Who is Araunah?

2 Samuel 24:1

"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah."

1 Chronicles 21:1

"And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel."

Oh the beauty again of the Chronological Bible.  I did a double take when 1 Chronicles 21 repeated 2 Samuel 24, but the very first verse appeared to credit two very different agents, respectively:  "Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel," and "God moved David [to number Israel and Judah]."

As I have said, I am not a theologian.  I just really love the riches of the word of God, have a "teaching" instinct from so many years of homeschooling and am blessed to exchange thoughts and inspiration now with my lovely mother, who mothered me not only in the flesh, but in the spirit.  Of late our sharpening seems to be on mercy and grace.

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!  It is like the precious ointment upon the head that went down to the skirts of his garments.  It is as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." Ps. 133.   She might laugh and say, "yea, I'm 83 and the Lord seems like He's giving me life for evermore!"  

What bothered me about these two readings is that God considered what David did (numbering the people) to be sin and punished him thereafter.  But was it not God who moved David to sin?  Or was it Satan?  How is God fair, if He moves us to sin, then punishes us for it?  Is Satan a big scary monster or a tool in the hands of the living God?  So many questions.  I remember as a new Christian being tremendously afraid of Satan.  I (emphasize "I") wanted to perfect my life, not out of love for the author of my life, but often out of fear I was giving Satan an inch into it.  You see, I spent a sleepless night, shaking in my boots, at 17 years old after seeing the Exorcist.  That's how I saw Satan and I sure didn't want him to possess me.  So, I burned my Led Zeppelin [and the likes] albums, rid my house of evil objects and probably gave my children some very distorted views of both God and the devil.  If you kids are reading this, I apologize. 

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that Satan is alive and well; it's just that I now realize he comes as an angel of light, not the destroyer he ultimately is.  Remember he exalted himself above God, and that has been his mission ever since, identified clearly in the Garden of Eden when he inserted the seed of rebellion into Adam's heart.  God told Adam, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: BUT of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in that day you shall surely die."  Satan asked Eve (who did not personally hear God's command for she was not yet created....Gen. 17), "Hath God said, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"  Eve knew the right answer (I'm quite certain Adam told her what God said), but Satan instilled a desire to exalt herself.  "Ye shall not die! For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened....and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."  Satan also knew the right answer, mixing truth (you shall know good and evil) with lies (you shall not die, you shall be as gods!).  She ate, she gave Adam to eat, and henceforth we all have the seed of rebellion against God in us, because we do have the knowledge of good and evil, and as surely as we do, we surely have died.  In the physical, it is easy to see that death reigns, but in the spiritual, it is much harder to tell (unless you see it clearly in the Exorcist!), but we surely died spiritually that day.  How do we know?  Because we know good and evil.  

This scene in the Garden of Eden is much like the two seemingly contradictory passages of 2 Samuel 24:1 and 1 Chronicles 21:1.  You see somewhere in the scheme of things good and evil already existed (that is definitely for another topic!) - God told Adam..."but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat!"  So arguably, we can say God planted the seed of rebellion, right?  So why is Satan blamed?

Job also depicts this dichotomy.  God asks Satan in Job 1:8, "Did you notice my servant Job? There is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is.  He worships me and is careful not to do anything evil."  Satan responds, "Would Job worship you if he got nothing out of it? ...But now suppose you take away everything he has - he will curse you to your face!"  

So God lets Satan loose.  Test Job, but these are the conditions.....

And these were the conditions David faced in 2 Samuel 24:1 and 1 Chronicles 21:1 and why God used  Satan to accomplish God's purpose:  to reveal the rebellion in our hearts.  You see David sinned outwardly by numbering Israel and Judah, yet God had moved him to, to reveal what was in hisown heart.  God sends a first witness to David - Joab, who said, "Now the Lord thy God add unto the people how many soever they be, a hundred fold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it:  but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?"  You see, David had just wrought great victories over the "termites" as my mom likes to say.  His pride was raging, but also he showed that in his heart he didn't really trust God.  If you read the preceding verses, you'll see that it's always mentioned how many men in the enemies' armies, or how much spoil was taken, how many captives enslaved and you can almost imagine David (insert me) estimating the vastness of his own army.  Clearly Joab said the numbers don't matter because the battle is the Lord's!  In fact, the only times I have been able to research that God told the Israelites to be counted was, going out of Egypt, and after the 40 years in the wilderness.  Clearly Gideon shows us the battle is the Lord's.  

1 Chronicles 21:7 says God smote Israel; 2 Samuel 24:10 says "...and David's heart smote him after that he numbered the people."  He then repented.  

However, the consequence still remained.  David's prophet, Gad, came to David and said, "God is offering you the choice of one of three punishments:  seven years of famine in the land, three months of being chased by his enemies, or three days pestilence in the land. You pick."  [paraphrased...]

David's response is so like our own, especially when we realize just how cruel men can be.  2 Sam. 24:14: "David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait:  let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man."  So God sent pestilence and 70,000 of David's people died, with God, ultimately saying, "that is enough" (or it is finished!).  David is devastated over his sin and asks God, "Lo, I have sinned, but what have these sheep done?"  Oh Lord!  Isn't that the truth?  The consequences of sin do not just affect the sinner, but the entire body!  Go to your brother - if he repents, you've won him back!  If he doesn't, give him another chance - bring another witness.  If he still doesn't, bring him before the whole body.  Then, let him have his way, "Let me fall into the hands of the Lord; for His mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man."  That is brotherly love.  Sounds harsh, but really it is God's mercy.  

The consequences of David's sin greatly affected the people and David cried in vs. 17, "Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done?  Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house."

If you read again 2 Samuel 24:1 and 1 Chronicles 21:1, however, you see that the anger of the Lord was stirred up against ISRAEL, not David.  You see David was King and, while he may not have been commanded to number the army, I can't find that it was ever forbidden (correct me if I'm wrong please!).  In fact, God warned Israel through Samuel when they wanted a King (1 Samuel 8:11-13), "If you have a king, this is how he will treat you.  He will force your sons to join his army.  Some of them will ride in his chariots, some will serve in the cavalry, and others will run ahead of his own chariot.  Some of them will be officers in charge of a thousand soldiers, and others will be in charge of fifty....etc."  But Israel insisted they wanted a King for a leader just like all the other nations.  So God gave them a King.  And this was the consequence of their own sin.  God answered, grieving Samuel, "Do everything they want you to do.  I am really the one they have rejected as their king.  Ever since the day I rescued my people from Egypt, they have turned from me to worship idols.  Now they are turning away from you.  Do everything they ask, but warn them and tell them how a king will treat them."  

What I take from all of this rambling, is that God is really after our hearts.  After David begs mercy for his people, Gad prophecies to David to buy the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.  Google that man.  You'll find that Araunah the Jebusite's threshing floor was located on the summit of Mount Moriah.  The same place Abraham offered his son Isaac, his only son, as the sacrifice, and the same place God offered his son, his only son, as the consummate sacrifice.  Think about it.  Our sacrificial lamb gave his life on a threshing floor.  

thresh  (thrsh)

v. threshed, thresh·ing, thresh·es

v.tr.

1.

a. To beat the stems and husks of (grain or cereal plants) with a machine or flail to separate the grains or seeds from the straw.

b. To separate (grains or seeds) in this manner.

When David approached Araunah, Araunah willingly GAVE the threshing floor, the threshing instruments and the oxen's wooden yokes for fuel.  But David's response to Araunah was, "Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price:  neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which cost me nothing."

You see Jesus truly is the pearl of great price. Reflecting back to the Garden of Eden, that seed of rebellion had to be threshed.  Our sin separated us from God.  He removed the chaff (our stony hearts), gave us a heart of flesh ready to receive the seed of salvation.  So perfection does not come from the outward man, as the Pharisees thought who used the scriptures with no cost, but the inward man - the new creation Jesus spoke of.  Now He is at work in me, his seed bearing the fruit of salvation.   Now, when I sin I have an advocate; I see God's chastening as evidence I am his child -  God's consequences  his mercy, bringing me back.  I don't cast blame on Satan in the garden, David as King, Israel for wanting a King, or any reason I might justify my sin.  Like Job and David, a man after God's own heart, I repent.  Because I have a heart after God's own heart.

The end result of Job I think is summed up in two verses 1) Job 42:5-6 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes," and 2) Job 1:22, "In spite of everything that had happened, Job did not sin by blaming God."  

I would encourage you in light of this to re-read Matthew chapter 13, but I will close with vs. 16:

"But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

Peace.

Incidentally.  The name Araunah means "ark."