Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 1 Chronicles 21:15-30 - The Destroying Angel
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: How do you face? For listeners, Welcome to the Bible
- 0:02Speaker 1: Explain Podcast, where we are in First Chronicles twenty one
- 0:05Speaker 1: today and we're going to be talking about the plague
- 0:08Speaker 1: that God sends on Israel, almost making it to Jerusalem,
- 0:13Speaker 1: but then God relents in his anger when he sees
- 0:16Speaker 1: the city. We're also going to see how David responds
- 0:19Speaker 1: to this plague and also this angel that he sees
- 0:22Speaker 1: with his sword about to destroy Jerusalem. We'll get into
- 0:26Speaker 1: all of that in just a minute. So guess what.
- 0:36Speaker 1: I finished episode two of the podcast. You guys remember
- 0:42Speaker 1: a couple months ago I told you that I was
- 0:43Speaker 1: going to go back and redo my first seventy episodes. Well,
- 0:47Speaker 1: I finished episode one about a month ago, and I
- 0:50Speaker 1: just finished episode two a couple days ago. I have
- 0:54Speaker 1: it linked in the description, So once you're finished with
- 0:57Speaker 1: this episode, go check out episode two of the Bible
- 1:01Speaker 1: Explained podcast. And it is a fun topic. We are
- 1:04Speaker 1: talking about how God created the firmament, what Scripture says
- 1:08Speaker 1: about the firmament, and also what some people think the
- 1:11Speaker 1: firmament is. So I'd love for you guys to go
- 1:14Speaker 1: check that episode out linked in description. But in the meantime,
- 1:18Speaker 1: grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea
- 1:20Speaker 1: this morning, and let's go ahead and read first Chronicles
- 1:22Speaker 1: twenty one fifteen through thirty together. I will, as always
- 1:27Speaker 1: be reading from the web. God sent an angel to
- 1:31Speaker 1: Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy,
- 1:35Speaker 1: Yahways saw and he relented of the disaster and said
- 1:38Speaker 1: to the destroying angel, it is enough, now withdraw your hand.
- 1:43Speaker 1: Yahway's angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan.
- 1:46Speaker 1: The Jebusite David lifted up his eyes and saw Yaway's
- 1:49Speaker 1: angel standing between earth and sky, having a drawn sword
- 1:53Speaker 1: in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and
- 1:56Speaker 1: the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. David
- 2:00Speaker 1: said to God, isn't it I who commanded the people
- 2:03Speaker 1: to be counted? It is even I who have sinned
- 2:06Speaker 1: and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done?
- 2:09Speaker 1: Please let your hand, oh Yahweh, my God, be against
- 2:11Speaker 1: me and against my father's house, but not against your people,
- 2:15Speaker 1: that they should be plagued. Then Yahwey's angel commanded Goad
- 2:18Speaker 1: to tell David that David should go up and raise
- 2:21Speaker 1: an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan,
- 2:23Speaker 1: the Jebusite. David went up at the saying of God,
- 2:27Speaker 1: which he spoke in Yahweh's name. Ornan turned back and
- 2:30Speaker 1: saw the angel, and his four sons, who were with him,
- 2:33Speaker 1: hid themselves. Now, Ornan was threshing wheat as David came
- 2:37Speaker 1: to Ornan. Ornan looked and saw David, and went out
- 2:40Speaker 1: of the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with
- 2:43Speaker 1: his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan,
- 2:46Speaker 1: sell me the place of this threshing floor, that I
- 2:48Speaker 1: may build an altar to Yahweh on it. You shall
- 2:50Speaker 1: sell it to me for the full price, that the
- 2:52Speaker 1: plague may be stopped from afflicting the people. Ornan said
- 2:56Speaker 1: to David, take it for yourself, and let my lord
- 2:58Speaker 1: the King do that which is good in his eyes. Behold,
- 3:00Speaker 1: I give the oxen for the burnt offerings, and the
- 3:03Speaker 1: threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering.
