This is much in this passage that is troubling and upseting
but this, THIS is where the site for the temple was chosen
in this mess
in this failure
in the midst of judgement and consequence
THIS IS WHERE GOD CHOSE TO PLACE HIS NAME
David sent servants to count and number all the people of Isreal
this was explicitly and clearly written in scripture as something a king of Isreal was never to do
Even, Joab, the commander of the army, who was not know for his piety, who went on to kill an unarmed man under the guise of friendship, even this Joab
stood before David and said, 'Do not do this' 'This is wrong'
But David forcefully over ruled him
and Joab submitted to doing the task
Then conviction came
and David let the truth hit home
And Davids' heart smote him after that he had numbered the people.
And David said unto the LORD, " I have sinned greatly in what I have done and now, I beseech thee, O LORD take away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 “Go and tell David, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.”’”
11 So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Choose for yourself, 12 either three[a] years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the Lord—the plague in the land, with the angel[b] of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”
13 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
14 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he[c] was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, “It is enough; now restrain your[d] hand.” And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan[e] the Jebusite.
16 Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.17 And David said to God, “Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and my father’s house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.”
18 Therefore, the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. 20 Now Ornan turned and saw the angel; and his four sonswho were with him hid themselves, but Ornan continued threshing wheat. 21 So David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out from the threshing floor, and bowed before David with his face to the ground.22 Then David said to Ornan, “Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall grant it to me at the full price, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
23 But Ornan said to David, “Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king dowhat is good in his eyes. Look, I also give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give itall.”
24 Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.” 25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. 26 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27 So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 29 For the tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of the burnt offering, which Moses had made in the wilderness, were at that time at the high place in Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of theLord.
Footnotes:
- 1 Chronicles 21:12 Or seven (compare 2 Samuel 24:13)
- 1 Chronicles 21:12 Or Angel, and so elsewhere in this chapter
- 1 Chronicles 21:15 Or He
- 1 Chronicles 21:15 Or Your
- 1 Chronicles 21:15 Spelled Araunah in 2 Samuel 24:16
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
It is here where there is deep and heartfelt conviction of genuine wrong doing that cannot be excused or explained any other way.
It is here where there is even acceptance of consequence and personal responsibility
It is here that holy ground is formed
where God meets with sinful man
I have a lot of questions about this passage but most of all
I need the truth of who you are that is shown here
because I sin
I really sin
I sin, knowing it is wrong and doing it anyway
I sin, even when there are clear voices saying, do not do this
there is no excuse or any other way to spin it or excuse it
I need Jesus
desperately
and here is where he wants to reveal himself in all his beauty and glory
1 John 4:10J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
9-10 To us, the greatest demonstration of God’s love for us has been his sending his only Son into the world to give us life through him. We see real love, not in that fact that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to make personal atonement for our sins.
J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
J. B. Phillips, "The New Testament in Modern English", 1962 edition by HarperCollins
1 Peter 3:18International Standard Version (ISV)
Footnotes:
- 1 Peter 3:18 Or Christ
- 1 Peter 3:18 Other mss. read died
- 1 Peter 3:18 Other mss. read us
International Standard Version (ISV)
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.
