25<\/strong>. burnt offerings and peace offerings<\/em> ] The Sept. adds; “And Solomon added to the altar afterwards, for it was small at the first:” and this, whether merely a gloss or part of the original text, agrees with the statement in Chronicles, that David chose the spot for the site of the Temple. See 1Ch 22:1 ; 2Ch 3:1<\/span>.<\/p>\n So the<\/em> Lord was intreated for the land<\/em> ] See note on ch. 2Sa 21:14<\/span>.<\/p>\n 2Sa 24:25<\/span><\/p>\n And David built an altar there unto the Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n The altar and sacrifice<\/strong><\/p>\n The history of David affords us an instructive lesson of the blessings arising out of sanctified affliction, as well as the dangers of prosperity.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>At the beginning of the chapter it is said, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. In the parallel passage (1Ch 21:1-30<\/span>.) it is said Satan provoked David to number Israel, i.e<\/em>., (as Bishop Hall remarks) God did so by permission, Satan by suggestion; God as a judge, Satan as an enemy.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It has occurred to some as difficult to see exactly wherein Davids sin consisted.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Distrust. God had said Israel should be as the dust of the earth, as the sand on the sea shore, and as the stars in the heavens–why count them then?<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Pride. David thought no doubt he would appear more formidable by a display of numbers, like Hezekiah afterwards, he wished to make a display of his power.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Observe, again, Davids heart smote him after he had numbered the people; after, not before. Sin leaves a sting behind, though it may give a momentary gratification.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Remark Davids sorrow and confession and guilt: I have sinned and done very foolishly. Ah! here was grace; this was unnatural, it was supernatural; it was the very opposite of fallen nature to take all the blame to himself.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>David was, on his repentance and acknowledgment, charged to rear an altar and to offer a sacrifice which was intended, no doubt, to represent that without shedding of blood, there is no remission.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>David offered burnt-offerings and peace offerings. The burnt-offerings represent Gods justice; the peace offerings represent Gods mercy–a striking emblem of our great sacrifice I Here, in Jesus, Mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Here, Gods justice is satisfied, and His mercy manifested. Here, we see God a just God, and yet a Saviour–just, and the Justifier of all who believe. Where shall we look for the great proofs of Gods righteous displeasure against sin? The great proof is found in the sufferings of Gods own Son. Again, where shall we look for the great proof of Gods mercy? You remind me of the ark in which Noah and his family were saved, or of Zoar, where Lot found refuge? Yes; but the great proof of mercy is to be found in the same garden, and on the same cross where we found the other<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>In one sense, and that a very important sense, our acceptance with God cost us nothing–it is free. Nothing we can do is meritorious: salvation is Gods free gift through Christ. This is the vital pulse of a sinners hope–By grace he is saved.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The other point is: our redemption cost God much. Ye are bought with a price, said St. Paul to his Corinthian brethren; how great a price he did not say; he could not. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God so loved. Who can say how much? There is no mercy out of Christ, and no condemnation to them who are in Christ.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Coming out of the world.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The Gospel demands the sacrifice of every known sin–not one, but all; not in part, but entirely.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The Gospel demands of us to deny self. Of all idols, says one, idol self is worshipped the longest.<\/p>\n Let me close with a word or two of direct and personal application.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>I address those who suppose, by offering to God what cost them much, thereby to merit heaven. Turn, my brethren, to 1Co 13:3<\/span>. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. This exactly meets your case.