- 3:06Speaker 1: I give it all. King David said to Ornan, No,
- 3:09Speaker 1: but I most certainly will buy it for the full price,
- 3:12Speaker 1: For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh,
- 3:15Speaker 1: nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing, So
- 3:18Speaker 1: David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by
- 3:20Speaker 1: weight for the place. David built an altar to Yahweh
- 3:24Speaker 1: there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called
- 3:27Speaker 1: on Yahweh, and he answered him from the sky by
- 3:30Speaker 1: fire on the altar of the burnt offering. Then Yahweh
- 3:33Speaker 1: commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into
- 3:36Speaker 1: its sheath. At that time, when David saw that Yahweh
- 3:39Speaker 1: had answered him in the threshing floor of Orn and
- 3:41Speaker 1: the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there for Yahway's tabernacle, which
- 3:45Speaker 1: Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt
- 3:48Speaker 1: offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon,
- 3:51Speaker 1: but David couldn't go before it to inquire of God,
- 3:53Speaker 1: for he was afraid because of the sword of Yahweh's angel.
- 3:58Speaker 1: At the beginning of this chapter, can see that there
- 4:00Speaker 1: are some serious problems happening in Israel, namely that God
- 4:05Speaker 1: is angry with Israel because they committed some sort of sin.
- 4:09Speaker 1: And we don't know what that sin was, but most
- 4:11Speaker 1: likely it was probably idolatry because Israel was always falling
- 4:16Speaker 1: into idolatry, or it could have been just rebellion, because
- 4:21Speaker 1: the Israelites at this time were constantly rebelling against David
- 4:26Speaker 1: and against any leader that God put in place, from
- 4:29Speaker 1: Moses all the way back into the wilderness to David.
- 4:32Speaker 1: The Israelites were never satisfied with their leader, specifically if
- 4:37Speaker 1: their leader was a Yahweh follower. So Israel was having
- 4:41Speaker 1: some serious problems and God was angry at them, but
- 4:44Speaker 1: we don't know exactly why God was angry here. But
- 4:47Speaker 1: God was also angry at David because David committed a sin.
- 4:52Speaker 1: He went and had his people counted, And once again
- 4:56Speaker 1: we don't actually know why that was a sin, whether
- 4:59Speaker 1: it was a p whether it was a fear issue,
- 5:02Speaker 1: or whether David was looking to maybe go off to
- 5:07Speaker 1: a war that was not necessary. We have no clue
- 5:10Speaker 1: what was going through David's mind when he counted the people.
- 5:13Speaker 1: But it was a sin, and the reason it was
- 5:16Speaker 1: a sin was because it says at the very beginning
- 5:18Speaker 1: that Satan tempted David to do this, and whenever Satan
- 5:22Speaker 1: tempts us to do something, we can be one hundred
- 5:24Speaker 1: percent certain that that thing is a sin. David sinned.
- 5:28Speaker 1: Even Ab, David's morally gray commander, knew that this was
- 5:35Speaker 1: a sin and tried to convince David not to do it,
- 5:39Speaker 1: but David was not convinced, not until Joe Ab was
- 5:42Speaker 1: almost finished counting the people. Then David realized, oh, man,
- 5:45Speaker 1: I committed a really bad sin against God. So David
- 5:48Speaker 1: falls down on his knees and he apologizes to God.
- 5:52Speaker 1: So God sends a messenger to David, a prophet, and
- 5:56Speaker 1: tells David, Okay, I'm going to punish you, but you
- 5:59Speaker 1: can to choose what kind of punishment it is. And
- 6:03Speaker 1: they were all equally bad choices. So David's like, all right, God,
- 6:07Speaker 1: I will just leave this up to you. You choose
- 6:10Speaker 1: whichever one. So God chooses three days of the pestilence.
- 6:14Speaker 1: That was one of the choices he gave David. So
- 6:17Speaker 1: this pestilence strikes Israel, and it says in verse fourteen
- 6:22Speaker 1: that seventy thousand men of Israel fell, And we don't
- 6:26Speaker 1: know if that is the general population or if those
- 6:29Speaker 1: were men in David's army that fell from this plague.
