Thursday Evening Bible Study

September 20, 2012

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?

We’ve seen David become king of Israel.

We’ve seen David commit a terrible sin, adultery with Bathsheba, followed by the murder of her husband Uriah.

We saw the fallout of David’s sin as his oldest son Absalom rebels and causes a civil war to break out.

David’s forces are victorious over the rebels, and David is now reestablished as the king.

We now will see David’s role as king over Israel be wrapped up.  When we start 1Kings next week, we will see the transition from David to Solomon.

23:1-7  Last Words

:1 Now these are the last words of David. Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel:

:1 the last words of David

Lesson

Final words

It’s not unusual for a man’s final words to be fairly important.

This is what is really important to David. After living some seventy years, this is his last chance to get a message across of what is important.

Note: His message isn’t, “He who dies with the most toys wins”.

Famous Last Words

I am in the land of the dying, and I am soon going to the land of the living.

Who: John Newton, Anglican preacher, abolitionist, and writer of “Amazing Grace.”

How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?

Who: P. T. Barnum, circus entrepreneur

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.

Who: Humphrey Bogart

I just wish I had time for one more bowl of chili.

Who: Kit Carson, American frontiersman

It wasn't worth it.

Who: Louis B. Mayer, film producer, d. October 29, 1957

Solely by the merits of Jesus Christ, Our Savior.

Who: astronomer Johannes Kepler

The best of all is: God is with us.

Who: John Wesley

What’s important to you?  What do you wish your “last words” would be?

:2 “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.

:3 The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: ‘He who rules over men must be just, Ruling in the fear of God.

:4 And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, Like the tender grass springing out of the earth, By clear shining after rain.’

:3 He who rules over men

Lesson

Godly leaders

David is painting a picture of how people will be blessed when a ruler is good – ruling with “justice” and “in the fear of God”.

I’ve been going for walks in the early morning, and I love walking eastward as the sun is coming up.  It’s beautiful and powerful and you have a sense of God’s presence.

When leaders rule well, people flourish like a garden that’s regularly watered.

Are you a leader in some respect?

Do the right thing – being “just”.

Keep your eyes on who is Bigger than You – God.

(Col 4:1 NKJV) Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

:5 “Although my house is not so with God, Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; Will He not make it increase?

Some of the translations give almost the opposite idea:

(2 Sam 23:5 NASB) "Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, Ordered in all things, and secured; For all my salvation and all my desire, Will He not indeed make it grow?

:6 But the sons of rebellion shall all be as thorns thrust away, Because they cannot be taken with hands.

:7 But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, And they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place.”

:6 the sons of rebellion

David knew what it was like to have people challenge his leadership.

Lesson

Good king / Bad king

You have a choice as to how you will rule your life.

You can be a person who refreshes others by doing what’s right.

You can be a pain in the neck.

Choose to be a good king.

One of the keys to ruling correctly is to be “ruling in the fear of God” (vs.3)

23:8-39 Mighty Men

It seemed that David had a sort of “all-star” group of men. We call them David’s Mighty Men.

There seems to be different levels within these mighty men.

The top group is called “The Three”

These were the guys who helped make David king.

(1 Ch 11:10 NKJV) —10 Now these were the heads of the mighty men whom David had, who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel.

As mighty and great as we see David, he didn’t do it alone.

He had help.

What are the things that characterize the “Mighty Men”?

We’ll look at some of the characteristics of these fellows.

Play “Marine Commercial Toward the Sounds of Chaos” clip

:8 These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-Basshebeth the Tachmonite, chief among the captains. He was called Adino the Eznite, because he had killed eight hundred men at one time.

:8 mighty – gibbowr – strong man, brave man, mighty man

Lesson

Big things

What made these men “mighty” are the things they did.

They were ordinary men who did extraordinary things.

We believe most of them started with David at the same time, in the same condition, when David himself was running for his life from Saul:

(1 Sa 22:1–2 NKJV) —1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.

God uses ordinary people, people who struggle, and He does great things through them.

Adino the Eznite – “his ornament is his spear”

He kills 800 men in a single battle.  Probably with a spear.

He was the Rambo of the group.  Or maybe the Jackie Chan

Play Forbidden Kingdom Teahouse clip.

:9 And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had retreated.

