Friday, October 21, 2011

2 Samuel 24:24 NASB

I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.

David committed two great sins that affected not only him but the nation.  One was his adulterous and murderous affair with Bathsheba, and then this one--a blatant affront to the command of God not to number the people; putting his confidence in numbers rather than God.  His salvation in both was a broken heart.  Concerning this sin, the writer says, "Now David's heart troubled him."  Literally, his heart smote him.  God has an immediate problem with any sin, but I think the worst of our condition is when our heart doesn't smite us anymore.  A lot of grace was given to David because he broke. The broken heart isn't looking for some latitude.  This heart makes no excuses, but takes full, heartbroken blame and responsibility for what they have done;  who, like David, cries out to God saying, "Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong," (2 Samuel 24:17). We desperately need this kind of brokenness today.  This is one who is deeply conscious of the fact that his sin was against God, but also that his sin affects those around him.  Anytime we choose to go against the ways of God, we carry a poison that distorts us and infects those around us.  It's impossible to keep it isolated and it's always destructive to community life, unity, and spirit.  The only remedy for this venom of the soul is an altar and a sacrifice, and this is where we find David.  With a broken heart, he humbles himself before God; and God takes him to "the threshing floor of Araunah" to erect an altar.  He makes an offer for the property, but Araunah, meaning well, says, Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight.  Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.  Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king," (2 Samuel 24:22-23).  There are always some well-meaning souls who offer an easier way, but David wouldn't have it.  From the depths of his broken heart he says, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing."  This was not an attempt to earn or buy his salvation.  No.  This was an acknowledgement of the terrible price for his salvation. The cross will never bow to our consumerist thinking of "cheap grace".  We don't get something for nothing.  The cross cost everything. Let's never forget that.  This truth should shake us, and transform us, at the core of our being.

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