Prophet, Priest, and King

I imagine this guy as a simple shepherd or farmer out in the hills somewhere close to the mountains, tending his sheep one day and suddenly seeing that angel arrive and then disappear because God told him cease. What a blessing and a grace to Auranah, who likely would have been next to catch the plague and been death number 70,001.

David’s there on specific instruction himself, having received word from God through the prophet Gad that he needed to go to this place and build an altar on the threshing floor where God intervened with His mercy. And on that threshing floor with Auranah, David says, in a manner, one of the most important principles we can learn from his life. It’s spoken best in the book of 1 Chronicles, where Auranah’s name is Ornan instead. He goes outside to David, having seen his king, and bows down to pay him homage. And David responds:

“…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 You shall grant it to me at the full price, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people” (1 Chronicles 21:22). And Auranah replies in good faith to the king, saying “…Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king do what 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 it all” (1 Chronicles 21:23).

I think that last line he says should be read “I give it all freely.” Here Auranah was doing not only what was proper manner and etiquette to do for the king who has served his people so well throughout his life, he is also displaying his own God-given gift of humility and good faith. It’s like saying “David, you’re my king, as surely as the Lord owns the Earth, you have rights to every inch of land in this kingdom — my threshing floor is yours, you can have it, and for free.”

But then David says one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard: “…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” (1 Chronicles 21:24). For the sake of explanation and understanding, I’m going to paraphrase that passage to be read straight through in a specific manner, not to detract from the meaning of the overall passage, but to demonstrate the guiding principle within. What if it read as follows:

“I will not… offer… that which costs me nothing.”

Whatever you’re doing, just pause on the weight of that for a moment here.

This is that second part of that two-fold challenge: in our lives, when God calls us to make sacrifices or we feel we need to offer them to Him of our own free will, are we going to take the easy way out and do it half-heartedly? Or are we going to stand on that principle, making sure that we don’t offer that which, in reality, costs us nothing?

For some millionaires around the world, giving thousands of dollars to a cause may be an offering, but it is not a sacrifice. A sacrifice may be their time, however. For those who volunteer and receive no pay, their time may be an offering. But then their finances, few and far between, are their sacrifice.

A sacrifice will take faith.

I challenge you to grab a pen and paper and write down the answer to these two questions — in your life right now, what is something that, for you, would merely be an offering?

And now, what would be a real, true, honest-and-worth-rewarding sacrifice?

Here, for the last time, we see David’s greatest strength: his consistency in repenting and turning back to God when he realized he had sinned. This is really what set David apart from the one king before him and all the kings after him. Every other king of Israel that fell into a sin trap either laid down and died in it or chose their way over God’s and never bothered to fully repent of it. They all suffered the consequences, but David made a lasting impression on God’s heart.

Such an impression, in fact, that the name “David” is mentioned over 950 times in the entire Bible. Of the names found in the Bible that you can look up, only two occur more frequently than David’s — the first is God (and that’s only ONE variant of His “name”), mentioned over 4,000 times; the other is Jesus Himself, written a little more than 1,000 times. In the “Heroes of Faith” chapter of the Bible, Hebrews 11 states a principle I very much agree with. Having mentioned just a few, like Abraham, Moses and others, the author of Hebrews writes out “… And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets” (Hebrews 11:32).

There wouldn’t be enough books or pens or ink or writers to tell of all Jesus did upon the Earth. I think the entire story of David, however, though perhaps not as inexhaustible, would certainly take a long time to put to paper.

The fact is that, because of his obedience, his faithfulness, his heart set after God’s own heart, God was fascinated with this man, making everyone aware of his deeds, causing the Messiah to come from his lineage, using him to set up peace in Israel and do great exploits, having other writers tell of him centuries and millennia down the road of time. We should strive to be so obedient, so attached to God’s heart.

I want God to be as fascinated with me as He was with David.