21:24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full {l} price: for I will not take [that] which [is] thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
(l) That is, as much as it is worth: for having enough of his own, and yet to have taken of another man's goods to offer to the Lord would had been theft and not acceptable to God.
21:1-30 David's numbering the people. - No mention is made in this book of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David's offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God's presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.
