1 Chronicles 21

Intro

Illustration: When thinking of tense moments in history, hardly anything can beat the tension between America and the Soviet Union during the cold war. Especially tense is our memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis, perhaps the climax of tension in the war-that-wasn’t between these two world powers. If you haven’t heard of this altercation, the jist of it is that in October of 1962 the Soviets began to assemble nuclear missiles on the north coast of Cuba- just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. From this location they would easily be able to destroy most of the East Coast of the United States. Obviously the United States didn’t take kindly to this discovery, and within a week they had formed a blockade to prevent anything from entering or leaving Cuba. Further, they threatened military intervention if the Soviets did not immediately remove the missiles from the island. When Soviet ships arrived at the blockade and were prevented entry, the tension grew, and the Soviets even shot down an American recon plane flying over Cuba. In response, the United States assembled the military into an invasion team in Florida and threatened to invade the island, even preparing to bomb the sites of the nuclear missiles. It appeared that the Cold War was heating up, and America definitely had the upper hand in this situation. At a clear disadvantage, the onus was on the Soviets to make peace after they threatened nuclear attacks. It was at this point that negotiations commenced, and The Soviets promised to remove themselves and their missiles from the island if the Americans would agree not to invade.

We are coming into our passage cold, but we are entering an incredibly tense scene. What we are about to do is very much like walking off the street and into a the negotiating room between America and the Soviets. There is tension in the room in our passage; the type of tension that comes from a situation where the stakes are life and death for tens of thousands if not more. Last week, Jeremy preached the first half of this chapter: David has sinned in taking the census and is found guilty in the sight of God. Because of this, 70,000 men of Israel have died. As the angel of the Lord has his sword drawn Over the capital Jerusalem, he pauses, and David asks for peace. As we pick up in our passage, the Angel of the Lord relays a message to Gad, David’s personal prophet. The message tells David to go and prepare an altar at the threshing floor of a man named Ornan.

This passage shows the reality that God must judge sin, and even in our own time the fact remains true; our sin must be judged by God. David is going to attempt to make peace with God, and unless we do the same, we will find ourselves at war with the God who upholds righteousness.

Sin leads to Fear

1 Chronicles 21:18–20 ESV

Now the angel of the Lord had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad’s word, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.

First, we notice that we have four main characters in our passage tonight; David, Ornan (a man doing his work in Jerusalem), Ornan’s children, and the Angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord is an interesting figure in Scripture because he appears to be much more than just an angel. The angel of the Lord is mentioned numerous times throughout Scripture, and he almost always appears as the direct representative of the Lord himself.

the burning bush, Balaam and the donkey, 8

Notice the response of the sons. The Angel of the Lord approaches, and they scatter. Clearly in Israel at this point there is a deep fear of God and the punishment he is bringing. The angel of the Lord is clearly a scary figure in this passage, which normally makes us feel a little weird. In our minds, we normally associate the scary figure with the bad or evil figure; but that isn’t always the case. Different people will appear to be scary based on your own role and perspective.

Illustrate:

This reminds me of the story in the garden, when man first sinned. After Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit, they knew that God was going to bring consequences; he told them exactly what would happen. Their immediate response was to be afraid and to hide from God, and to continue to deflect blame and punishment anywhere but themselves.

You can imagine that the Soviets and Cubans were not comfortable with the idea of an American Invasion force, and the threat of a strong military response was clearly frightening to them.

The Lord is unapproachable and scary here not because he is terrible, but because he is the definition of righteousness and justice entering a sin-filled place

Application:

When we are consumed by our sin, isn’t our reaction the same? We are naturally a sinful people ever since Adam, and our hearts and naturally inclined against God. As a human race, we oppose him. Because we oppose him and sin against him, we know that we deserve judgement. Because we know that we deserve judgement, we attempt to hide from him.

If we have been in a dry spell, if we have become hardened towards God, If we have been soaking in our sin, don’t we make every attempt to avoid him? We close our Bibles, we avoid the church, we ignore phone calls of people checking in on us, and we go days, Weeks or months without praying. We hide from God, hoping to avoid the punishment we know is associated with sin. But we know that there is no hiding from God. Our sin will be dealt with - its just a matter of when and how.