- 6:33Speaker 1: We do not know. But this was really bad. This
- 6:36Speaker 1: was a very scary disease that hit Israel because of
- 6:41Speaker 1: that amount of people dying in such a short period
- 6:43Speaker 1: of time, But it did not hit or affect Jerusalem yet.
- 6:48Speaker 1: In fact, it says in verse fifteen, God sent an
- 6:51Speaker 1: angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was
- 6:54Speaker 1: about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the
- 7:00Speaker 1: disaster and said to the destroying angel, it is enough,
- 7:04Speaker 1: Now withdraw your hand. Notice the verbiage there. God is
- 7:11Speaker 1: about to destroy Jerusalem, most likely with this plague. But
- 7:16Speaker 1: Yahweh saw, he saw Jerusalem, and he withdraws his hand.
- 7:25Speaker 1: In other words, God had compassion on his people. Jerusalem
- 7:30Speaker 1: was a big city. This was the capital city of Israel,
- 7:34Speaker 1: and God saw it. This reminds me actually of another
- 7:38Speaker 1: passage where God relents in his punishment of people. Jonah,
- 7:45Speaker 1: Chapter four, verse eleven. This is where Jonah is like
- 7:50Speaker 1: really upset because Jonah the prophet, hates the Ninavites and
- 7:55Speaker 1: he was hoping that God would destroy the Ninavites. But
- 7:58Speaker 1: God says this to Jonah in verse eleven, shouldn't I
- 8:02Speaker 1: be concerned for Nineveh, that great city in which there
- 8:06Speaker 1: are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who
- 8:10Speaker 1: can't discern between their right hand and their left hand,
- 8:13Speaker 1: and also many animals. And that's literally the last verse
- 8:18Speaker 1: of the Book of Jonah, meaning we are supposed to
- 8:22Speaker 1: reflect on that verse and what God was saying to Jonah. Here,
- 8:27Speaker 1: how God is merciful and he wants us also to
- 8:31Speaker 1: have mercy for our enemies, for people that we do
- 8:35Speaker 1: not like. The people of Israel and the people of
- 8:38Speaker 1: Nineveh were enemies of God. And yet God looked at
- 8:42Speaker 1: those cities, he saw them, and he relented of the
- 8:46Speaker 1: disaster he was going to spread there. So God tells
- 8:51Speaker 1: the destroying Angel, going back to our passage for today,
- 8:54Speaker 1: it is enough now withdraw your hand, But the angel
- 8:58Speaker 1: is still there. God didn't bring the angel back up
- 9:01Speaker 1: into heaven. It says Yahwe's angel was standing by the
- 9:04Speaker 1: threshing floor of this man named Ornan, the Jebusite. Now,
- 9:08Speaker 1: if you read this same story in Tewod Samuel twenty four,
- 9:12Speaker 1: you'll notice that his name is not Ornan, but it's
- 9:15Speaker 1: actually our Arauna Arauna, and most likely it's just a
- 9:24Speaker 1: variant spelling of the name Ornan, or it could be
- 9:28Speaker 1: two different languages. That was something very common actually in
- 9:31Speaker 1: these days, was people had two names. One was the
- 9:35Speaker 1: spelling in Hebrew and one was the spelling in a
- 9:37Speaker 1: different language. That was you know, nearby, So Ornan and
- 9:42Speaker 1: Uruana was the same person. This angel is standing nearby
- 9:47Speaker 1: Ornan's threshing floor. And this angel apparently was big, I
- 9:52Speaker 1: would imagine, because David was able to see him. And man,
- 9:57Speaker 1: if you think about this, like, that's a sca thought, right.
- 10:01Speaker 1: The angel is standing between the earth and the sky,
- 10:04Speaker 1: so he was floating in the air and his hand,
- 10:08Speaker 1: his arm was outstretched and he was pointing his sword
- 10:13Speaker 1: toward the direction of Jerusalem. So it sounds to me
- 10:17Speaker 1: like this angel was relatively massive, large enough that David
- 10:22Speaker 1: could see him from a distance away. Can you imagine
- 10:27Speaker 1: seeing an angel of God, a destroying angel who probably
- 10:32Speaker 1: looks terrifying to begin with, having a sword outstretched towards
- 10:37Speaker 1: your home. Oh my gosh, that would be horrifying. Which
- 10:43Speaker 1: is why David and the elders already clothed in sackcloth,
- 10:47Speaker 1: because they are mourning over this plague that has hit Israel.
