MAKING RESTITUTION

NOTE: To all my readers…I am still in Kuwait and am awaiting my flight to my new assignment. Please bear with me during this trip as I adjust to new time zones and surroundings. I am currently 7 hours ahead of EST but intend to continue writing every day while sharing the words the Lord places on my heart. Please keep Grace and I in prayer as we endure yet another separation…our final one before I retire. God bless all of you and thanks for your faithful readership and comments. In Christ, Mark

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

On that day Gad went to David and said to him, "Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?"

"To buy your threshing floor," David answered, "so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped."

Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king." Araunah also said to him, "May the Lord your God accept you."

But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

2 Samuel 24:18-25

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As 2nd Samuel ends, we find David place himself and Israel in a tough situation because he had put his faith in the wrong places…ordering a census so he could feel confident in the large number of fighting men at his disposal instead of simply acknowledging that all his might and power came from God alone.

And so after David confessed his sinfulness, God offered David three options through the prophet Gad…each with a consequence attached. You’ll recall that David chose to have Israel suffer a plague for three days and this led to 70 thousand of his people dying before God stopped His destructive angel just before he attacked Jerusalem. It was at this point that David asked for mercy upon his people…arguing that he and his family should be the ones suffering because it was his sin that angered God.

As Chapter 24 ends, we find David seeking to reconcile things with God to end the plague and restore his people…and the reconciliation starts and ends with a return to worship…to giving God full honor and glory and praise above all things. It’s what David needed to do…and it’s what we are required to do as well when we need to get right with God.

We see where the prophet Gad goes to David and tells him to “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite" and David obeys as the Lord commanded.

When David went to Araunah, we read where he bowed before his king and wondered why David had come. David tells Araunah that he was there to buy his threshing floor to “build an altar to the Lord” so that “the plague on the people may be stopped”. And with that, Araunah doesn’t hesitate to give David what he wanted…for free. He was willing to sacrifice whatever David needed to build the altar and offer the proper sacrifices to God for reconciliation, only hoping that the Lord might accept him.

But David had one problem with Araunah’s offer. He refused to take it for free and insisted to pay for everything because he would not “sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." And so “David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them” before building “an altar to the Lord there” and sacrificing “burnt offerings and fellowship offerings”. His actions led to the Lord answering “prayer in behalf of the land” by stopping “the plague on Israel”.

Through David’s actions, we see where returning to the Lord’s favor from sin required sacrifice…but not just in the form of burnt or fellowship offerings but in the sacrificing of his heart and his resources. David did not accept a free ride back to the Lord’s favor but showed through his actions that he was willing to lay down whatever was needed to make restitution, saving himself and his people in the process.

Question: Where are you in your faith journey with the Lord today? Have you walked away from Him and allowed sin to get a foothold? Are you in need of reconciliation…in need of returning to the Lord and His favor?

If so, then you need to follow David’s lead and return to the Lord in worship, coming to His altar giving Him all your honor, glory and praise…and willing to pay whatever price to do so…to make any sacrifice that He desires.

For just as God surrendered His all for us by sacrificing His only Son Jesus to make restitution for our sins, so too does He require us to lay it all down for Him.

This Lenten season, as we reflect on this great sacrifice of Jesus, may we be convicted and drawn to a deeper sense of sacrifice in our own lives…willing to lay ourselves down for the Lord fully and surrender ourselves to His will. Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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