As we approach Christmas, we particularly take time to remember the birth of Jesus to save us from our sins. Jesus was God’s provision to satisfy and atone for his anger for our sins, by his death on the Cross.
There are numerous Old Testament shadows that point forward to this reality. The final passage of 2 Samuel is one of those. God’s anger, poured out on Israel as a plague, was stopped because of God’s mercy towards his people. But his anger still needed to be atoned for; God’s justice met. In this passage, God provides the means for David to provide a sacrifice to atone for God’s wrath.
God stayed the hand of the angel he had sent to determine the course of the plague which was ravaging the land of Israel and making David’s silly census obsolete (v.16). God’s mercy, which David had chosen to rest on when he declined to allow Israel to be cast into the hands of its enemies, shone through as the angel was at “the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite” (v.16).
David cried out to God, interceding on Israel’s behalf, asking that he and his house would be punished, not Israel. God answered David’s cries by sending the prophet Gad to David with a message (v.18). That message was to raise an altar to God at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, where God had stayed the angel’s hand (v.18).
This command from God was linked to the situation. God’s mercy had been demonstrated by stopping the plague, but God’s anger at Israel’s sin and David’s silly census was not yet dealt with. The altar would be the means for God’s anger to be visibly satisfied.
David obeyed God’s command, and came with his followers to Aruanah’s house to make it happen (vv.19-20). After Aruanah paid homage to his king and asked the reason for the visit, David requested to buy the threshing floor to erect an altar to God (v.21).
Aruanah did not respond with NIMBYism but with an enthusiastic offer. “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king” (vv.22-3).
While it’s possible that this was simply the opening offer in a negotiation, David could have used his kingly authority to accept the offer gratefully, with perhaps a stone plaque added to the area to note the generosity of Aruanah. But David did not take that offer.
David understood that atonement and worship require a cost, and are not free and easy. “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing” (v.24). It would not be much of a sacrifice to God, if there was not much in the way of sacrifice (cost) to David. Instead, David paid for the altar and the offerings.
The transaction completed, “David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings” (v.25). David fulfilled the instructions of the Mosaic Law (Lev. 1, Lev. 3) to atone for his and Israel’s sin, and ensure they were at peace with God.
David’s sacrifices were not in vain. God “responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel” (v.25). No longer was God’s anger unsatisfied. No longer were Israel and God at odds. God’s mercy and God’s justice were both upheld by the sacrifices offered there.
That altar place, according to 1 Chronicles, became the site of the Temple where sacrifices were offered to God.
Yet those sacrifices, while offered faithfully and worshipfully, were not effective in themselves to take away God’s anger at sin. Instead, they were a visual pointer to the sacrifice that was yet to come to satisfy God’s anger at our sin, and satisfy God’s justice while providing for God’s mercy for us.
That sacrifice to come was Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, which paid the penalty due and brought peace between us and God. That sacrifice covered the sins of David and Israel looking forward through faith and animal sacrifices, just as it covers our sins looking back at the completed work of Christ.
And that sacrifice was not free. It cost the life of God’s son, who entered into history to save us from our sins. Jesus paid the price as a substitute on our behalf, offering up himself as the sacrifice to atone for God’s anger, that God’s wrath might be averted from us, his people. We could not afford the price ourselves. God provided the means and the payment himself.
Jesus was the Lamb of God, provided by God, at the place and time that God commanded, to take away our sins. Christmas is not just the celebration of the birth of a baby, but the celebration of the birth of our Saviour and Redeemer.
