1 Chronicles 21

Satan is a powerful angelic adversary who stands against God and His people. Yet even the devil is under the sovereign control of Almighty God. Satan incited David to sin against God concerning this census, but that incitement was not an excuse for the king's sin. David and all Israel had to face the consequences for this serious error.

David later came to see his fault after the census had been completed. He faced God's discipline against the nation with faith in the Lord. The king trusted in God's great mercy even at this moment.

David was ready to take the punishment for his sin rather than see the Lord's correction fall upon the entire nation, but the Lord had another plan. God used this episode to identify the site for the temple that Solomon would later build.

David would pay the monetary price to buy the land for the Israel's central sanctuary. The Lord gave His own sign of approval for this particular holy place. He met David there in the fire that consumed the king's offering, and the plague against Israel that took so many lives was stopped.

The entire system of Old Covenant worship would from this moment forward be centered around the place of the king's offering. This location was identified through this moment of sin and suffering written of in the passage before us.

The New Testament no longer looks to any building made by the hands of men as the central place of our worship. We do gather around the sacrifice offered up by our King, the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth. Our King did not offer up the blood of an animal to make atonement for anyone. He gave Himself to God. He was the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world.

We gather around that one Lamb. We glory in His cross and find that we are even partakers in His resurrection. We have become the temple of the Lord. We are God's holy place.