"Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price."--_2 Samuel 24:24._
WHEN David was king his people did wrong again; and there came a plague
upon them, so that a great number of them died all through the land of
Israel.
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.