- 10:51Speaker 1: They fall on their faces and David is in utter terror.
- 10:57Speaker 1: David says to God, isn't it I who commanded the
- 11:00Speaker 1: people to be counted. It is even I who have
- 11:03Speaker 1: sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have
- 11:06Speaker 1: they done? Please let your hand oh yahweh, my God
- 11:10Speaker 1: be against me and against my father's house, but not
- 11:14Speaker 1: against your people, that they should be plagued. So David's like,
- 11:19Speaker 1: I sacrifice myself. God, don't let my people be plugged
- 11:24Speaker 1: with this sickness anymore. Just send it on me, send
- 11:27Speaker 1: it on my whole family for that matter, But don't
- 11:29Speaker 1: touch your people, Oh God. This reminds me of a
- 11:33Speaker 1: similar story where Moses was in the wilderness. Moses goes
- 11:39Speaker 1: up to meet God and he's up there for forty days,
- 11:41Speaker 1: like on this mountaintop. The people down at the bottom
- 11:45Speaker 1: of the mountain are getting really impatient waiting for Moses.
- 11:49Speaker 1: So they're like, you know what, we're sick of this
- 11:51Speaker 1: Moses guy. Anyway, we'll just make our own gods and
- 11:54Speaker 1: say that these gods were the ones that actually brought
- 11:56Speaker 1: us out of Egypt. So the people, you know, this
- 12:00Speaker 1: little calf idol, and they are worshiping it and dancing
- 12:04Speaker 1: around it and having orgies and doing all sorts of
- 12:07Speaker 1: crazy stuff. God tells Moses while Moses is still up
- 12:12Speaker 1: on the mountain. He's like, Moses, get back down to
- 12:14Speaker 1: your people, because they are flying off the rails right now,
- 12:17Speaker 1: and I am going to completely destroy them if you
- 12:20Speaker 1: don't get off this mountain and go down there. And
- 12:23Speaker 1: Moses is like, please, God, send your punishment on me,
- 12:28Speaker 1: not on these people. And God relents of the destruction
- 12:32Speaker 1: he's going to do to his people when he hears
- 12:34Speaker 1: Moses's prayer. But in the case of David, you know,
- 12:39Speaker 1: God had already relented. But I think he was trying
- 12:43Speaker 1: to teach David a lesson. And I believe also God
- 12:48Speaker 1: did want David to sacrifice some burnt offerings to him
- 12:53Speaker 1: because the offerings were what took the guilt away from Israel.
- 12:59Speaker 1: As we know, back in these days, sacrifices were still
- 13:02Speaker 1: necessary and Jesus did away with all of that when
- 13:04Speaker 1: he came to Earth, but the Israelites, in order to
- 13:07Speaker 1: atone for their sins, they needed to offer sacrifices. So
- 13:12Speaker 1: I think God did want David to offer those sacrifices
- 13:16Speaker 1: to atone for the sins that Israel had committed and
- 13:20Speaker 1: to teach David a lesson as well, that lesson being
- 13:23Speaker 1: that God is sovereign and that God is not going
- 13:27Speaker 1: to wink at sin no matter who commits that sin.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Even though David knew that he was a blessed king,
- 13:35Speaker 1: God does not ever wink at sin. Not to mention,
- 13:39Speaker 1: God wanted David to purchase this orn in guy's threshing floor.
- 13:45Speaker 1: And here's why. After David says this beautiful prayer to God,
- 13:49Speaker 1: it says that Yahweh's angel commanded God the prophet to
- 13:53Speaker 1: tell David that he should go up and raise an
- 13:56Speaker 1: altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.
- 14:00Speaker 1: David went to the place at the saying of God,
- 14:03Speaker 1: which he spoke in Yahweh's name. So Ornan is up there,
- 14:07Speaker 1: actually on his threshing floor. Now, a threshing floor would
- 14:11Speaker 1: be where the chaff from the wheat would be blown away,
- 14:17Speaker 1: and that was best done on a windy location, like
- 14:20Speaker 1: at a top of a hill. So Ornan's threshing floor
- 14:23Speaker 1: was at the top of this hill, and this hill
- 14:27Speaker 1: was called Mount Mariah. So Ornan is actually up there.
- 14:31Speaker 1: He's working away. He was working with his sons. But
- 14:35Speaker 1: when they see the angel, it says that his sons
- 14:39Speaker 1: went and hid themselves. They were terrified. Now, I don't
- 14:42Speaker 1: know how many people were able to see this angel.
- 14:45Speaker 1: This could be God allowing certain individuals like David and
- 14:49Speaker 1: Ornan and Ornan's sons to see it. My guess is
- 14:53Speaker 1: that not everybody in Jerusalem could see this angel, only
- 14:56Speaker 1: the people that needed to see him, like David and Ornan.
- 15:01Speaker 1: Now here's what's really funny. Looking at verse twenty, I
- 15:05Speaker 1: don't know if Ornan was scared of this angel, because
- 15:11Speaker 1: it kind of implies that Ornan, after seeing the angel,
- 15:14Speaker 1: continues to thresh his wheat. Now I might be wrong
- 15:19Speaker 1: about that. That might not be what scripture is implying.
- 15:23Speaker 1: It could be that Ornan was already threshing wheat, sees
- 15:27Speaker 1: the angel, and then stops because he's scared. And then
- 15:31Speaker 1: David immediately after that kind of comes up the hill
- 15:34Speaker 1: and so Ornan goes out to meet him. I don't know,
- 15:37Speaker 1: but it does say that Ornan was threshing wheat while
- 15:40Speaker 1: all of this was taking place. It kind of cracks
- 15:43Speaker 1: me up. I don't know. So it says as David
- 15:46Speaker 1: came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went
- 15:49Speaker 1: out of the threshing floor. And bowed himself to David
- 15:51Speaker 1: with his face to the ground. David says to Ornan,
- 15:55Speaker 1: sell me the place of this threshing floor, that I
- 15:58Speaker 1: may build an altartiahwe on it. You shall sell it
- 16:01Speaker 1: to me for the full price, that the plague may
- 16:03Speaker 1: be stopped from afflicting the people. Ornan says to David,
- 16:07Speaker 1: take it for yourself, and let my lord the King
- 16:09Speaker 1: do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I
- 16:12Speaker 1: give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments
- 16:15Speaker 1: for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I
- 16:17Speaker 1: give it all. So Ornan's like, no, no, no, David,
- 16:21Speaker 1: you said you want to buy the threshing floor at
- 16:22Speaker 1: full price. I'm just gonna give it to you. In fact,
- 16:25Speaker 1: I'm going to give you everything you need to do
- 16:28Speaker 1: this burnt offering. I will give you the oxen needed
- 16:31Speaker 1: for it. I will even give you all my threshing instruments,
- 16:34Speaker 1: which are made of wood so that you can start
- 16:37Speaker 1: the fire, and the grain for the meal offering. I
- 16:40Speaker 1: am going to give all of it to you. And
- 16:42Speaker 1: David is like, no, I am most certainly going to
- 16:46Speaker 1: buy it for the full price. I will not take
- 16:50Speaker 1: that which is yours for Yahweh. Nor offer a burnt
- 16:53Speaker 1: offering that costs me nothing. So David says absolutely not.
- 16:58Speaker 1: I know that offering are supposed to cost something, and
- 17:01Speaker 1: that is talked about in Leviticus chapter one. If you
- 17:04Speaker 1: look at the burnt offerings, they were supposed to kind
- 17:08Speaker 1: of hurt a little bit. They were supposed to cost
- 17:10Speaker 1: the person something. Leviticus one, verse three. Here's what this says.