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>To such as, <\/strong>Gallio like, care for none of these things, I would say your case is an awful one. A religion which costs you nothing–which allows you to keep your sins–to be conformed to the world, and to indulge the flesh, is not of God. (W. E. Ormsby, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n And the plague was stayed from Israel. The infliction and removal of the judgment upon David for numbering the people<\/strong><\/p>\n These words record the removal of a terrible visitation sent from Heaven on the people of Israel. The circumstances connected with that Divine judgment, and the means by which its terrors were ended, are replete with the most valuable instruction. And therefore choose thee one of these three things–Shall three years of famine come unto thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? Or that there be three days pestilence in thy land? Now advise thee what answer I shall give to Him that sent me. How forcibly does this part of our subject teach us the great danger of engaging in any scheme or course of action upon which we cannot ask the blessing of God! How carefully ought we to examine and weigh by the balance of the sanctuary, the motives by which we are actuated! How easily can God crush our most favourite plans and blight our dearest hopes, and punish our forgetfulness of Him, and dependence on our own strength, by turning those very things upon which our hearts were most bent, into sources of the bitterest anguish and the most humiliating mortification! Thus a man will often set his heart upon riches, and worship Mammon rather than God; and those riches are taken away from him after they have been for awhile possessed in abundance–a deprivation, which makes poverty far bitterer than ever it was before; or while actually possessed, they in various ways cause him troubles and sorrows more intolerable than any that fall to the lot of the poor.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The great danger of prosperity, and the folly of coveting riches and honours as the chief good.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The deceitful nature and the terrible consequences of sin. Davids heart smote him after, not before, he had numbered the people. This is Satans method of dealing with his prey, and this is the way he succeeds in beguiling men to ruin. He blinds the eye to the guilt, until the evil deed is done. How deeply is this felt by the penitent, when brought to loathe himself for his iniquity! What a sting is left behind by sin, though it may have been committed with very little alarm, and with scarcely any sense of its malignant nature! What a picture is displayed in this history of sins terrible consequences–the angel of God running to and fro through the land with the sword of vengeance, and slaying seventy thousand men in less than three days! How it exhibits the Almightys resolve not to let iniquity go unpunished!<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The great and invaluable efficacy of the sacrifice of the death of Christ. The Almighty God, who is angry with the wicked every day, and who has declared that all the nations that forget Him shall be turned into hell, has, nevertheless, made with them who believe in Christ, a covenant well ordered in all things and sure, and, in that covenant, we have a Divine promise made, and the Divine veracity pledged, that they shall never perish, who rest their hopes on the offered propitiation.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The importance of promptitude in applying for mercy, and in deprecating the Divine wrath through the appointed sacrifice.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Finally, learn hence the duty of activity, liberality in the service of God, and for the benefit of your fellow sinners. It is a Scriptural precept–Honour the Lord with thy substance. He who has a religion which costs him nothing has a religion that is worth nothing. (H. Hughes, B. D<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The destroying angel arrested<\/strong><\/p>\n If we knew how to enjoy our blessings in the fear of God, they would be continued unto us; but it is the sin of man that he extracts, even from the mercies of God, the poison which destroys his comforts: ha grows fat upon the bounty of Heaven, spurns its laws, and awakens it vengeance. This was the case with the Israelites at the period to which our text refers. It is probable their sin was a general forgetfulness of God, and a vain confidence in the strength, numbers, and valour of the nation; for with this feeling of national vanity David was affected. The time was come when punishment could be no longer delayed; and the pestilence received its commission. Seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beersheba; and that the judgment might be known to proceed from God, an angel was made visible, with a drawn sword, directing, by His terrible agency, the vengeance and the death. The history indicates to us:<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The erections themselves, and more especially the acts and observances of worship, are memorials of religious facts and doctrines. They keep a sense of God upon the minds of men; they turn She thoughts of the public, whether they will or not to serious subjects.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Our worship is public, and the places we erect are places of public resort.