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2 Samuel 24:18-25 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an
altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David went up,as the
LORD had commanded through Gad. When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming
toward him, he went out and bowed down with his face to the ground. Araunah said, “Why has
my LORD the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so
I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the peoplemay be stopped.” Araunah said
to David, “Let my LORD the king take what ever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen
for a burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king,
Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept
you.” But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not
sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the
threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar
to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD
answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
It is often said, “the gift represents the giver.” However, the gift is more than just a
“representation” of the worshipper. As we present our gift, we present ourselves. In fact,
the value of the gift is determined by how much of ourselves is actually “in” the gift.
2 Samuel 24:18-25 tells an unusual story. King David could have obeyed God without any
personal costs. Araunah had generously offered to David everything that was needed to
fulfill God’s command–the land, the wood of the altar, and even the animal to sacrifice.
David could have made this offering to God without it costing him one cent.
David, however, refused Araunah’s offer. Why? What did David know that we don’t? David
understood the symbolic identification that exists between the giver and the gift. David
could not offer anything to God that did not personally cost him. The gift that does not
touch the giver does not touch God.
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