David's Choice

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Then the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
"Go and tell David, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you." ' "
So Gad came to David and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Choose for yourself,
'either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the LORD--the plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.' Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me."
And David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man."
So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the LORD looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, "It is enough; now restrain your hand." And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of the Ornan the Jebusite.
1 Chronicles 21:9-15

God was mad at David because David took a census of Israel, Satan was behind it. David did take responsibility and asked God to only punish him and his house, not God's people. So the angel of the LORD told Gad to tell David to build an altar. David built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
King David bought the threshing floor from Ornan the Jebusite for six hundred shekels of gold. God answered David on the threshing floor, and the LORD commanded the the angel, who responded by returning his sword to its sheath. So David, after seeing this, sacrificed on the threshing floor. David was elated, and he decided this was the place for God's temple.
I didn't realize, at first, that this passage was going to lead to the building of the temple. The temple was built by King David's son, King Solomon, because God wouldn't let King David build His temple, because he had shed much blood and made great wars in God's sight. But King Solomon did a great job, with a lot of help, of course. Tell God that you love Him.

Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is:  'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
    'And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'  This is the first commandment.
    "And the second, like it, is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."
                         Mark 12:29-31

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