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Besides this, our places of worship are to be considered as the places where the Gospel, the good and glad tidings of salvation, are announced to men. They are the places of treaty and negotiation between God and man. Ministers are the ambassadors of God. Clothed with authority by Him, they enter His house, and a rebellious world is summoned to hear from them Gods gracious terms of pardon, and His authoritative demand of submission.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>They are houses of prayer, and remind us of our dependence upon God, and of His condescension to us. They are houses of shelter from the storms and cares of life; the places where we cast our care on Him, and prove that He careth for us; the place where He is known, eminently known, for a refuge.<\/p>\n The arrest of the plague<\/strong><\/p>\n In the modern city of Rome is a fortress, once the mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian, and bearing his name. About twelve hundred years ago so tradition says, there raged a devastating plague in that old imperial town; and while people and pope and priests were making a procession with prayers, there appeared on the summit of the citadel the form of the Archangel Michael, in the act of sheathing his sword, to show that the pestilence was stayed. So there, in the place the vision, Gregory erected the statue of the angel poising on his beautiful pinions, and hovering over the city he had saved. Ever since, this edifice, converted into a stronghold, had been called San Angelo, the Castle of the Holy Angel. Nobody asserts that an exquisite marble can render a fable true; the legend is only a poor little travesty of our grand old Bible story; but it may help in making our picture, as it shines out at the closing of our lesson. (C. S. Robinson, D. D<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The site of the altar<\/strong><\/p>\n The last entry in the appendix to Samuel consists of a document which may be described as the charter of the most famous of the worlds holy places. By the theophany here recorded the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite received a consecration which has made it holy ground not only for Judaism and Christianity, but for Islam as well. Upon this spot, we can scarcely doubt, stood the great altar of Solomons temple. To-day, as all the world knows, the site is covered by the magnificent mosque, the Kubbet es-sahara, or Dome of the Rock, the most sacred of Mohammedan shrines after those of Mecca and Medina. (Century Bible<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Vicarious atonement<\/strong><\/p>\n Starr King, one of the most eloquent champions of the Socinians, paid the following tribute to the doctrine of the vicarious atonement: It is embodied by the holiest of memories, as it has been consecrated by the loftiest talent of Christendom. It fired the fierce eloquence of Tertullian in the early Church, and gushed in honeyed periods from the lips of Chrysostom; it enlisted the life-long zeal of Atuanasius to keep it pure; the sublimity of it fired every power, and commanded all the resources of the mighty soul of Augustine; the learning of Jerome and the energy of Ambrose, were committed to its defence; it was the text for the subtle eye and analytic thought of Aquinas; it was the pillar of Luthers soul, toiling for man; it was shapen into intellectual proportions and systematic symmetry by the iron logic of Calvin; it inspired the beautiful humility of Fenelon; fostered the devotion and self-sacrifice of Oberlin; flowed like molten metal into the rigid forms of Edwardss intellect, and kindled the deep and steady rapture of Wesleys heart . . . All the great enterprises of Christian history have been born from the influence, immediate or remote, which the vicarious theory of redemption has exercised upon the mind and heart of humanity.<\/p>\n Verse 25<\/span>. David – offered burnt-offerings<\/B><\/I>] And that these sacrifices were pleasing to the Lord, is evident from a circumstance marked in the parallel place, 1Ch 21:26<\/span>: David called upon the Lord, and he answered him from heaven by<\/I> fire upon the altar of burnt-offering<\/I>.<\/P> <\/P> The plague was stalled<\/B><\/I>] Jerusalem did not share in the common calamity, seventy thousand being the whole that were slain throughout the land.<\/P> <\/P> THIS book is unfinished, and requires 1 Chr. 22<\/span>, 23<\/span>, 24<\/span>, 25<\/span>, 26<\/span>, 27<\/span>, 28<\/span>, and 29<\/span>, to complete it. A few things relative to this history may be found in the beginning of the following book; but the information in 1 Chr. is much more extensive and satisfactory.<\/P> <\/P> <\/P> MASORETIC NOTES ON THE TWO BOOKS OF SAMUEL<\/B><\/P> <\/P> IN the time of the Masoretes the two books of Samuel were considered but as one, and thus divided:-<\/P> <\/P> Number of verses<\/I> in these two books, 1506.<\/P> <\/P> Number of Masoretic sections<\/I>, 34.