18 So Gad came to David that day and said to him, " Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite ." 19 David went up according to the word of Gad , just as the Lord had commanded . 20 Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king . 21 Then Araunah said , "Why has my lord the king come to his servant ?" And David said , "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord , that the plague may be held back from the people ." 22 Araunah said to David , "Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight . Look , the oxen for the burnt offering , the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood . 23 "Everything , O king , Araunah gives to the king ." And Araunah said to the king , "May the Lord your God accept you." 24 However, the king said to Araunah , "No , but I will surely buy it from you for a price , for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing ." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:18-24
Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:18-25
(Read 2 Samuel 24:18-25)
God's encouraging us to offer to him spiritual sacrifices, is an evidence of his reconciling us to himself. David purchased the ground to build the altar. God hates robbery for burnt-offering. Those know not what religion is, who chiefly care to make it cheap and easy to themselves, and who are best pleased with that which costs them least pains or money. For what have we our substance, but to honour God with it; and how can it be better bestowed? See the building of the altar, and the offering proper sacrifices upon it. Burnt-offerings to the glory of God's justice; peace-offerings to the glory of his mercy. Christ is our Altar, our Sacrifice; in him alone we may expect to escape his wrath, and to find favour with God. Death is destroying all around, in so many forms, and so suddenly, that it is madness not to expect and prepare for the close of life.