2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21-22; Psalm 30: I saw something today I have never seen before in this passage. I was familiar with David’s disobedience and the pestilence or plague that came as a judgement for his disobedience. I was familiar with his discussion with Ornan the land owner that David paid for his land to build and altar to the Lord on as a gift of thanksgiving for the pestilence being halted before it destroyed a multitude in Jerusalem. Now for what I did not realize. That same piece of land is where David built the “House of the Lord”. That is the Temple that Solomon built!

1 Chronicles 22:1 “Then David said, “Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

Even today the Jewish community is fighting the Arabic community over this same area. Muslims have built a mosque on it and yet it is the same place that at one time the Temple that represented the very presence of God sat.

Even as I thought about the land and the disobedience that prompted the need for a sacrifice of thanksgiving, I thought about how sin itself caused the pestilence of death, and separation from God. It was the sacrifice of The Lamb of God that stopped that same plague of sin and death. It is because of the mercy and grace of God we can receive that forgiveness and live forever. Just as King David said, He could not receive the land without paying a price for it. God provided The Lamb that cost Him His very own Son. How grateful I am for the Lamb that came at a great cost. He paid a price He did not know so that we could live. Praise the Lord! Now we are His temple where He abides! Glory!!

To You Lord Jesus I give my gift of thanksgiving and praise. Thank you for accepting and loving me.