<\/P> <\/P> The middle verse<\/I> is 1Sa 28:24<\/span>: And the woman had a fat calf in the house, and she hasted and<\/I> killed it, and took flour and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened<\/I> bread thereof<\/I>.<\/P> <\/p>\n David built there an altar unto the Lord; <\/B>which he might well do, having Gods command for it, and the place being sanctified by Gods special presence in and by the angel. <\/P> Offered burnt-offerings, <\/B>to make atonement for his sins. <\/P> And peace-offerings, <\/B>to praise God for his gracious manifestation of himself. <\/P> The Lord was entreated for the land, <\/B>as appears both by fire from heaven, which consumed the sacrifice, as was usual in such cases; and by the speedy cessation of the plague. <\/P> <\/p>\n 25. David offered burnt offeringsand peace offerings<\/B>There seem to have been two sacrifices; thefirst expiatory, the second a thanksgiving for the cessation of thepestilence (see on 1Ch 21:26<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n And David built there an altar unto the Lord<\/strong>,…. After he had made the purchase:<\/p>\n and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings<\/strong>; the one to expiate the sin or sins committed, the other to give thanks for the intimation given, that the plague would be stayed upon this:<\/p>\n so the Lord was entreated for the land<\/strong>; was pacified and prevailed upon to remove the pestilence from it; which was signified by fire descending upon the altar of burnt offering, which showed the sacrifice was accepted, and by the angel being ordered to put his sword into its sheath, 1Ch 21:26<\/span>; and the Targum is,<\/p>\n “and the Lord received the prayer of the inhabitants of the land:”<\/p>\n and the plague was stayed from Israel<\/strong>; no more died of the pestilence, either at Jerusalem, or in any other part of the land Israel.<\/p>\n (25) Built there an altar.<\/strong>The parallel place in Chronicles states that the tabernacle and the altar of burnt offering were at that season in the high place at Gibeon, and that David was afraid to go before it because of the sword of the angel, i.e., <\/em>the pestilence. It also mentions that when David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD, He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. David then fixed upon this as the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel (1Ch. 22:1<\/span>).<\/p>\n Thus, with Davids repentance and reconciliation to God after his second great sin closes this narrative and this book. Davids reign and life were now substantially endeda witness to all time of the power of Divine Grace over human infirmity and sin, of Gods faithfulness and mercy to those that trust in Him, and of the triumph of an earnest and humble faith notwithstanding some very great and grievous falls.<\/p>\n 25<\/strong>. <\/strong> David built there an altar <\/strong> This he seems to have done without the least delay. The destroying angel still hovered near, and the plague had scarcely yet abated. “It was the meeting of two ages. Araunah, as he yields that spot, is the last of the Canaanites, the last of that stern old race that we discern in any individual form and character. David, as he raises that altar, is the close harbinger of the reign of Solomon, the founder of a new institution which another was to complete.” Stanley. <\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Offered burnt offerings <\/strong> As a type and symbol of his entire consecration, body and soul, to Jehovah. <\/p>\n Peace offerings <\/strong> Expressive of his realization of peace and friendship with God, and his thankful homage for the divine favour. Chronicles adds that he called on the Lord and was answered by fire from heaven upon his offerings. This spot became the site of the temple. 2Ch 3:1<\/span>. <\/p>\n The Lord was entreated and the plague was stayed <\/strong> Thus these records of David’s life close with a picture of Divine mercy vouchsafed in answer to the pious offerings of a contrite heart; and there is left upon the reader’s mind, as he lays down the volume, a precious image of gracious pardon for offences past, and the pledge of a greater salvation to come.<\/p>\n As this book records quite fully the history of David, and even records his last words, but closes without any account of his death and burial, we may with some reason suppose that it was in substance written before the decease of the great king.<\/p>\n No character in Old Testament history is so many-sided, no genius so versatile, as that of David the red-haired shepherd boy, the youthful hero, the passionate lover and romantic friend, the chivalrous chieftain, the mighty warrior, the greatest of kings, the wise statesman, the sacred poet, the tender father. In him were wonderfully combined all the qualities needful to make him perfect master in every thing to which he put his hand. In him we recognise, says Ewald, “the glorious originality of a creative spiritual power, such as rarely shows itself in any people.”