- 17:15Speaker 1: If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd,
- 17:18Speaker 1: he shall offer a male without defect. He shall offer
- 17:21Speaker 1: it at the door of the tene meeting that he
- 17:23Speaker 1: may be accepted before Yahweh. And then jumping down to
- 17:26Speaker 1: the end of verse nine of Leviticus one, it says
- 17:29Speaker 1: the priest shall burn all of it on the altar
- 17:32Speaker 1: for a burnt offering and offering made by fire of
- 17:34Speaker 1: a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. Bringing a burnt offering to
- 17:40Speaker 1: God was not cheap because the animal was supposed to
- 17:44Speaker 1: be absolutely perfect without defect. You can imagine that if
- 17:49Speaker 1: somebody had an animal that perfect, they could sell it
- 17:53Speaker 1: for a really high price back in these days. But
- 17:56Speaker 1: no God required it to be a perfect sack that
- 18:01Speaker 1: was what was necessary in order to atone for sins
- 18:04Speaker 1: a perfect sacrifice, and that would cost the individual something
- 18:10Speaker 1: because that animal would have fetched them a very good
- 18:13Speaker 1: price at the market. But no, you were to give
- 18:15Speaker 1: it to Yahweh completely. So David understands this, and he
- 18:20Speaker 1: says to Ornan, I am not going to take your stuff.
- 18:24Speaker 1: I am not going to have everything given to me
- 18:26Speaker 1: for free so that I can offer it all to God.
- 18:30Speaker 1: So he gives Ornan. It says six hundred shekels of
- 18:33Speaker 1: gold by weight for the place. Now some people might
- 18:36Speaker 1: look at that price and say that doesn't line up
- 18:41Speaker 1: with what Second Samuel twenty four says with their telling
- 18:45Speaker 1: of this same story. If you turn to Second Samuel
- 18:48Speaker 1: twenty four and read verse twenty four, it says the
- 18:52Speaker 1: king said to Arnua or Ornan, no, but I will
- 18:56Speaker 1: most certainly buy it from you for a price. I
- 18:59Speaker 1: will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh, my God, which
- 19:02Speaker 1: cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and
- 19:05Speaker 1: the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. Now, fifty shekels
- 19:10Speaker 1: of silver is very different from what was it, six
- 19:15Speaker 1: hundred shekels of gold? So how do you rectify those
- 19:19Speaker 1: two things. Well, actually, there's a very simplistic explanation for this.
- 19:25Speaker 1: David was purchasing something different in First Chronicles twenty one,
- 19:29Speaker 1: then tewod Samuel twenty four. In Second Samuel twenty four,
- 19:33Speaker 1: David was only purchasing the threshing floor itself and also
- 19:38Speaker 1: the oxen for this burnt offering for fifty shekels of silver,
- 19:43Speaker 1: which would equal about one point one pounds of silver
- 19:47Speaker 1: or about fifteen hundred dollars in today's money. He only
- 19:51Speaker 1: purchased the oxen and the threshing floor. But in our
- 19:54Speaker 1: passage for today, David it says, purchased the entire place.
