Context No. 3715 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 24:15-25: in context

15So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba. 16When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” The LORD’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.” 18Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded. 20Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.” 22Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” 24The king said to Araunah, “No, but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.

After David's sinful census, a plague ravages Israel, and David, seeing the angel of destruction, cries out with a shepherd's heart: I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand be against me. He takes the blame and begs that the judgment fall on him, not on the people.

Then, told to build an altar at Araunah's threshing floor, David insists on paying full price for it, refusing Araunah's offer to give it freely: I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. Two things stand out. David's heart as a leader who takes responsibility and would rather bear the punishment himself than see his people suffer. And his conviction that true worship and sacrifice must cost something; a gift that costs us nothing is no real offering. Notably, this threshing floor would become the site of the temple, the place of sacrifice, secured by a king who would not give God what was cheap.

Do I take responsibility rather than shifting blame, and do I understand that real devotion to God must cost me something rather than being offered on the cheap?

Sources

2 Samuel 24:17: "I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me."
2 Samuel 24:24: "I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor."
2 Samuel 24:25: "David built an altar to the LORD there... So the LORD... the plague was removed from Israel."