The Threshing Floor of Costly Grace: Text: 2 Samuel 24:18-25
Introduction: The High Price of Sin
We come now to the end of a terrible episode. King David, in a moment of profound pride and self-reliance, decided to count his fighting men. He wanted a tangible inventory of his strength, a number he could put in a ledger. In doing this, he was trusting in the arm of the flesh and not in the living God who had established his kingdom. And God's displeasure was hot. A choice of judgments was offered, and David, in a moment of wisdom, chose to fall into the hands of a merciful God rather than the hands of men. The result was a devastating plague, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
We must not rush past this. Sin has consequences. Real world, body-count consequences. The modern world, and tragically much of the modern church, wants to treat sin like a therapeutic misstep, a personal failing that requires a bit of self-care and positive affirmation. The Bible treats sin as high treason against the sovereign of the universe, an offense so odious that it unleashes death and destruction into the good world God has made. David's sin was not a private affair. The king is a public, representative figure, and his sin brought national catastrophe. This is the backdrop. A chastened king, a grieving nation, and the angel of death with his sword drawn over Jerusalem. It is in this desperate moment that God provides a remedy. And the nature of that remedy teaches us a fundamental, unalterable truth about the nature of true worship.
This passage is about the place where judgment is halted. It is about the transaction that turns away the wrath of God. And at its very heart, it is about a principle that our cheap, consumeristic, entertainment-driven age despises: that true worship, acceptable worship, is costly worship. It is not a transaction of convenience; it is a transaction of blood, of property, and of self. What happens here on the threshing floor of a Jebusite is a preview, a scale model, of what would one day happen on a skull-shaped hill just outside the city walls.
The Text
So Gad came to David that day and said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." So David went up according to the word of Gad, just as Yahweh had commanded. And Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. Then Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be checked from being upon the people." And Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May Yahweh your God accept you." However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. Then David built there an altar to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus Yahweh was moved by the entreaty for the land, and the plague was checked from being upon Israel.
(2 Samuel 24:18-25 LSB)
A Specific Place for a Specific Grace (v. 18-19)
We begin with the divine command, delivered through the prophet Gad.
"So Gad came to David that day and said to him, 'Go up, erect an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.' So David went up according to the word of Gad, just as Yahweh had commanded." (2 Samuel 24:18-19)
Notice first that God takes the initiative. David is under judgment, and it is God who provides the way out. Grace always comes from God. He does not leave His people to guess at how to appease Him. He gives a clear, specific command. The remedy for sin is not a human invention; it is a divine prescription.
And the prescription is specific. It involves a place: "the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." This is not an arbitrary location. A threshing floor is a place of separation, where the wheat is beaten to separate it from the worthless chaff. It is a place of judgment. But here, God is about to transform this place of judgment into a place of mercy. Furthermore, this very spot, Mount Moriah, is where Abraham was prepared to offer Isaac, and it is the very place where Solomon will later build the Temple (2 Chron. 3:1). God is marking His territory. He is establishing the coordinates on the map where atonement will be made. Our God is a God of history and geography. Salvation is not an abstract idea; it happens in real places, at real times.
David's response is immediate obedience. "So David went up according to the word of Gad." This is the fruit of true repentance. When a man has been humbled by the consequences of his sin, he does not quibble with God's instructions. He simply obeys. The pride that led to the census has been crushed, replaced by a desperate, humble willingness to do exactly as God commands.
The Generous Jebusite (v. 20-23)
When the king arrives, the owner of the property, Araunah, makes an astonishingly generous offer.
"And Araunah looked down and saw the king... and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground... 'Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight... Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.' And Araunah said to the king, 'May Yahweh your God accept you.'" (2 Samuel 24:20-23)
Araunah shows proper respect for the Lord's anointed, bowing before David. When he learns the king's purpose, to build an altar to stop the plague, his response is immediate and total. He offers not just the land, but everything needed for the sacrifice. He offers the oxen for the burnt offering. He even offers his own livelihood, the wooden threshing sledges and yokes, to be the fuel for the fire. This is an all-in offer. He wants to contribute to the solution. He wants to see the plague stopped. He even blesses the king, saying, "May Yahweh your God accept you."