<\/p>\n We already discover the elements of a conquering warrior in the young shepherd who slays the lion and the bear. The conqueror of Goliath could be no ordinary hero. The feats of valour and the constant victories that attend him while in Saul’s service disclose at every step the growing conqueror. Whilst an outlaw and captain of his brave six hundred, he out-generals the armies of Israel under Saul; and after he attains the throne, and with all the forces of the nation at his command, he rapidly completes the conquest of the nations spared by the sword of Joshua.<\/p>\n His lofty genius and creative originality early identified him with the glorious songs of Israel, (note, chap. xxiii, 1,) and his immortal psalms will ever linger in the heart of the Church universal. “He is the first great poet of Israel,” says Stanley. “Although before his time there had been occasional bursts of Hebrew poetry, yet David is the first who gave it its fixed place in the Israelitish worship. There is no room for it in the Mosaic ritual. Its absence there may be counted as a proof of the antiquity of that ritual in all its substantial features. For so mighty an innovation no less than a David was needed. That strange musical world of the East with its gongs and horns, and pipes and harps with its wild dances and wilder contortions with its songs of question and answer, of strophe and antistrophe, awakening or soothing, to a degree inconceivable in our tamer West, the emotions of the hearer, were seized by the shepherd minstrel when he mounted the throne, and were formed as his own peculiar province into a great ecclesiastical institution. His harp or, as it was called by the Greek translators, his psaltery, or psalter, or guitar was to him what the wonder-working staff was to Moses, the spear to Joshua, or the sword to Gideon. It was with him in his early youth. It was at hand in the most moving escapes of his middle life. In his last words he seemed to be himself the instrument over which the Divine breath passed. Singing men and singing women were recognised accompaniments of his court. He was an inventor of musical instruments. Amo 6:5<\/span>. ‘With his whole heart he sung songs, and loved Him that made him.’” David, more than Saul, was the real founder of the Israelitish monarchy.<\/p>\n His wise statesmanship led him, as soon as he attained the throne, to secure a strong national capital, and bring the ark there, and thus take effective measures to centralize the whole national power. In thus securing the unity of all Israel for the first time since the days of Joshua he truly fulfilled the dying prophecy of Jacob, (Gen 49:8<\/span>,) and also in its deeper sense obeyed, though late, the divine command to Judah to lead the tribes to the complete conquest of the Land of Promise. Compare note on Jdg 1:2<\/span>. He thus became Joshua’s true successor, and accomplished that which all judges and rulers in Israel had so far failed to do a failure which had been to the nation the source of countless woes.<\/p>\n David, enthroned on Zion, the great conqueror-king, the man after God’s own heart, the light of Israel, the star of former prophecies, has ever been regarded as a type of the Messiah. The germ of the Messianic prophecies from David onward is found in Jehovah’s revelation to the king by Nathan, (2Sa 7:12<\/span>\ud83d\ude42 “I will set up thy seed after thee, and I will establish his kingdom; he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” Hence the conviction started and ever after deepened in Israel, that David’s dynasty should never end. In the darkest hour of Jewish misfortune and exile the Messianic hope rose high; and when at last the earthly throne had perished, and Israel was about to be scattered, and Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles for long ages, there was born in the city of David and of the seed of David, One who fulfilled the law and the prophecies, and set up a spiritual kingdom, and manifested himself to all the world as “the Root and Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star.”<\/p>\n David is thus ever to be associated with the Messiah, and such expressions as “The seed of David,” “The house of David,” “The sure mercies of David,” point to his indissoluble connexion with the great Prince and Saviour who was born at Bethlehem of Judah, but “whose goings forth were from of old, from everlasting.” Mic 5:2<\/span>; Mat 2:5<\/span>.