February 20, 2024

II Samuel 24.24 (NIV)
“I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

He who has a religion that costs him nothing, has a religion that is worth nothing.*

David wanted to buy Araunah’s threshing floor so he could build an altar on which to offer sacrifices to God. Araunah wanted to donate it to him but David insisted on paying for it. If Araunah’s offer had been accepted, it would have been his sacrifice, not David’s. It was David who had sinned, therefore it was David who must offer the sacrifice and at his own expense.*

We begin to see in this story why David was called a man after God’s own heart. We think of David as a big sinner because he committed some of the “big” sins and because his position made his sins more public. But for David, repentance was more than just being sorry that he got caught in sin. It was more than just doing and saying the right things. It was more than being “good enough.” For most people, it would have been enough to offer a sacrifice on some altar somewhere. That would have been enough to fulfill the requirements of the law, but David’s devotion to God went much deeper than rituals and the law.

I know people who give and give of their time and their limited financial resources. They love the Lord and they love his people. To them, what they do is not sacrifice because they know they can’t out-give God. But for many of us, it is enough to (in the words of another) “thank God for our blessings . . . throw some surplus God’s direction before doing what we please with the rest, to cover our greed with a generosity that does not require sacrifice.”^* The ability to write a bigger check than someone else doesn’t make us a more generous or more sacrificial giver.

What does your religion cost you? 

He doesn’t look at just what we give. He also looks at what we keep.*

*Quote sources available upon request.