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 people may be stopped.”Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the 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.
2 Samuel 24:21-25
This is a fairly famous passage buried in the Old Testament. As a King, David could afford anything he wanted. Many dignitaries and rulers heaped upon him lavish gifts. It happens in all societies and cultures. People want to curry favor with those in authority. So, then, it was natural for Araunah to offer the King the entire threshing floor.
But David realized something very significant: A sacrifice isn’t a sacrifice if it’s not a sacrifice for you. It’s something to think about as we give of our time, talent, and money to others and to organizations.
Jesus came to earth: it was clearly a sacrifice for him. Jesus lived among us for 33 years: no small sacrifice. Jesus endured vile insults and beatings, and ultimately was nailed to two blocks of wood: the ultimate sacrifice.
Consider the sacrifices you make for His sake. Surely you sacrifice; we all do. Often, you don’t consider those things sacrificial because they are the “right thing to do.”
- Teaching your children the Bible and bringing them to Sunday School week in and week out.
- Housing a missionary family when the come to town.
- Dropping a little extra in the offering for that same missionary family.
- Memorizing Scripture even though it’s touch, and teaching your children to do the same.
- Giving up your career to go to a foreign land to eat strange food and learn a difficult language just so you can communicate the love of Christ.
- Remaining single so that you can serve Christ in dangerous places without having to worry about your spouse.
The list goes on and on. You can do thousands of things that are sacrificial. Your labor is not in vain, Brothers and Sisters. Keep at it. The world will not understand your sacrifice (if it knows of it at all), but God sees and He blesses.