May the Lord instruct us while we read. Perhaps We shall understand it better if we begin in the 21 st chapter at the 26 th verse.
1 Chronicles 21:26-27. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.
«And David built there» that is upon the threshing-floor of Ornan. The place of sacrifice was the place of salvation. The angel was smiting Jerusalem, but as soon as the sacrifice was offered the angel sheathed his sword.
1 Chronicles 21:28. At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
Then came a sacrifice of thanksgiving, as there always should be after prayer is answered. Remember how the Psalmist puts it, «Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar» after the sin is pardoned and the transgression is put away.
1 Chronicles 21:29-30 and 1 Chronicles 22:1. For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD. Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.
The place where God had answered him, where the angel had appeared to him, where the fire had come down from heaven, he felt to be holiest, and that the Lord had directed him to it as the spot where his temple was to be built. It is very significant that it should be upon a threshing-floor, for surely the Church of God is God's threshing-floor, where he gathereth his sheaves together, and separates between the wheat and the chaff. «I will winnow,» saith he, «my threshing-floor.» Oh! that we might ever recognize that Christ is the temple of God, and Christ is the sacrifice; Christ is the appearance of God that is better to us than the appearance of angels, and Christ is God's answer to us by fire, and where Christ is, there is the burnt-offering.
1 Chronicles 21:2. And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.
It is very observable, not the Israelites, but the foreigners, the aliens, the strangers, the remaining Canaanites that were in the land, were set to hew the stones for the house of the Lord. I have heard very good people indeed object to the ungodly giving any money whatever to God's cause. This is all against it; here are the aliens employed to hew the stones for the house of God, and why should not they? It will do them good, at least, to do some good thing or other in their lives. Let them have an opportunity so to do. But I see here an indication of the calling of the Gentiles, for whenever the Jews said the Gentiles had nothing to do with God, why the very stones of their temple spoke against them. Were not the timbers brought from Tyro by the Tyrians along in floats? Were not the stones quarried by aliens and foreigners? Oh! the Lord would have his people follow a large, and liberal, and prophetic policy in their dealing with mankind. God forbid that we should shut anybody out from anything that looks like good. Oh! let us not repel them; it may be that in repelling their offerings we may be hardening their hearts. David was a wiser man than that.
1 Chronicles 21:3-4. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight; Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.
Here, again, was a kind of prophecy of what would happen in better days, when the poor Gentiles should be permitted to have a share in the building of the house of God. These Tyrians and Zidonians were amongst the worst of idolaters, and yet they were used in their due place and subservience to hew the trees and float them to the temple, as near as they could get by sea to Joppa.
1 Chronicles 21:5. And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it.
There is no way of helping young people to serve God like setting them a good example. Let the father feel, with regard to his son, that he is young and tender; he may not be able to begin, but if I begin, I shall get him in the mode of doing such things, and maybe he may carry out my design when I am sleeping in the grave. It was well, it was wise, it was splendid of David thus to make all preparations that Solomon might afterwards go on with the good work.
1 Chronicles 21:5. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
If you cannot do everything yourself and who can? is it not well to prepare abundantly before our death for somebody else to go on with the work? Thus shall we live after we are dead live in our sons, if God be so good to us, live in our grandchildren, who knows? live in someone we were the means of bringing to the Saviour's feet by our ministry. Then he called to Solomon, his son. He had prepared everything, and now he speaks to him, and he charged him to build a house for Jehovah, the God of Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:6-8. Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel. And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God: But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
It was not an allusion to Uriah's blood, as some have thought, for God said this to David long before David's great sin. The wars in which David was engaged were honest wars for the defense and deliverance of the country, in which God had helped him, and yet even the best wax is bad in God's esteem. When blood is shed, God delights not in it; and he sets his servant on one side without blaming him, and says, «No: a bloody hand is not fit for the building of my temple. Thou hast been called in the order of Providence to be a warrior and a conqueror; thou must be content with that; thou canst not build the temple to the God of Peace.»
1 Chronicles 21:9. Behold a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest.
That is a very sweet name for Solomon, «A man of rest.» I pray that many a believer here may be a man of that kind. Some believers have to be men of war. There they are, in a world of struggles, disputes, contentions, of their own ambitions but happy is that man who is of a gentle and a tender spirit, a spirit of holy wisdom, and whom God gives the great privilege to be a man of peace.
1 Chronicles 22:9-10. And I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build an house for my name and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will established the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.
What a sweet benediction from an aged man's mouth.
1 Chronicles 21:11-13. Now, my son, the LORD be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the LORD thy God, as he hath said of thee. Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfill the statutes and judgments which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.
This was addressed to a young man and tender by an old man who had displayed much courage. They who have been courageous themselves can safely encourage others to be so. God make us all in every good cause to be free from fear. Like Bernard, the knight, may we be «without fear, and without reproach,» ever contending for God and his truth.
1 Chronicles 21:14. Now behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold,
Whatever sum that may have been, it could hardly have been a Babylonian talent, because that would have made him to have laid up one thousand millions sterling.
1 Chronicles 21:14. And a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.
A capital text for a collection, whenever there has been a good sum given already, «Thou mayest add thereto.» Next Sunday week we collect for the hospitals. Thou mayest add to the gold if thou canst; thou mayest add to the silver if thou canst; thou mayest add to the copper if thou canst not add to the silver or the gold.
1 Chronicles 21:15. Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance,
David had foreseen all that was wanted, and had got a list of the men of skill and art throughout all his land.
1 Chronicles 21:15. Hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work.
You remember that text, «The Lord showed me four carpenters,» and so when the Lord wants carpenters there will be carpenters. Whatever kind of men he requires for his service, that kind of men shall be forthcoming in the day of need «All manner of cunning men for every manner of work.»
1 Chronicles 21:16. Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise, therefore and be doing, and the LORD be with thee.
That is his word to Solomon.
1 Chronicles 21:17. David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,
What a grand thing it is when a man has true-hearted helpers, men who are ready to stint themselves, annihilate themselves, as it were, to help some other man to do the work of the Lord, quite satisfied to be themselves unknown, so long as the house of the Lord is built, and God's name is glorified!
1 Chronicles 21:18. Is not the LORD your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people.
So then they had not to fight, but to work. If Jesus Christ has conquered all our foes, and routed all our sins; if sin, and death, and hell lie prostrate at his feet, what can we do but devote our rest and peace to his service?
1 Chronicles 21:19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD.