Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented from the calamity, and He said to the angel who was destroying the people, "Enough! Withdraw your hand now!" At that time the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Sermons I. THIS IS NOT THE REPENTANCE OF ONE WHO HAS DONE WRONG. This is the usual application of the word, but it obviously has no place here. The penalty inflicted upon David was a just and deserved one. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" As a Ruler of inflexible righteousness, the Lord demands our reverence and confidence in all the proceedings of his providence. II. IT IS THE REPENTANCE OF PITY. We find a satisfaction in attributing to the Lord the emotions of pity, of long-suffering, and of love. The spectacle of the suffering nation, and the humbled, afflicted, contrite king, was one which deeply affected the Divine and fatherly heart. Repentance arose upon the perception that the chastening had now answered its purpose in rousing the sense of sin, in bringing the sinner low before the feet of a justly offended Judge and Lord. When the Lord saw this result, his heart relented and his wrath assuaged. III. IT IS REPENTANCE ISSUING IN SALVATION. Then "he said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thy hand." Pity may be sincere, but ineffectual. Not so with the Divine King. He utters his fiat, and" in the midst of wrath remembers mercy." PRACTICAL LESSONS. 1. Adore and gratefully praise the forbearance and forgiving mercy of God. 2. Consider the gracious terms upon which clemency is offered. 3. Recognize in the gospel of Christ the supreme illustration of the principle exemplified in the incident recorded in the text. - T.
And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. Lessons:I. THAT IDLENESS IS THE PARENT OF SIN. It was when David was living as king in ease at Jerusalem that he was tempted of Satan. II. THAT ONE OF THE BEST REMEDIES FOR WOE IS WORK. The angel of destruction stayed his steps at the threshing-floor of Ornan, even as the angel of salvation visited Gideon as he was threshing wheat. III. THAT PRAYER, EVEN AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR, MAY BE BY GOD'S GRACE EFFICACIOUS. When the sword was actually drawn in the hand of the destroyer it was kept from further execution when David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. IV. THAT OUR GIFTS TO GOD, AS TO MEN, SHOULD BE BESTOWED IN A GENEROUS SPIRIT. V. THAT WE SHOULD NOT OFFER TO GOD WHAT COSTS US NOTHING. VI. THAT GOD SANCTIFIES EFFORTS, HOWEVER WEAK THEY MAY BE, IF THEY BE SINCERELY MADE; ACCEPTS GIFTS, HOWEVER HUMBLE THEY MAY BE, IF BESTOWED FROM THE HEART. VII. THAT THE BEST PROOF THAT WE CAN HAVE THAT OUR OFFERING IS ACCEPTED BY GOD IS NOT THAT WE EXPERIENCE A SENSE OF INFLATED IMPORTANCE OR SELF-SATISFACTION, BUT THAT WE ARE FILLED WITH AN ABIDING SENSE OF PEACE. VIII. THAT THOUGH WE MAY WORSHIP GOD ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE, YET THAT IN HIS DULY CONSECRATED SANCTUARY, IT IS FITTEST TO DO HIM REVERENCE. (R. Young, M. A.) Homilist. That men suffer for the sins of others is a fact written in every page of history, obvious in every circle of life, and recognised as a principle in the government of God. "The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." That this principle is both just and beneficent, consider —1. That no man is made to suffer more than he deserves on account of his own personal sins. 2. The men of Israel now for their own sins deserved this stroke of justice. 3. That the evil which descends to us from others is not to be compared to that which we produce ourselves. 4. The sufferings that come to us from others can give us no remorse, which is the very sting of the judgment — our own sins do this. 5. That the knowledge that we can injure society by our own conduct has a strong tendency to restrain vice and stimulate virtue. (Homilist.) 1. Temptation. Satan the black fountain of all transgression. 2. Transgression (ver. 2). In face of warning (ver. 3). Its desperate folly seen by others (ver. 6). The deadening, hardening power of any lust. 3. Punishment (vers. 10-12). As soon will the magnet escape the influence of the pole, the sea the influence of the moon, an atom the binding force of gravitation, as the sinner escape punishment. "Be sure your sin," etc. II. THE PROGRESSIVE COURSE OF RECONCILIATION WITH GOD. 1. The messenger, God's afflictive stroke (ver. 7). The prophet, Gad (ver. 9). Every person or circumstance that reproves is God's messenger. 2. Conviction. (ver. 8). The true convict, always confesses, never excuses. Not only owns the sin, but acknowledges its greatness. 3. Penitence (ver. 16). 4. Acceptance. 5. Grateful acknowledgment (ver. 24). III. UNDERLYING TRUTHS. 1. Though man be tempted, sin is his own act. 2. Our sins affect others. How many widows and orphans! 3. Though sin be pardoned, it leaves terrible scars behind. In David's memory. Gaps in the families and homes of the people. Avoidance of sin is infinitely better than pardon. Christ the only sin-healer. (R. Berry.) When the father of the house goes down in character he carries down with him, to a considerable extent, the character of his innocent children. The bad man is laying up a bad fortune for those whom he has brought into the world; long years afterwards they may be told how bad a man their father was, and because of his iniquity they may be made to suffer loss and pain.(J. Parker, D. D.) Our sin affects others as well as ourselves. A man whose garden was injured by a troublesome weed said it was due to a neighbour's neglect. He had let his garden run wild, and when the seeds of this particular weed were ripe, the wind blew them over the fence. So one sin may make many innocent people suffer.People Araunah, Benjamin, Dan, David, Gad, Gibeon, Israelites, Joab, Levi, OrnanPlaces Beersheba, Dan, Gath, Gibeon, JerusalemTopics Angel, Araunah, Beheld, Calamity, Cease, Comforted, Destroy, Destroyed, Destroying, Destruction, Disaster, Evil, Floor, Grain-floor, Grieved, Jebusite, Jeb'usite, Jerusalem, Messenger, Ornan, Regret, Relax, Relented, Repented, Sorry, Standing, Stay, Stood, Threshing, Threshingfloor, Threshing-floor, WithdrawOutline 1. David, tempted by Satan, forces Joab to number the people5. The number of the people being brought, David repents of it 9. David having three plagues proposed by God, chooses the pestilence 14. After the death of 70,000, David by repentance prevents the destruction of Jerusalem 18. David, by Gad's direction, purchases Ornan's threshing floor; 26. where having built an altar, God gives a sign of his favor by fire. 28. David sacrifices there, being restrained from Gibeon by fear of the angel Dictionary of Bible Themes 1 Chronicles 21:15 1210 God, human descriptions 1135 God, suffering of 4113 angels, agents of judgment Library "For what the Law could not Do, in that it was Weak through the Flesh, God Sending his Own Son in the Likeness of Sinful Flesh,Rom. viii. 3.--"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." For what purpose do we meet thus together? I would we knew it,--then it might be to some better purpose. In all other things we are rational, and do nothing of moment without some end and purpose. But, alas! in this matter of greatest moment, our going about divine ordinances, we have scarce any distinct or deliberate … Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, The Hardening in the Sacred Scripture. Chronicles Links 1 Chronicles 21:15 NIV1 Chronicles 21:15 NLT 1 Chronicles 21:15 ESV 1 Chronicles 21:15 NASB 1 Chronicles 21:15 KJV 1 Chronicles 21:15 Bible Apps 1 Chronicles 21:15 Parallel 1 Chronicles 21:15 Biblia Paralela 1 Chronicles 21:15 Chinese Bible 1 Chronicles 21:15 French Bible 1 Chronicles 21:15 German Bible 1 Chronicles 21:15 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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