<\/p>\n But David, with all his greatness and glory, was not without sins. Dissimulation, falsehood, polygamy, adultery, and even murder, as in the case of Uriah, may be charged upon him. Is this, asks the sneering unbeliever, is this the style of the man after God’s own heart? But in depicting these sins of David’s life the stern veracity of the sacred historian moves measureless lengths above where the scorner revels in his own folly, and, thus revelling, fails to appreciate the profound spiritual struggles in which his sins involved the hapless king. Beautifully says Irving, “The hearts of a hundred men strove and struggled together within the narrow continent of his single heart; and will the scornful men have no sympathy for one so conditioned, but scorn him because he ruled not with constant quietness the unruly host of divers natures which dwelt within his single soul? With the defence of his backslidings, which he hath more keenly scrutinized, more clearly discerned against, and more bitterly lamented, than any of his censors, we do not charge ourselves, because they were, in a manner, necessary, that he might be the full-orbed man which was needed to utter every form of spiritual feeling.” Not his sins, but his profound struggle and aim never to be untrue to Jehovah, made him the man after God’s heart. His sins were sudden and erratic, occasioned by trying circumstances or peculiar temptations. His zeal and loyalty to Jehovah were steadiest and persistent; and such was his strength of character, and the profound humility with which he struggled to recover from his fall, that his greatest sins were speedily overlooked by the masses of his people, and he was reverenced by all.<\/p>\n He never forgot his humble origin, but called himself in his last song the son of Jesse and the man who had been exalted on high. 2Sa 23:1<\/span>. And, altogether, by his early deeds of valour; by his wars and his consummate statesmanship; by his truly royal reign, and his imperishable psalms, he has obtained a hold upon the heart and memory of the Church and the World that must remain fixed forever.<\/p>\n REFLECTIONS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n READER! with this chapter we close this sacred book of GOD, which brings us in point of historical relation, very nearly, though not completely so, to the end of David’s life. Let us not close it, however, until that we have first blessed the LORD for so truly valuable a part of the Old Testament records: and more especially, for that part of David’s history contained in it, which bears evident allusion to the Great Redeemer of mankind, of whom, in many instances, David was a lively type. It is a precious thing, and most highly to be valued by the true believer in JESUS, when we are led to see the tenderness and love of GOD our FATHER to the church, in thus holding forth, under such a variety of similitudes, and representations, to the early ages, the prominent features of a redemption, which was, in the fulness of time to be wrought out, and completed by his dear Son. And it is as thankfully to be remembered by the believer, in honour and glory to the HOLY GHOST, that in his blessed office of glorifying the LORD JESUS, he hath so sweetly caused to be recorded, for the exercise of the faith of Old Testament saints, as well as the establishment of New Testament believers, the very many outlines of His person and offices, whose one glorious work of salvation, hath perfected forever, them that are sanctified!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hail! Holy! Holy! Holy! Undivided THREE IN ONE; FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST! Blessed be the LORD GOD, JEHOVAH, for all his covenant love, and mercy, in JESUS! and for all the precious records this book contains, of the glorious events of redemption by him. And, oh! thou dearest JESUS, thou blessed Reconciler of a gracious GOD with poor fallen man! Thou art the Author, the means, the end, the sum, the substance of all true peace in the church, above and below. Give me to see thee, blessed JESUS, as David did, as the gracious Interposer, to stay the destroying angel’s hand over Jerusalem. And may my soul go up to the threshingfloor of the poor Jebusite, to offer the sacrifice of thine own blood and righteousness; and these, on thine own sacred Person, the Altar which sanctifieth the gift; that I may find peace with GOD, through JESUS CHRIST our LORD. And blessed, forever blessed be the GOD of peace, which brought again from the dead, our LORD JESUS CHRIST, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, that he hath been entreated for our guilty land, and the plague of sin, death, hell, and the grave, is forever stayed from his Israel. All our peace is made in the blood of the cross; and henceforth, there is now no condemnation to them which are in CHRIST JESUS , who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Amen, and Amen.<\/p>\n 2Sa 24:25 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.<\/p>\n Ver. 25. And David built there an altar.<\/strong> ] A type of Christ, the true altar, Heb 13:10 who was also to offer up himself as a slain sacrifice at Jerusalem, “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.” Eph 5:2 To him be glory in the churches, world without end. Amen.<\/p>\n there. See note on 1Ch 22:1. <\/p>\n built there: Gen 8:20, Gen 22:9, 1Sa 7:9, 1Sa 7:17 <\/p>\n So the Lord: 2Sa 24:14, 2Sa 21:14, 1Ch 21:26, 1Ch 21:27, Lam 3:32, Lam 3:33 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Lev 17:8 – that offereth Num 16:48 – General Num 25:8 – So the plague Jdg 21:4 – built there 1Sa 6:14 – offered 1Ch 21:25 – General<\/p>\n 2Sa 24:25. David offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings Burnt- offerings were, in effect, prayers to God, that he would remove this plague and peace-offerings were acknowledgments of Gods goodness, who had already given David hopes of this mercy. Delaney supposes that the ninety- first Psalm was written by David in commemoration of his deliverance from this calamity.