Everything is sacred...

I cannot present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing. -2 Samuel 24:24

I should be sleeping right now. Work comes in about 6 hours. But I was unable to sleep because I read that above. Here's the context of the scripture.

David decides to take a census of all of Israel and Judah. For some reason, this is was something inflicted by God's burning wrath. I'm not sure why, but I'll research that sometime and post it here. But yeah. So David takes this census, and then feels guilty about it later. In repentance for his sin (once again, I am going to figure that out), God tells him to choose one of three punishments. The punishment chosen is a plague on Israel for 3 days. 70 thousand people die of that plague in 3 days. So the way that David has to stop this is he has to build an altar to God on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David gets there and insists on buying the threshing floor from him. The verse above is why. All of this is 2 Samuel 24, so if you wanna read it, that's where it is.

But yeah. Here we go. This is why I can't sleep. It reminded me of a conversation that I had this weekend. Well, a few actually. About sacrifice. It made me think about it a lot more...

What good is living for God if you don't have to sacrifice anything? What good is living period if you don't sacrifice anything? There is no point to living if you have everything your little heart desires. What good is sacrifice though, if it doesn't cost you a thing? Isn't that what sacrifice is all about? Giving up something precious and dear to you for the sake of another? In the OT, when they sacrificed, they sacrificed the BEST of their herds and crops and so on. These rams and sheep and bulls and doves could probably feed their families for the next 3 months they sacrificed so often. But in the giving of something precious, blessing was brought to them. Of course, there's the whole deal with the personal ambition behind it, but when ambition and personal gain are not necessarily in the picture with the sacrifice deal, God blessed the one sacrificing.

I guess this is my point. I've prolly made it before, because like I said, I should be in bed right now. But anyway, my point. Living for God should have a cost. It could be financial instability throughout life, it could be constant heartbreak, but it's a price that should be paid gladly. (A good movie that discusses this topic...sorta...with guns and fights and awesome stuff like that is EQUILIBRIUM...suggest you watch it).

Anyway, work is now around 5 hours away, so I bid you adieu. I leave you with how I started...

I cannot present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing. -2 Samuel 24:24