:9 Dodo – Dowdow – “his beloved”. This is apparently kind of a nickname for the name “David”.

:10 He arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder.

:10 his hand stuck to the sword

Apparently this was not an unusual occurrence in ancient days when people fought with swords. A warrior’s hand could lock onto the sword and you would have to run warm water over the hand to get it to release the sword.

:11 And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines.

:12 But he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory.

Lesson

Perseverance

Eleazar’s hand stuck to his sword.

Shammah stood his ground and defended it.

This might be seen by some as “stubbornness”, but what can seem like stubbornness can be turned into perseverance when we are being “stubborn” for the right things.

The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers who were being greatly persecuted for their faith.  They were being persuaded that they needed to let go of this “Jesus” stuff.  We don’t need to let go of Jesus, we need to hold on and stand our ground.

(Heb 3:12–14 NKJV) —12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,

(Heb 12:1–2 NKJV) —1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

:13 Then three of the thirty chief men went down at harvest time and came to David at the cave of Adullam. And the troop of Philistines encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.

:14 David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.

:15 And David said with longing, “Oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!”

:16 So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord.

:17 And he said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this! Is this not the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things were done by the three mighty men.

:16 brought it to David

Play Adullam to Bethlehem map clip

David and his men are hiding at the Cave of Adullam, while the Philistines are up in a valley that runs Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  David’s men make it all the way up through the Philistine outpost, into Bethlehem, and back again.

They heard their friend David make a comment about the water in Bethlehem, and they decide to do something about it.

Lesson

Others

The “three” were concerned about others.

They were interested in David’s “longings”.

David in return was concerned about their welfare and shuddered at the idea that they had risked their lives for a stupid cup of water.

Greatness is not determined by how many people there are who serve you, but how you serve others.

(Mk 10:42–45 NKJV) —42 But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

:18 Now Abishai the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of another three. He lifted his spear against three hundred men, killed them, and won a name among these three.

:19 Was he not the most honored of three? Therefore he became their captain. However, he did not attain to the first three.

:20 Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.

:21 And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand; so he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear.

:22 These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and won a name among three mighty men.

:23 He was more honored than the thirty, but he did not attain to the first three. And David appointed him over his guard.

:20 killed two lion-like heroes

Lesson

Facing the giants

Benaiah had a reputation of facing big opponents.

He didn’t make what would seem to be obvious excuses about the size of his opponent, he just faced them.

Men who do great things don’t necessarily live without fear.

The secret to facing giants is not to let your fear stop you from doing what you need to do.

That’s what real courage is about.

I wonder how much more we could accomplish if we didn’t let our excuses or our fears stop us from doing what is before us.

Play Facing the Giants Death Crawl clip

Sometimes fear is our friend because it warns us to stay away from places where we don’t belong.

But sometimes fear keeps us from doing what we ought to be doing.

Like Brock, we are “afraid” we can’t do any better.  And that “fear” keeps us from even trying.

We need to learn to walk by “faith” and not by “sight”.

(2 Co 5:7 NKJV) For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Sometimes I wonder if we wouldn’t do better blindfolded because we wouldn’t be stopped by what we “see”.

:24 Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

Now we see a listing of “the thirty”, different than the previous groups of “three”.

:25 Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,

:26 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,

:27 Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,

:28 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,

:29 Heleb the son of Baanah (the Netophathite), Ittai the son of Ribai from Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,

Gibeah was Saul’s town.  This Ittai came from Saul’s city.

:30 Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai from the brooks of Gaash,

:31 Abi-Albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite,

:32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite (of the sons of Jashen), Jonathan,

:33 Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Hararite,

:34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maachathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,

:34 Eliam the son of Ahithophel

Eliam was a son of David’s friend Ahithophel, who eventually betrayed David and joined forces with Absalom.

We believe this Eliam had a famous daughter:

(2 Sa 11:3 NKJV) So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

:35 Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,

:36 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,

:37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite (armorbearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah),

:38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

:39 and Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

:39 Uriah the Hittite

This is the fellow who had been married to Bathsheba.  This is the fellow that David had killed so he could marry Bathsheba.

He was part of David’s inner circle.

David not only knew what it was to be betrayed, but he did his own bit of betraying.