<\/p>\n As the history of David is the principal subject of the two books of Samuel, and as his is a very distinguished character, we shall here, in the conclusion of our notes on these books, present our readers with a short sketch of it, drawn by a masterly hand, but, as we think, in rather too glowing colours. Davids is a character which stands single, in the accounts of the world equally eminent and unrivalled. For, not to insist on his great personal accomplishments, such as beauty, stature, strength, swiftness, and eloquence, his character is sufficiently distinguished by the noblest qualities, endowments, and events. Exalted from an humble shepherd to a mighty monarch, without any tincture of pride, disdain, or envy. Quite otherwise: remarkably humble in exaltation; or, rather, humbled by it. Exalted, unenvied. Exalted himself, and equally exalting the state he ruled: raising it from contempt, poverty, and oppression, to wealth, dignity, and sway. A man experienced in every vicissitude of fortune and life, and equal to them all. Thoroughly tried in adversity, and tempted by success, yet still superior. Cruelly and unjustly persecuted, yet not provoked to revenge. In the saddest and most sudden reverse of fortune, depressed by nothing but the remembrance of guilt; and, in consequence of that, unhumbled to any thing but God.<\/p>\n To sum up all; a true believer, and zealous adorer of God; teacher of his law and worship, and inspirer of his praise; a glorious example, a perpetual and inexhaustible fountain of true piety; a consummate and unequalled hero, a skilful and a fortunate captain; a steady patriot, a wise ruler, a faithful, a generous, and a magnanimous friend; and, what is yet rarer, a no less generous and magnanimous enemy; a true penitent, a divine musician, a sublime poet, and an inspired prophet. By birth, a peasant; by merit, a prince. In youth, a hero; in manhood, a monarch; in age, a saint. Delaney. <\/p>\n And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. 25. burnt offerings and peace offerings ] The Sept. adds; “And Solomon added to the altar afterwards, for it was small at the first:” … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 24:25”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>The altar and sacrifice represent the sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the only sacrifice God will accept as an atonement for sin.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Davids resolution and conduct on the occasion of Gods mercy to him. Davids conduct by no means implies he regarded his offering as meritorious. (Psa 51:16-17<\/span>,) For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt-offering; the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt act despise. It proved two things as regarded Davids peculiar case, viz., sincerity and thankfulness. Sincerity–unlike the ruler mentioned in the Gospel, he wanted a religion which would cost him nothing, and therefore he went away sorrowful. Thankfulness. David longed to show what he felt, like the leper (Luk 17:1-37<\/span>.), he returned to give glory to God. Oh! what a spring it would give to charity, to feel as David felt. Observe, in the parallel passage (1Ch 21:1-30<\/span>.) it is said, David bought the threshing-floor for 600 shekels of gold. We can reconcile the two accounts by merely supposing the author in the book of Samuel stated the price of the oxen, while the author in the book of Chronicles mentioned the price of the threshing floor. Let me now mention a few particulars which the Gospel claims as proofs of gratitude, and Gods Word proposes as tests of sincerity.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/strong>The strict regard paid by the Almighty to the conduct of His creatures. <\/strong>This is a consideration which ought ever to impress our minds. The want of it is one of the causes of the misconduct of men. All are not openly infidels; they do not deny a God; nor do they allow His existence, and deny His omniscience. All do not confine Him to His own heaven, and make it part of His greatness and grandeur to avert His eyes from earth. All do not make Him indifferent to sin and say, with the unbelief of those of old, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. But though we may not, say this, we may be influenced by the very principle from which it proceeds. All who sin forget God; act as though there were no God, or He had no omniscience, or that He is indifferent to their conduct. To awaken us to a consciousness of the regard he pays to our actions, to His ever-bending, ever-watchful eye, it is, that he has so often specially interposed to punish sin, and in a manner which could leave no doubt of His agency. For this, among other purposes, the histories in the Old Testament have been preserved; that observing the displays of His power and justice, we might sanctify the Lord in our hearts, and that the whole earth might tremble and keep silence before Him. Does any one suppose that because He is but an individual, one amidst the myriads of the human race, he shall pass in the crowd, and escape the notice of his Judge? Let him learn that David was an individual, yet his individual sin was noticed, dragged to light, reproved, and punished.