Refusing a Sacrifice that Costs Nothing and you (2 Samuel 23-24)

In these last two chapters of 2 Samuel, much happens. But in keeping with one truth for the day, we focus on the fact that David refused to make a sacrifice to the Lord which cost him nothing. This is a wonderful example, demonstrating that we should also be sure that our sacrifices to the Lord are not without cost. 

2 Samuel 24:21-25New Living Translation (NLT)

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 Lordthere, 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 theLord 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[a] 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.