In one sense, this is a beautiful picture of a cheerful giver. Araunah's heart is in the right place. He sees a need and wants to meet it with extravagant generosity. This is commendable. And yet, this is a generosity that David, in the wisdom given to him by God, must refuse. Why? Because the sacrifice Araunah is offering is not his to make. The sin was David's. The responsibility was David's. Therefore, the cost must be David's.
Worship That Costs (v. 24)
Here we come to the central theological anchor of the entire passage. David's refusal is not an insult to Araunah's generosity; it is a profound statement about the nature of atonement.
"However, the king said to Araunah, 'No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing.'" (2 Samuel 24:24)
Memorize this verse. Write it on the back of your checkbook. This is one of the most important principles of worship in all of Scripture. David understands that a sacrifice, by its very definition, must cost the one who is offering it. A gift that costs you nothing is not a sacrifice. It is just a re-gifting of someone else's generosity. David was the sinner. David was the king representing the people. The atonement had to come from his hand, from his possessions. To offer something that belonged to another man would be a charade. It would be a hollow, worthless ritual.
This principle cuts directly across the grain of our entire culture of convenience. We want a God who demands nothing. We want a cross without discipleship, a crown without a cost, and a salvation that is little more than a fire insurance policy that we didn't have to pay for. But that is not Christianity. David knew better. He knew that to approach a holy God on account of grievous sin required a real, tangible, personal cost. So he insists on paying. "So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver." The property is now his. The oxen are his. The sacrifice is now truly his to offer.
The Plague is Stopped (v. 25)
With the principle established and the price paid, the prescribed action is taken, and God responds.
"Then David built there an altar to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus Yahweh was moved by the entreaty for the land, and the plague was checked from being upon Israel." (2 Samuel 24:25)
The altar is built. The sacrifices are offered. And the result is immediate and decisive. God is "moved by the entreaty." The sacrifice is accepted. The wrath is appeased. The plague is stopped. The sword of the destroying angel is returned to its sheath. There is a direct, causal link between the costly, obedient sacrifice and the cessation of judgment. This is how the covenant works. Sin brings a curse. Atoning sacrifice removes the curse and restores blessing.
The story ends here, but the location's story is just beginning. On this very spot, purchased with the king's silver, the great Temple of Solomon would be built. For centuries, this would be the center of Israel's sacrificial system, the place where God's people would bring their offerings, all of which were to cost them something, to atone for their sins. But all of it, every lamb and every bull, was a shadow. It was all pointing to a greater king, a greater sacrifice, and a greater price paid on a nearby hill.
The Ultimate Threshing Floor
This entire event is a magnificent type of the work of Jesus Christ. We, like Israel, are under a plague. It is the plague of sin, and its wage is death (Romans 6:23). We are all dead in our trespasses, and the wrath of God abides on us. And like David, we are utterly incapable of providing a sacrifice that can appease a holy God.
But God, in His mercy, provided the place of atonement. Not Mount Moriah, but Mount Calvary. And He provided a king, His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus, our great David, came to offer a sacrifice to stop the plague of eternal death that was upon us.
And when He came to that place of sacrifice, He refused to accept a worship that cost Him nothing. He was offered a way out. He was offered a kingdom without a cross. He was offered a drugged wine to dull the pain. He was taunted, "Save yourself, and come down from the cross!" But He refused. He knew that atonement required a cost, and He was determined to pay it in full.
But what was the price? David paid fifty shekels of silver. What did Jesus pay? He did not buy the sacrifice with silver or gold. He became the sacrifice. He offered a sacrifice that cost Him not something, but everything. He offered Himself. "He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The full, unmitigated wrath of God against our pride, our lust, our rebellion, was poured out upon Him. He paid the price. He bought the threshing floor, and He bought the sinners who were standing on it.
Because He paid that ultimate price, the plague of eternal death has been checked for all who are in Him. God was moved by the entreaty of His Son, and His wrath was satisfied. Therefore, our worship now is not an attempt to buy our way out of judgment. The price has been paid, once for all. Our worship is the grateful, joyful response of a people who have been purchased. Our tithes, our offerings, our service, our very lives laid down as living sacrifices, are our glad acknowledgment of David's principle. We do not give to God in order to be saved. We give because we have been saved, and we will not offer to our God, who gave His everything for us, a worship which costs us nothing.