- 20:01Speaker 1: He paid six hundred shekels of gold by weight for
- 20:04Speaker 1: the place. In other words, he bought the entire mount
- 20:08Speaker 1: Mount Mariah, which was six hundred shekels of silver, which
- 20:13Speaker 1: weighed approximately let's see here thirteen pounds of gold, which
- 20:18Speaker 1: I believe in today's money would have been about half
- 20:22Speaker 1: a million dollars approximately. You know, I don't really know
- 20:26Speaker 1: if they know the exact calculations of today's money, but
- 20:29Speaker 1: that's the estimation anyway. So David purchased the entire mount
- 20:34Speaker 1: for about a half a million dollars. We find out
- 20:38Speaker 1: that this same mount, Mount Mariah, ends up becoming the
- 20:41Speaker 1: place where Solomon builds the temple. A threshing floor was
- 20:46Speaker 1: relatively small, the temple was much much bigger than the
- 20:51Speaker 1: threshing floor would have been, which means that David would
- 20:54Speaker 1: have had to buy the entire mount that the temple
- 20:59Speaker 1: would some be built on. We know that David bought
- 21:03Speaker 1: it in fact, because if he turned to just the
- 21:06Speaker 1: next chapter, First Chronicles twenty two, David is talking about
- 21:09Speaker 1: Mount Mariah. In verse one, he says, this is the
- 21:13Speaker 1: house of Yahweh God, and this is the altar of
- 21:15Speaker 1: burnt offering for Israel. So he's saying, this place right here,
- 21:20Speaker 1: this entire mount, is where the temple is going to
- 21:23Speaker 1: be built. So that is why you see the two
- 21:26Speaker 1: different prices in the account of First Chronicles twenty one
- 21:31Speaker 1: and Second Samuel twenty four. So David purchases this entire place,
- 21:37Speaker 1: and it says that David built an altar to Yahweh
- 21:39Speaker 1: there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Now I'd
- 21:43Speaker 1: imagine that this altar went up very quickly. As we know,
- 21:47Speaker 1: altars were not supposed to be beautiful. They weren't supposed
- 21:50Speaker 1: to be cut stones. They were just supposed to be
- 21:52Speaker 1: like rocks stacked on top of each other pretty much,
- 21:56Speaker 1: and they were kind of janki and God purposely told
- 22:00Speaker 1: his people to build them like that so that people
- 22:03Speaker 1: wouldn't worship the altar itself, you know, because people have
- 22:07Speaker 1: a tendency to worship images, and God did not want
- 22:11Speaker 1: that to happen. So the altars were always kind of janky,
- 22:15Speaker 1: at least they were supposed to be. So David quickly
- 22:18Speaker 1: builds this altar to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and
- 22:22Speaker 1: peace offerings on the altar and called on Yahweh, and
- 22:26Speaker 1: God answered him from the sky by fire on the
- 22:29Speaker 1: altar of the burnt offering. So God actually sent fire
- 22:32Speaker 1: down onto this altar to show David that he heard
- 22:36Speaker 1: his prayer. And right after this, Yahweh commanded the angel,
- 22:40Speaker 1: and the angel put his sword back into its sheath.
- 22:45Speaker 1: So now the angel is no longer pointing his scary
- 22:48Speaker 1: sword at Jerusalem, but the sword is back in the sheath.
- 22:53Speaker 1: And I'm sure that David saw all of that happen.
- 22:55Speaker 1: He saw the fire coming down from heaven, and he
- 22:59Speaker 1: also saw the angel put the sword away. David realizes
- 23:03Speaker 1: that God had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan,
- 23:06Speaker 1: the Jebusite, so he sacrificed there, So that could be
- 23:10Speaker 1: that David offered a personal sacrifice for himself. At the beginning,
- 23:14Speaker 1: he was offering sacrifices for Israel, for the sins of Israel,
- 23:19Speaker 1: and now he offers one for himself. And ordinarily a
- 23:23Speaker 1: sacrifice done for oneself was supposed to be taken to
- 23:27Speaker 1: the Tabernacle of God, and that was what God said,
- 23:31Speaker 1: but David didn't do that. It qualifies that here it
- 23:33Speaker 1: says for Yahwei's tabernacle, which Moses made in the wilderness,
- 23:37Speaker 1: and the altar of burnt offering were at that time
- 23:40Speaker 1: in the high place at Gibea or Gibeon. Sorry, but
- 23:44Speaker 1: David couldn't go before it to inquire of God because
- 23:47Speaker 1: he was afraid of the sword of Yahweh's angel. So
- 23:51Speaker 1: it sounds to me like David was kind of petrified
- 23:54Speaker 1: with fear and just wanted to get these offerings done
- 23:58Speaker 1: very quickly. Since God had in a sense anointed that place,
- 24:03Speaker 1: this threshing floor of Ornan, that David thought it was
- 24:06Speaker 1: acceptable to just offer his offering right here before God.
- 24:11Speaker 1: And honestly, in a normal situation, David would have been
- 24:15Speaker 1: wrong to not go to the tabernacle in Gibeon. But
- 24:19Speaker 1: I don't think in this situation he was doing anything wrong.
