Ever stood at a doorway with someone who insists you enter first, while you are insisting that they go first? Today’s story is more like two people insisting on paying the tab at a restaurant.
II Samuel 24 (NLT) : 18 That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
19 So David went up to do what the Lord had commanded him. 20 When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. 21 “Why have you come, my lord the king?” Araunah asked.
David replied, “I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there, so that he will stop the plague.”
22 “Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. 23 I will give it all to you, Your Majesty, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice.”
24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen.
25 David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
David wants to buy the land where he will erect an altar to atone for his disobedience in doing something God had told him not to do. (The reason God didn’t want him to take a census at that time is the subject for another study, suffice it to say he was disobedient.) But Araunah is making an overly generous generous gesture to simply give the king the land. But then it really won’t be as much of a sacrifice on David’s part will it? Talk about substitutionary atonement. (No, not really; though we could go in that direction, too; but like other analogies, it doesn’t fit perfectly.) So David pays for the land.
So David voices the well known statement, “for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” (v. 24b, NASB)
In 2018, we quoted Jentezen Franklin on this passage:
The old Anglo-Saxon word for worship is worth-ship, which is the act of ascribing worth or value to a person or object. What’s the point? It’s this: When it comes to serving God, if it doesn’t cost—it doesn’t count! God knows we can’t all give the same amount. But what He’s asking for isn’t equal giving, but equal sacrifice! The Bible says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything” (Pr 3:9 NLT). So whether you’re worshiping, serving, or giving, make sure you’re giving God your best.
I like that; “If it doesn’t cost, it doesn’t count.”
Our word worship means worthship. We worship those things/people we ascribe worth to and in doing so we are saying these things/people are important to us. So as we sacrifice to worship, we’re saying that God’s worth it.
In that same article, we quoted the blog of Covenant Life Church of God:
We recognize His worth-ship, His value and we openly worship Him. If He never did another thing for us, He is still worthy of our worship. His whole being is so wonderful and beautiful we can’t help but respond to Him. That is worship, the acknowledgement of who He is, without any reference to ourselves. He is still magnificent without anything personal involved, simply by existing.
The website Truth or Tradition reminded us that
[P]erhaps we do not worship God as we should is that it often takes so much time, and we are already busy. Let’s face it—prayer, reading the Bible, and sharing our faith all take time. Also, sometimes there does not seem to be much return for the effort spent on things we do for God. There are times we pray for our country, yet things seem to go from bad to worse; we read the Bible, but not are not inspired by it; or we go to church, but do not seem to benefit that much from the experience. Ironically, our word “worship” derives from “worth-ship” (Oxford Etymological Dictionary), and sometimes we wonder if “worship” is “worth it.” But it always is.
Part of the process is putting God first.
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
There is much to be gained from using different translations. For example, take
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness… (NIV)
The phrase in question has to do with putting God first, or giving Him first place in our lives. Modern options include:
- Set your heart on the kingdom and his goodness… (Phillips)
- Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. (Message)
It’s important that we don’t think of this purely in financial, or worse transactional terms. In an 2014, we quoted Ken Idleman. Here’s his challenge, to us and to himself!
So what are some of the ways we can put God first in our lives that aren’t related to financial giving to our church and ministry organizations?
- I am really trying to discipline my mind to start the day with some kind of prayer; asking God to use my day for His glory. If my thoughts are getting sidetracked, I just quickly get out of bed and do a re-start so I can try the thought focus again.
- I am endeavoring to make the devotional website I read each day the first internet page that is opened in my computer.
- I am trying to begin my day at work by asking God to use my workplace to reach my community. This isn’t easy. The first thing I have to do when I walk in is shut off the alarm system, and sometimes the message light is flashing on the phone system.
- I am trying to be more intentional about the emails I write and things I post on Twitter. That’s hard because I am already a bit of a Bible-nerd, so with a faith quotient that’s already high, I have to separate things that are about Church life or ‘religion’ in general from things that are about Jesus. I have a long way to go on this one.
- I am trying to put God’s kingdom agenda in the words I write and the words I speak so that the wisdom I offer is not earthly wisdom, but are filled with truth, hope, and encouragement.
I Chronicles 21:24 (parallel passage)
But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
Christianity 201 