Useful Bible Studies > 2 Samuel Commentary > chapter 24

The place that God chose for his temple

2 Samuel 24:25

God had shown clearly where David should offer his sacrifices. Those sacrifices were animals that David gave to God. For some of the sacrifices, the priests burned the whole animal as a gift to God. However, some of the sacrifices were peace offerings, sacrifices to show friendship between God, the people, and the priests. The priests only burned certain parts of those animals; they shared most of the meat between themselves, and David and the people. That expressed the fact that God had mended the relationship between himself and Israel.

David saw that God had chosen that special place (1 Chronicles 22:1). It would be the place of God’s house, the temple, where all Israel’s people would offer their sacrifices to God (Deuteronomy 12:5-14).

That place had a special name, Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1). That name means ‘the place that God chose’. The name appears in only one other place in the Bible: Genesis 22:2. It was the place where God sent Abraham, to offer his son Isaac to God. However, Isaac did not die there, because God provided a male sheep for Abraham to offer instead of Isaac (Genesis 22:1-14).

That was what God did for David at that special place. Long afterwards, God continued to do it for Israel’s people at the temple. He provided animals that they offered to him. As God accepted back the life of those animals, so he heard and answered his people’s prayers. God was mending their relationship with him.

In that way, God taught them that their evil deeds separated them from him (Isaiah 59:1-2). He also prepared them to know how they could have a better relationship with him by his king, the Messiah. The Messiah would suffer, like the sacrifices, to mend people’s relationship with God (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53:3-6; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 9:14).

In this place, David offered his animals to God, and God accepted them. So, the terrible illness that had spread through Israel, ended.

This book is in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words), which was developed by Wycliffe Associates (UK).

April 2023

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