If we are consumed by our sin and spend our time soaking in it, it is entirely natural to be terrified of the righteous God who punishes wickedness. Our reality is that we are a sinful people, and God is a just judge. People who are in sin should be no more comforted by God approaching than the Soviets were when they saw the American invasion force preparing. This is the reaction of Ornan’s sons as the angel of the Lord enters, sword still drawn.

Knowing that this is our reality, wouldn’t we take any opportunity we could get to make amends with God and restore our relationship? This is what is offered to David, and this is how he moves forward.

David enters and Ornan pays homage

1 Chronicles 21:21 ESV

As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and paid homage to David with his face to the ground.

Why Is the response so different? Isn’t David kind of the reason that everyone is in this mess in the first place? Shouldn’t he have just listened to Joab when he told him not to take the census? It’s important that we recognize something here that the Chronicler is doing as he writes this story; David is taking on a different role in the story. Initially he is the one who brought destruction into Israel, but in the second half of the story he is depicted as the one who is going to make amends. So why the respect? Why is Ornan bowing down to him? Two reasons:

One, it is because who David is. David is his king, and Ornan is showing appropriate respect for his king.

Two, It is because of what David has come to do. David has come in obedience to the word of the Lord to build an altar and offer sacrifices to atone for the sin that has caused so much pain and death.

David was coming as the representative of the people to make peace with God through offerings, and so Ornan bows down to the one who can make everything right again.

And the way that David is instructed to make everything right is through sacrifice. Continuing our illustration, its as if the Soviet Leaders were facing sure defeat, but were offered the option to restore the relationship and prevent disaster.

David’s offering accepted

David erects the altar and offers burnt offerings and peace offerings.

Notice where David gets the offering from

1 Chronicles 21:22–26 ESV

And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.

David is going to be sacrificing using Ornan’s land, wood and animals. More than that, Ornan even offers to eat the cost of the sacrifice himself. Ornan is willing to give everything to his king, placing his full trust in him. His livelihood, his property, his resources, all of it is offered to his king.

But David knows better than to accept the offer. David knows that sin is costly, and it cannot disappear without paying for it. David is offered a path forward that would allow him to go through the proper motions in his sacrifice, but it could hardly be called a sacrifice if it cost him nothing. In fact, there were many occasions throughout Israel’s history where worshipers were reprimanded for bringing their sick animals for offering instead of healthy ones, because they were trying to mitigate the cost to themselves; not so for David. He knew that to pay for this sin, it was going to cost him something; so David pays Ornan willingly for all of his resources.

But there is still a lot of tension In the room still as David continues to prepare his offering to the Lord for many reasons. For one, the we are reminded of how high the stakes are; 70,000 are dead and the angel of the Lord is standing by, sword still in hand.

Beyond that, the setting is incredibly strange. At this point, God has given his people a place where they are supposed to offer sacrifices, and it certainly isn’t this place. The tabernacle of Moses was still in Gibeon, and that is where all of the sacrifices were supposed to happen. Here we are in Jerusalem on some man’s threshing floor in the middle of his work day.

Even more than that, David is not supposed to normally be the one offering sacrifices. There are Levites set aside for this type of work, and according to the law they are the ones who offer the sacrifices.

But David continues with the directive from the angel of the Lord and prepares his sacrifice with the utmost care, hoping that it is acceptable to the Lord and able to avert the punishment.

With the angel in the room, sword still drawn, children perhaps peeking out from their hiding places, everyone waits for the Lord’s response with baited breath.

David finishes his preparations, and he offers his sacrifice to God.

And as David offers up his offering to God, intense fire rains down and consumes the sacrifice; affirming that the Lord has accepted the sacrifice.

In a beautiful moment of reconciliation, The angel of the Lord sheathes his sword, and you can feel the air come rushing back into the room. I am sure that David and Ornan have never felt more relieved, and the children come rushing out of their hiding places as they can once again experience peace with God.

