What would you do if you saw an angel standing between heaven and earth, holding a sword? I think I would be finding a hiding place.

Just such an occurrence is revealed in the book of Second Samuel 24 and in First Chronicles 21, following David’s taking a census of the people. No reason is given for the census, but it is clear from the scripture that God was angry with David for doing it.

When Joab, the captain of David’s army, reported to him the number, he admitted that he had sinned. He asked God to take away this sin because he had been very foolish.

God didn’t let David off so easily. He gave him three punishments from which to choose. He could have three years of famine, running from his enemies for three months, or have three days of pestilence. David chose three days of pestilence. So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 people died.

An angel then presented himself to destroy Jerusalem, but the Lord decided not to carry out the destruction The Lord spoke to the angel and said, “It is enough; now stay your hand” (Second Samuel 24:16 ESV).

At this point David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord “standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem” (First Chronicles 21:16). What an awesome sight that must have been. It was enough to put David on his face begging God to punish him and not the people.

This angel who had been “working destruction”, sent a prophet named Gad to see David, and Gad told him to go and offer sacrifices to the Lord on the threshing floor of a man named Ornan (First Chronicles 21:18). David was in no position to argue, and he did exactly as Gad instructed him to do.

Ornan was at his threshing floor, and he saw the angel. He had four sons with him, and they all hid themselves. When Ornan saw David, he went to him and bowed out of respect to the king.

I love this part of the story. David asked for the threshing floor to build an altar to worship God. He wanted to buy it for the full value. Ornan’s response is, to me, humorous. He said, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all” (First Chronicles 21:23).

 In other words, Ornan had seen the angel; and he was frightened. He told David to take it, take it all. He must surely have know there was something bad going on with an angel visible to him and his sons, especially one with a drawn sword in his hand.

David refused his offer, and he insisted on paying him full price for the threshing floor. He told Ornan that he could not offer burnt offerings in a place that cost him nothing.

At the end of chapter 21, God commanded the angel to put his sword back in its sheath, and David offered his sacrifice.

The first part of this story is about faith. David should have had faith in God. He did not need to number his people to be assured of strength. Of all people, David should have known that his strength as a soldier came from God. He certainly saw that when he killed Goliath.

The second part of the story is about sacrifice. That which costs us nothing means nothing.

This is why we teach our children the value of money, of working for what they want, and even sacrificing time to benefit someone else. That which costs us nothing has no real value.

We are blessed to be in American because others sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We are blessed to have redemption from sins because Jesus, our Savior, sacrificed His life that we might live.

What will you sacrifice? What will you give up to be a servant of our Lord? Read the words of our Lord as he tells us what we need to sacrifice. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:24-26).

We cannot expect to reap the rewards of heaven when it costs us nothing.

Sandra Oliver