Week of May 10, 2020
Text: 2 Samuel 24:18
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.”
In 2 Samuel Chapter 24 David has gotten himself in a pickle with the Lord. David starts to get a little full of himself with all the success of his army and forgets his success was by God’s hand and not his own. David decides to take a census of the land and commands his Military commander to go and count all the people. His commander warns David against doing this, but David did not listen.
Toward the end of Chapter 24 David realizes that he has sinned against the Lord and repents. A plague spreads throughout the land and over 70,000k people die. David petitions the Lord and buys the threshing floor from Araunah.
There on the threshing floor David makes a sacrifice and atones for his sin by building an altar to the Lord. The lord responds and removes the plague from the land.
The threshing floor in scripture represents suffering and judgement. The threshing floor was used to beat and crush the stalk of wheat to separate the chaff from the grain, to separate the good from the bad. This process is used to depict for us the how the crushing and breaking process of suffering helps to purify our hearts and bring us to the altar of repentance, surrender and turning from sin.
David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
2 Samuel 24:25
The spiritual threshing floor is where those things that are not useful for us or God are separated and removed from our lives. It is symbolic of the relationship we have with Christ our redeemer as he separates us from evil and redeems us for His purposes.
We all have sin in our hearts that does not please God. Just like the threshing of the wheat, the crushing and bruising of trials serves to expose those areas in us that are not pleasing to God. God is a full of mercy and grace. He always responds to His children with love and redemption. Let us build an altar to the Lord with our lives that is a testimony to the world that we belong to God and have surrendered our lives to Him.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:39
XXOO, Nancy May the God of peace guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,