Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Oct/76

Contributor - Richard Westra

Title - A Real Bargain

Topic - Meditation

TEXT: "I WILL NOT OFFER BURNT OFFERINGS TO THE LORD MY GOD WHICH COST ME NOTHING" 11 Samuel 24:24

Today is like any other time in history. We all look for a good deal at the cheapest rate. I have heard it said many times that a Dutchman is a good bargain-hunter. I'm not so sure that I haven't learned equally as much from my English background as my Dutch background when it comes to being thrifty. We all enjoy striking up a real bargain.

A lot of the time we go bargain hunting with God. We like to get as much from God as we possibly can without paying the list price. The list price is always more than is required.

David had sinned by ordering his servant Joab to count the number of people in Israel and Judah. (Why this was a sin is not stated. Probably pride got the better of David and he wanted to calculate the size of his kingdom. He was interested in the number of people he had under his thumb.) As a sign of repentance and sorrow, David went to build an altar and made an offering to the Lord. He was directed by God to build it on the threshing floor of a Jebusite named Araunah. King David went himself to purchase the land. But Araunah didn't want the King to pay for it, begging him to take it as a gift. David refused, and paid for everything. His reason? "I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing."

This is logic Araunah could not understand. Surely David knew that no one can pay for a right relationship with God, for God had already charged the King with the blood of 70,000 lives. That was a heavy price. But it was the price that turned David back to God in faith. He then came to realize that those whom he led were not numbers, but children of God. In order for his worship to be a true honour, he had to be willing to pay the price of honouring God's children, and so he gave Araunah what he needed to go on living. As a King, he could have taken the land, but as a servant of God he needed to give Araunah compensation for his loss in property and goods.

This October we will go to worship, ready to thank God for his care and concern. We may thank him for our abundance, our flourishing business, our many possessions, the beautiful building in which we gather to worship, and our many friends and loved ones. What is the price we have paid for all this? Is it the price of God's judgment which will surely come because we have treated so many people as numbers and ignored their real needs? Or is it the price of our own time, money and self because we know that we cannot offer burnt offerings to the Lord which cost us nothing? I'm sure we all agree that the real bargain is the latter.

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