MAKING AMENDS

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In Christ, Mark

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

Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.

While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”

Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”

But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

1 Chronicles 21:18-30

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

I think I can make the following statement with full confidence:

There is going to come a time in life when we are going to do something that is going to upset God.

The reason I can say this with full confidence is because we are all sinners. No one is free from the sin affliction and we all will deal with it until we draw our last breath on earth.

This fact does not bode well for us because we were created by a God who despises sin. Our actions that are contrary to His will and way do not sit well with him because we place our own desires ahead of His.

We saw this point and case in our preceding devotion as David, always known as a man after God’s own heart, chose to follow his heart instead. You’ll remember that David ordered Joab to have a census performed so he would know just how many people were under his rule. The real root of the census, outside of gloating over the vast number of people in the kingdom, was to ascertain how large of a fighting force David had at his disposal. For in the day, power was in numbers. More people meant a bigger army that could win conquests and gain more territory to expand the kingdom. That was the formula.

Well, we know a couple of things about this that were wrong.

First, David never consulted God as to whether conducting a census was in line with His will. If he had, he would have been deterred. Joab tried to be the voice of reason and discourage David from going forward with his plan but David would have none of it.

The second issue with David’s choice resulted in him turning his trust from God to his own resources. Why would you even care how many fighting men you had if you had God on your side? Surely David was aware of how God delivered a mighty Midianite army into the hands of Gideon with a mere 300 men. And even if David had forgotten that part of Israel’s history, didn’t he remember how God had fulfilled His promise to subdue his enemies? There had been many battles won by David and the Israelites with God leading them through each and every one of them.

Friends, I’m afraid we make these same mistakes over and over again. We haven’t learned from David or any countless others in the Bible who either failed to consult God in exchange for following their own will or forgot just how much God had been with them through difficult circumstances and decided to rely on someone or something else instead of Him.

Whether we’re talking about David in this circumstance or ourselves in similar circumstances, there really is only one proper thing we can so when in a place where we have upset God.

We have to make amends.

As we look at the remaining verses of 1 Chronicles, Chapter 21, we find David doing just that. Look again at the scripture:

Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.

While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”

Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”

But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

You’ll remember that God, through the seer Gad, presented David with three consequences for his sinful actions, and demanded that David choose one. David, not wishing to be given into the hands of a human, chose to be in the hands of the Lord and so it was. The Lord sent a plague upon Israel and scripture tells us that 70,000 Israelites lost their lives. God also sent an angel wielding a divine sword to destroy Jerusalem but couldn’t see it through the whole way, ordering the angel to stop before the work was completed. The angel, you’ll recall, was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite when God issued the order.

After this, the angel of the Lord sent a new order to David through Gad:

David was to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah, a place to worship and make amends to God for his sins. It was the only way that the plague would be lifted.

In other words, the plague began with David’s sin and it would end with his full repentance. That’s the only proper way we right the errors of our ways.

And so David went to Araunah to carry out what the Lord had demanded. When he arrived at Araunah’s threshing floor, Araunah, who had hidden with his four sons after seeing the angel of the Lord, came to David and bowed down before him. David told Araunah about his desire to build an altar for the Lord at the location so the plague that was afflicting Israel could end and made it clear he intended on purchasing the property at full price. Now Araunah was willing to not only give David the threshing floor but also the  oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. But David insisted on paying Araunah in full for what he would take saying, “I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

And so David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site and built an altar to the Lord there on which he sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. We read where he called on the Lord and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. David’s sign of repentance had been received. He had made amends with the Lord who in turn ordered His angel to put his sword back into its sheath.

So what can we take away from this word of God today?

1. We all will sin and the Lord will correct us when that happens.

2. The Lord expects us to follow His desires, His will and way, and His purposes. Period. Not ours, not someone else’s. Only His, now and forever.

3. The Lord also expects us to trust Him and Him alone. We are not to rely on our own intellect or wisdom or power. Only His.

4. When we sin, the only way to restore our relationship with God is to repent and make amends with Him.

5. When we genuinely repent and make amends, God will receive that repentance, withdraw his wrath, and continue in His work of leading us toward His righteousness and holiness.

I’m not sure where you are in your walk with the Lord today but if you are living in sin, I would recommend you follow the lead of David, repenting, seeking forgiveness of your sins from God, and in doing so, making amends. He’s ready to receive your apology and ready to issue His pardon.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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