S. O. A. P.

Here’s Your 90 second AM Devotional!

S-cripture:

1 Chronicles 21:24

O-bservation:

David had sinned in numbering the fighting men of Israel. Because of David’s sin, seventy thousand male Israelites fell dead by a plague sent from God. To be freed from his sin, David paid six hundred thousand dollars in today’s prices to purchase property from a man named Araunah, so that he could build an altar unto the Lord and make restitution for what he had done.

A-pplication:

The irony of this story is that the very land that David purchased from Araunah to make sacrifices unto the Lord for his sin became the land that David’s son Solomon eventually built his famous temple on. Here is a piece of property that was originally purchased for one man to make a sacrifice on, and in time thousands of Israeli people would offer sacrifices for their sin to be atoned for. Some would say that King David paid a lot of money, six hundred thousand dollars, at such a primitive time of history. Yet “The Real Cost” wasn’t in cash, but in the seventy thousand men who fell dead because of their king’s wickedness. Somehow, David has been honored by saying that he wouldn’t offer to God that which cost him nothing, but “The Real Cost” was David’s shame.

P-rayer:

Dear Jesus,

Help me learn this AM from David’s sin and subsequent restitution always to be ashamed of my failures instead of proud of my repentance. I want to please You, so help me to listen to the multitude of counselors that You have placed around me. Amen