- 24:22Speaker 1: I think he had a sense of urgency. I don't
- 24:25Speaker 1: think David was one to very often. I don't think
- 24:30Speaker 1: he was one to directly disobey God's commands. I think
- 24:34Speaker 1: he was feeling fear and urgency because of what he
- 24:37Speaker 1: had just seen, and he knew that he needed to
- 24:40Speaker 1: very quickly confess his sins before God. Gibeon was not
- 24:44Speaker 1: a fast trip from Jerusalem, so David offers his sacrifice
- 24:49Speaker 1: to God right here. And I do believe that God
- 24:52Speaker 1: accepted those sacrifices of David, mainly because I think David's
- 24:56Speaker 1: heart was now right with God. Now, the last thing
- 24:59Speaker 1: I want to say this is this was Mount Mariah.
- 25:04Speaker 1: If any of you guys know what Mount Mariah was
- 25:06Speaker 1: or is. Rather, that is the most holy piece of
- 25:10Speaker 1: land in Israel. To this day, pretty much everybody wants
- 25:15Speaker 1: Mount Mariah for themselves. Christians want it, Muslims want it,
- 25:19Speaker 1: Jews want it. Right now, it is the piece of
- 25:22Speaker 1: land where the Dome of the Rock is sitting on currently.
- 25:26Speaker 1: And Mount Mariah was also the place where Solomon built
- 25:31Speaker 1: the temple. Not to mention, Mount Mariah is part of
- 25:36Speaker 1: the hills where Jesus was sacrificed. He was not sacrificed
- 25:40Speaker 1: on Mount Mariah, but he was sacrificed nearby on a
- 25:44Speaker 1: hill called Golgatha, and that was very close to Mount Mariah,
- 25:49Speaker 1: even considered part of the same hill structure, I guess.
- 25:53Speaker 1: And Mount Mariah was holy actually from the very beginning,
- 25:57Speaker 1: because Mariah was where Abraham was going to sacrifice his
- 26:03Speaker 1: son Isaac to God. That didn't end up happening, of course,
- 26:07Speaker 1: but Abraham and Isaac both expressed so much faith in
- 26:11Speaker 1: God that Abraham believed that Isaac could be raised from
- 26:15Speaker 1: the dead, that even if Abraham sacrificed Isaac, God would
- 26:19Speaker 1: raise him from the dead. But all that to say,
- 26:21Speaker 1: Mount Mariah was a holy location. It was a holy
- 26:25Speaker 1: site where sin would be paid for. And that is
- 26:28Speaker 1: why this little piece of land where Ornan's threshing floor
- 26:32Speaker 1: was was so incredibly special and still is to this day. Well,
- 26:41Speaker 1: faithul listeners, I hope you enjoyed learning about Mount Mariah
- 26:45Speaker 1: and also the angel that was going to destroy Jerusalem
- 26:49Speaker 1: and how God relented in his anger against Jerusalem. But
- 26:53Speaker 1: faithful Listenaris, If you enjoyed today's episode, share it on
- 26:56Speaker 1: your social media platforms, tell people the Bible Explained podcast exists,
- 27:00Speaker 1: and also write a nice little review. And if I
- 27:02Speaker 1: see your review, whether it's on Audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
- 27:08Speaker 1: or wherever else you listen from, if I happen to
- 27:10Speaker 1: see your review, I may read it here on the
- 27:12Speaker 1: podcast or put it up on my website for other
- 27:15Speaker 1: people to see it. So, faithful listeners, I hope you
- 27:18Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. Go
- 27:21Speaker 1: check out the second episode that I did of Genesis.
- 27:23Speaker 1: I hope you guys like that as well. That is
- 27:26Speaker 1: linked in the description of this episode. I will see
- 27:28Speaker 1: you guys tomorrow, bright and early six am or whenever
- 27:30Speaker 1: you choose to wake up and listen for an episode
- 27:33Speaker 1: from Colossians. Happy listening, and God bless