David and his priests, and all the good men, fasted and prayed, and entreated that God would turn His anger away. And while they were praying, David saw the Destroying Angel standing with his drawn sword over Jerusalem; but the plague had not begun there. Then David prayed the more; and God made known to him that he must offer up a sacrifice on the threshing-floor of Ornan, just by Jerusalem, and then the plague should be stopped.
A threshing-floor was a flat rocky place on the top of a hill, where the sheaves of corn were laid out, and oxen drew boards, with the under side covered with spikes, to knock the grain out of the ears. Oman's threshing-floor was upon Mount Moriah, where Isaac had been so nearly sacrificed. He was threshing wheat on it when David came and desired to buy it for the sacrifice.
Ornan was a good man, and said he would give the whole place to the king. But David said, "I will not offer unto my God of that which doth cost me nothing." So he bought the place of Ornan, the oxen, and the threshing tools; and the sacrifice was made to show that death must be for sin. Then God pardoned Israel, and the plague was stopped. We should remember that our offerings to God are only worthy if they cost us something. He does not want the things themselves, but He does value the love that gives them.
The King said...
I dwell in a house of cedar
But the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.
QUESTIONS.