Israel will enjoy this and celebrate their renewed relationship with the Lord, but this is far from the last time they will experience something like this. In reality, what we are reading is more like a band-aid on the wounds of Israel than a permanent fix. Sacrificing Oxen and wheat may have been helpful for a time, but they were never meant to be a permanent fix for the sin of God’s people. In fact, a time is coming when God will announce to his people that he no longer takes delight in burnt offerings.

APPLY: So what does that mean for us? We don’t get to offer up oxen or wheat anymore to pay for our sins, but we still live as a guilty people that deserve judgement. What path forward do we have in order to experience peace with a righteous, just God? We are living in a different time and with different circumstances, but sin still needs payment If we will ever see peace with God. But really, our situation isn’t all that different from David’s, because even in the Old Testament there were inklings that the sacrificial system was only a shadow of something much better.

Isaiah set forth the prophetic vision of how all people, you and me included, will enter into a peace with God that will never fade. Isaiah says of the coming Messiah:

Isaiah 53:4–5 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Only Jesus can pay for our sins in a permanent way, and only Jesus can offer something that is truly pleasing to the Lord.

David offered up oxen as a band-aid to cover the sins of Israel, but King Jesus offered up his own life to save us from our sin once and for all! The tension that we feel with God as people is broken in our own lives and we fear the punishment of God no longer. The wrath of God was poured out on Jesus and his sword has been sheathed forever

Romans 8:1–4 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Jesus has taken the criminals, the enemies of righteousness and those who have rebelled against God; and he has called them righteous. Not only has he called them that, but he has made them righteous! If our faith is in Christ, we have confidence to stand before God because we are not his enemies, we are his children.

This should drive us to want to live differently. It did for David

Proper Offerings Lead To Peace

After the showing of grace on this threshing floor, David makes a big decision that will shape the way that the people of God worship God for many years to come.

1 Chronicles 22:1 ESV

Then David said, “Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

Out of recognition of God’s saving grace for his people at this spot, David moves the place of worship from Gibeon to Jerusalem. This very site will be the place that Solomon will build the temple, this will be the site that the Levites will offer up sacrifices to God for generations to come, and this is the site that the original audience of Chronicles is heading back to rebuild. This decision from David is evidence of repentance and a life devoted to the worship of God out of a recognition of his grace.

The criminal, after receiving grace and salvation, leads a reformed life.

What does a reformed life look like for you and me? We don’t have a temple to sacrifice at, it was destroyed thousands of years ago. The Jews to this day are still waiting to rebuild it so they can finally offer sacrifices again, is that what we’re waiting for?

No, the redeemed life for the Christian is different now.

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

We don’t need a temple anymore in order to worship God. We worship God at home, at work, at church, at the grocery store, and everywhere else that we go because our whole lives are given to God in response to his grace.

Remember that David was careful not to offer a sacrifice that cost him nothing; you also need to be careful that you don’t have a faith that costs you nothing. Jesus paid so that we can have peace with God, and that is something we could never do, but Scripture is clear that being his disciples is costly. In fact, there are many places that Jesus unapologetically asked for his disciples to give everything for him.

Count the cost, leave mother and father, pick up your cross and follow me

James said faith without works is dead

the Christian faith is not something that just gives you a ticket to Heaven and then demands nothing of you. In fact, the Christian faith demands everything of you. All that you have, all that you are, it’s all to be given to the Lord not to earn peace, but our of gratitude for the peace that has been earned for you.

Jesus doesn’t just make peace and then drop us back into our sin-filled lives, he sends his Spirit to transform our hearts and desires, that we might love God and his law.

Charles Spurgeon once viewed love as a flower that is exotic to human beings- it cannot be found in us unless God plant it there, and it cannot continue to thrive in human soil unless God waters it.

Romans 8:11 ESV

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Just as we need to rely on Jesus if we want peace with God, we also need to rely on His Holy Spirit if we want to live changed lives.

Jesus has offered the ultimate sacrifice, and the sword of God has been sheathed forever against those who believe in Jesus. It is only through the blood of Jesus that we now experience peace with God. Lean on Jesus alone, and offer up everything you have to the one who has made peace between you and God.