Altar of Burnt Offering to the People

"Altar of Burnt Offering to the People" – 1 Chronicles 21:1-30; 22:1 If we look at 2 Samuel 24, we can think what happened behind David's sin of taking a census. In Samuel it says that the Lord moved David to count Israel, because His wrath had been kindled against the nation. Here we are told that it was Satan who prompted him to make such an action. Undoubtedly, both statements are true. The Lord allowed Satan to tempt David. God is not the author of evil, but He permits it and makes it serve His purposes. (plan, purpose).

I. Each one is affected by what is within himself.

A. David acted on the impulse of his pride, and there is no sin that more offends God.

1. This is pride, boasting, haughtiness, arrogance, grand, vanity, and this is very easy to fall for because pride does not allow us to act with simplicity and miserable reasoning, for one at all.

2. The enemy did not move God against Israel, but stirred up David, "Israel's best friend," to take a census of the people, thereby drawing God's wrath against Israel.

3. The devil causes us greater harm when he incites us, provokes us to sin against God than when he accuses us before God.

4. Joab opposed the census from the beginning and was not very diligent in carrying out the king's order.

5. Joab: Let the Lord add to His people a hundredfold; Are not all these servants of my master? Is it for Israel's sin?

6. The Levites were not numbered, nor were the sons of Benjamin, for the king's command was an abomination to Joab.

7. Oh, David! David's pride brought serious consequences.

8. (2 Samuel 24:8) They return to Jerusalem after nine months and twenty days.

9. No one was so ready as he was to ensure that everything redounded to the king's order or to the benefit of the kingdom as much as possible; he wanted him to excuse him from not being in charge, for him it was unnecessary and very dangerous for David.

10. (2 Samuel 24:12) This displeased God and the people were wounded.

11. David under the rod of God, a rod of correction for the sin of taking a census of the people.

12. (1 Chronicles 21:8) Although David... He sinned grievously, he soon confessed it and humbled himself before the Lord: "I have sinned grievously" (8).

13. What is offered to him (12) he chooses three days of pestilence in the land, that the angel of the Lord will do destruction in all the boundaries (limits) of the land of Israel.

14. He threw himself into the arms of God's mercy and he knew very well that God was very displeased with him.

15. He was proud of the multitude of his people, but divine justice worked its way to make them "less."

16. Take care of our lives: All pride in what we are "proud of" is justly taken away or weakened.

17. (1 Chronicles 21:6-19) When David lifted his eyes he saw a terrifying vision, the angel of Jehovah with a drawn sword stretched out against his "beloved Jerusalem."

18. The way to react when we are caught in some great sin or disobedience, way to respond: He made a very sincere confession and prayed to be forgiven (8); (2). He accepted the punishment for his iniquity; (7) Now be Thy hand against me, and against my father's house: I submit myself to the punishment, that I may suffer, for I am the sinner; mine is the guilt, and to whom the sword should be directed; He abandons himself to the mercies of God. David knew the mercies of God; He expressed a very tender interest in the people, and it hurt his heart to see them tormented by his transgression. (17) But what have these sheep done?

19. (18-26) Through Gad the Lord directed David to acquire the threshing floor of Ornan, a Jebusite, to build an altar there and to offer sacrifices.

20. Ornan offered the land to David as a gift, but the king insisted on paying for it.

21. (2 Chronicles 3:1) Later this threshing floor "became the site where the temple was built".

22. It was on Mount Moriah that Abraham offered Isaac (Genesis 22).

23. There the plague stopped, and when Jehovah spoke to the angel, he turned his sword to the sheath.

24. The temple was there.

25. And it is believed that it was on this same hill, though not the same place, that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind.

26. David sacrificed there, even though the altar of Gibeon remained. (2 Chronicles 1:3-7) (1 Kings 3:4) The Ark was in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 1:4), but the altar was in Gibeon (of Lerona) (Exodus 27:1-8) (bronze altar measured 230 centimeters square by 140 centimeters high. It was the altar of bronze; it was the largest of the seven pieces of furniture in the tabernacle. Amen