to receive.  Be a participant, not just a spectator.  Don’t give God convenient worship, but costly worship.  For more on the differences between convenient worship and costly worship, click HERE [Ryan, please hyperlink my Wednesday, June 21, 2017 GAME sharing on 2 Samuel 24:18-25].

1 Chronicles 21:25 (NIV) 
25  So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site.

On verse 25:  Here the Chronicler says David paid Araunah 600 gold shekels for the site, but 2 Samuel 24:24 says that David bought the threshing floor and oxen for only 50 shekels of silver.  Is the Bible contradicting itself?  Not necessarily.  Scholars suggest that the 50 shekels of silver were to pay for the threshing floor and oxen, while the 600 gold shekels were to pay for the whole site, a much larger piece of land surrounding the threshing floor that would later become the site for the temple of the Lord.

1 Chronicles 21:26 (NIV) 
26  David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

On verse 26-28:  As David presents his offering and worships the Lord, the Chronicler notes a supernatural occurrence:  the Lord answers with fire from heaven on the altar.  (Many generations later, the Lord would similarly answer Elijah’s sacrifice with fire in 1 Kings 18.)   Seeing God’s response would cause David to offer even more sacrifices (v28).

What can we learn from this?  When we step out in faith, God not only goes before us, but He goes after us as well.  He is the shield before you, and He’s also your rear guard.  As David says in Psalm 139:5, “You go before me and follow me.”

1 Chronicles 21:27 (NIV) 
27  Then the LORD spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

On verse 27:  Earlier the Lord had told the angel to withdraw his hand (verse 15), suggesting that the Lord was pressing the pause button on the plague. (Perhaps that’s because the Lord wanted to wait to see what David would do.)  But after David buys the threshing floor and gives God costly worship, the Lord commands the angel to put his sword back into its sheath for once and for all (verse 27), thus putting an official end to the plague.  This suggests to me thatGod watches our worship and responds accordingly. Your worship matters. Your prayers matter.  So give God your best worship.  God is watching and listening, and He will respond.

 1 Chronicles 21:29-22:1 (NIV) 
29  The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.
30  But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
1  Then David said, “The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

On verses 21:29-22:1:  The tabernacle where God’s people normally worshiped was at Gibeon.  What does it mean when verse 30 says that David would not go to Gibeon to inquire of God “because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD”?  It could mean that David was afraid that if he traveled to Gibeon he himself would be infected by the plague (symbolized by the sword).  In any event, David decides that Araunah’s threshing floor would be the site for the future house of the Lord, the temple that his son Solomon would later build.  What can we learn from this?

  1. Notice that Araunah the Jebusite was not an Israelite, yet God involved Araunah in His plan to build a house for His glory.  In the same way, your family background and history may have little to do with Christ, but God has a plan to use you to build His house.
  1. At the threshing floor of Araunah, God commanded that Israel no longer be punished with the plague.  The fact that the temple of the Lord would be built on Araunah’s threshing floor served as a reminder for generations to come of how great our sin is and how much greater God’s mercy is.  We see this also in the cross.  The very place where God completed his punishment of our sin – the cross where Jesus died – was also the same place where God showed us His mercy and enabled our restoration.  Like the threshing floor of Araunah, the cross is the intersection where God’s mercy and our failing meet, and where the punishment we deserved for our sin was taken away.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your powerful Word.  Thank You for being the One who goes ahead of me.  Just as You gave David the threshing floor of Araunah, thank You for giving us the cross, where Your mercy meets our failure.  Thank You that just as You used Araunah and His threshing floor to build Your house, You want to use me and what I have to build Your house.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!