24:1-9  The Census

:1 Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

:1 the anger of the LORD …

The parallel passage tells us:

(1 Ch 21:1 NKJV) Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

We aren’t told the reason why God was angry with Israel. But because of His anger, God allowed Satan to move David towards numbering the people.

Some have suggested that this took place after Absalom’s rebellion and Sheba’s rebellion and that God was angry with Israel for rebelling against David.

:1 Go, number Israel

The purpose for taking a “census” was not to know your population’s “demographics”. The purpose was to raise an army. The people that were counted were the men who were able to fight.

We see this in the book of Numbers. Twice there was a census taken, one at the beginning of the forty years in the wilderness, and one at the end. Who was counted? Men who could fight. (Num.1:1-3; Num. 26:1-2)

God had a law regarding the taking of a census.

(Ex 30:12 NKJV) “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.

Money was to be collected for each person counted. This was to keep Israel from a “plague”. The amount of the ransom was to be ½ a shekel per person. The money was to go towards the upkeep of the Tabernacle (Ex. 30:11-16).

This eventually grew into the custom of the “temple-tax” that was used to pay for temple expenses.

The Jewish historian Josephus records (Antiquities, 7:12:1),

Now king David was desirous to know how many ten thousands there were of the people, but forgot the commands of Moses, who told them beforehand, that if the multitude were numbered, they should pay half a shekel to God for every head.

His suggestion is that David’s sin was that he didn’t have the people pay the “ransom”.

I wonder if there isn’t another problem as well.

Lesson

Dangerous Pride

I can’t help but wonder why David is doing this.

There is no enemy on the horizon.  Why would David need to raise an army?

Perhaps David wants to be able to puff out his chest and brag about the size of his army.

Perhaps after all the rebellions, David feels that if he pulls the entire nation into a massive army recruitment, it will remind them of just whose in charge.

Joab will hint that David seems to want to rely on his army instead of God.

David himself wrote,

(Ps 20:7 NKJV) Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

God doesn’t like us doing things out of pride.

(1 Pe 5:5b NKJV) …Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

:2 So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

:2 from Dan to Beersheba

(Play map clip)

From the farthest northern town to the farthest southern town.

:3 And Joab said to the king, “Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?”

Joab thinks there’s a problem with David wanting to know “how many”?

:4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.

:5 And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the town which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jazer.

:6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon;

:7 and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to South Judah as far as Beersheba.

:8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

:9 Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

:6 they crossed over the Jordan

The recruiters start off in the east, move to the north, then down the coast southward, and back to Jerusalem.

:9 the sum of the number

There is a difference between the numbers given here and those in the parallel passage.

(1 Ch 21:5 NKJV) —5 Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.

We are told in 1Chr. 27 that David had a standing army of 24,000 men from each of the twelve tribes, rotating each month. This is a total of 288,000 men. If you add that number to the additional 800,000 counted during the census, you could come up with a number that could be rounded off to 1,100,000 men. The tribe of Judah is mentioned in Chronicles as 470,000, which could have been rounded here in Samuel to 500,000.

24:10-17 The Judgment

:10 And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

:10 David’s heart condemned him

It took David ten months, but finally his heart gets the message.

Lesson

Heart warnings

It’s not a bad thing to pay attention to some of those warnings that your heart gives from time to time.

(1 Jn 3:21 NKJV) —21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

(Ro 14:22–23 NKJV) —22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.

If you are unsure about something, sometimes it’s better to wait, pray it through, and be sure, than cause a mess like David is going to do.

:11 Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,

:12 “Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.” ’ ”

David’s sin has to be taken care of. Somebody has got to pay.

This is still the Old Testament, and Jesus has not yet died to take away our sins.

:13 So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”

:14 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

:14 His mercies are great

David would rather be at God’s mercy than at man’s mercy.

He has learned how cruel men can be.

Lesson

Who is more merciful?

Do you think that God is cruel to you?

Who would you rather be at the mercy of?

:15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.

:15 the people died

If the “sin” involved was the pride in the “number” of people, it’s interesting that the consequences of the sin involved lowering that “number”.

Lesson

Sin’s consequences

Play “Trunk Monkey” clip

We may confess our sin, and God may forgive us, but sometimes the consequences still remain.  You still have to face the Trunk Monkey.

The consequences don’t mean that God hasn’t forgiven.

If I rob a liquor store, I can ask God for forgiveness, and He will forgive me.  But I still need to pay the earthly consequences of having robbed the liquor store.