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>We are instructed by the history to consider sin as an evil followed by the most disastrous consequences. The pride, and forgetfulness of God, of which David and his people were guilty, might appear, if sins at all, sins of a very venial kind, the common infirmities of human nature; yet they were followed by the dreadful choice of evils, and with the destruction of seventy thousand persons. One of the most fatal habits of mind is to treat sin lightly or with indifference. It is exhibited as a mark of eminent folly. Fools make a mock at sin.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The history also exhibits to us the only means of forgiveness and escape from punishment. The altar was built unto the Lord: David offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings; so the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed. In other words, sin was expiated by the intervention of a sacrifice. This is the doctrine of every book of Scripture, of every age, and of every nation. Let us, then, observe that the testimony of the Church of God, from every age, is that the anger of Him whom we have offended can only be propitiated, and that He only can be approached, by sacrifice. When man became a sinner, then an altar marked the place in which he worshipped, and his offering was a bloody sacrifice. When Noah left the ark, his first act was to erect an altar, to reconcile God to a world which bore so many marks of His wrath; and at the Smell of the sweet savour of the offerings, He gave the promise, I will no more curse the ground for mans sake. When the first-born of Egypt fell beneath the stroke of the angel, it was the blood of the lamb sprinkled upon the door-posts that guarded in safety the offspring of Israel. When the plague broke forth against the rebels in the wilderness, Aaron ran between the living and the dead with his censer and incense, and the plague was stayed; but it was incense inflamed by fire from the altar of sacrifice. Thus, on ordinary occasions by stated, and on extraordinary displays of the Divine anger by extraordinary sacrifices, did the Church show forth the intended death of the true Sacrifice. This is our method of salvation: We are saved by His blood, and it is important for us to know that, in this single doctrine of a substituted sacrifice, the whole method of our salvation is included. The manner in which sacrificial rites were performed illustrates even now the method of salvation. The offerer confessed the fact of his offence by bringing his victim; and he that believes in Christ, by assenting to this method of expiation, confesses the fact too: I have sinned, and therefore I fly to Christ as my atonement. The offerer was prompted by the fear of punishment to slay his victim, and sprinkle the blood; so David in the text. If we are properly alarmed at our, danger, we shall haste to the only refuge of a Saviours bleeding side. The sacrifice was the instrument of sanctification; it supposed a covenant with God; the sacrifice was eaten; the parties were made friends; and sin, which only could make them enemies, was renounced for ever. Thus, the appointment of sacrifices supposes the confession of sin; a salutary fear of the terrors of a holy God; a just apprehension of the desert of sin, death in its most painful forms; and a reliance and trust in Gods appointed means of salvation, and the renunciation of all sin, and the recovery of His blessing and friendship. All these are taught you and enjoined upon you by the death of Christ; and on these terms we invite you to receive pardon and salvation.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>We observe that the erection of this altar by David was a public act, an act in which the public were interested; and in this respect it agreed with the practice of all ages. The building of an altar was ever a public act; the place was separate from common purposes; and it stood as a religious memorial for the instruction of mankind.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>The zeal and liberality which good men have ever discovered in the erection of houses and altars to God. The words of the text are an instance. When Araunah saw David coming, he went to meet him; and, when informed of the occasion–to buy the threshing-floor, to build an altar to the Lord–he spontaneously makes him the offer of his threshing-floor. (R. Watson<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"