Sometimes Satan says, “Just give in and all this temptation pressure will be over with”...

...but sin is a bad deal no matter how you look at it. It is much better to just not give in.

:16 And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

:16 It is enough

God asks the angel to take a break. God is going to give David a chance to do something here.

:16 the threshing floor

This would be a place on top of a hill, where the wind would blow frequently and so the wheat could be separated from the chaff.

:16 the angel of the LORD – This is a phrase used in the Bible to identify a unique, specific person. He has made many appearances to many different people.

Hagar met Him (Gen.16:7,13); Abraham met Him (Gen.22:11-12); Gideon met Him (Judg.6:12-14, 22-23); and Samson’s dad, Manoah met Him (Judg.13:21-22).

When you piece things together, you find that this person is also called “God”.

We believe that this person is none other than Jesus Christ, appearing on earth before His birth in Bethlehem.

:17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”

:17 Surely I have sinned

David has the marks of a great leader. He is willing to accept responsibility for his actions.

24:18-25 The Altar

:18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

:19 So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded.

:20 Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.

:20 Araunah looked

The parallel passage says

(1 Ch 21:20 NKJV) Now Ornan turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves, but Ornan continued threshing wheat.

We have a short description of what David saw:

(1 Ch 21:16 NKJV) 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.

:21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”

:22 Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood.

:23 All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

:24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

:25 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.

:24 offer burnt offerings … cost me nothing

Lesson

The Sacrifice Principle

In a sense, we no longer practice sacrifice, because Jesus has paid for our sins once and for all.

Yet there is another sense in which the principle of sacrifice still applies in some ways.

(Ro 12:1 NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

We learn to give our bodies to the Lord.

But that’s not always easy.  Sometimes I want to do what I want to do with my own body.  And learning to say “no” to myself isn’t fun.  It can be costly.

(Php 2:17 NKJV) Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Some of Paul’s ministry to others was like a “sacrifice”.  And sometimes serving others can be costly to us – we have to give of our time, sometimes even our dollars to serve others.

(Heb 13:15 NKJV) Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

Sometimes we just don’t “feel” like praising God, but it’s what we ought to do, so we do it anyway and it “costs us” emotionally.

:25 the Lord heeded the prayers

The parallel passage tells us just how God was “entreated” –

(1 Ch 21:26 NKJV) 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.

There are only three other occurrences where God sends fire to consume an offering:

1. Moses and the Tabernacle (Lev. 9:24)

2. Solomon and the Temple (2Chr. 7:1)

3. Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1Ki. 18:36-39)

Something special has happened. Something bigger than just this story has happened. Something HUGE has happened.

Lesson

Turning bad into good

Araunah’s threshing floor was a special place.

In the parallel account in Chronicles, immediately after this story, we read:

(1 Ch 22:1 NKJV) Then David said, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

David somehow considered this location to be “the house of the LORD God”.

2Chronicles tells us more about this location.

(2 Ch 3:1 NKJV) Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

The threshing floor was in the same place where Abraham had offered Isaac (Gen. 22:2), on Mount Moriah.

This would also be the same place where Solomon would build the temple.

God was able to take David’s sin of pride and turn the entire situation around so that this place became not just “a place” of worship, but “THE place” of worship.

If the idea of David’s sin being that he didn’t collect the “ransom”, it’s interesting that in the end, the very thing the “ransom” would have gone for was taken care of. The “ransom” would go toward the upkeep of the Tabernacle, and David has now purchased the site for the temple.

Strange idea:

I came across a reference that gold was considered 12 times the value of silver (Gill; 2Sam. 24:24).

If David paid 600 shekels of gold for the entire property, that would be the equivalent of 7200 shekels of silver (600 x 12).

If the “ransom” was ½ shekel per person, then David only paid enough for 14,400 people (interesting number).

However you look at it, David did pay a price, but he didn’t have to pay the full price. He should have had to pay 1,300,000 x ½ = 650,000 shekels of silver. He only paid close to one hundredth of the price.

I find it very interesting that Jesus was there with David in Jerusalem, watching David pay the price for his sin.

Jesus would pay the price for our sin at that same place.

The place of crucifixion is thought to have been to the north of the Temple Mount, but still considered on Mount Moriah.