The last word

What will the end be like when you finally reach the finish line? What will be the last words on your lips; words of praise, curse or confusion? Some people, the world considers important, have mouthed some of the most ridiculous things imaginable. Here is a couple. “Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.” Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, d. March 26, 1827. “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.” Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957. “Damn it . . . Don't you dare ask God to help me.” To her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud. Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977.

King David was very old when he passed on into eternity. A thriving kingdom, not without its share of problems, was being given to his son Solomon. He had survived many ordeals and buried his share of children. But if I could manage to murmur something intelligent before giving up my spirit, I hope it would resemble what King David said to his son Solomon.

“Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying: “I go the way of all the earth; be strong therefore and be a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statues, His commandments, His judgments and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the Lord may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying ‘If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne in Israel.’ ” 1 Kings 2:1-4.

We know that David finished well, but the road he chose was often full of potholes. His heart was quick to admit his failures and sin against God, driving him back to repentance. David left this world in peace; however it wouldn’t take too long for the kingdom to be divided and engaged in a full civil war. History would reveal a few good kings, a couple of great kings but a long list of evil kings that did not follow the last words of David, not walking with God but following their own evil desires.

David indeed finished well. The last snapshot of his life portrays a scene where David is commanded by Gad to erect and alter to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite..” As Aaunah sees the king coming up to the top of the mountain he bowed before the king with his face to the ground. As David approaches him he tells him that he is here to purchase the land on which the threshing floor was built so that he can build an alter and sacrifice to the Lord.

Araunah, without skipping a beat offers to give the land, his oxen and yokes of wood for the fire to the king as a gift but David will have none of it. Here is David’s reply to Araunah “Then the king said to Araunah, ‘No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.’” 2 Samuel 24:24.

There are many interesting things about this last chapter in David’s life story. One is the fact that about one thousand years earlier, Father Abraham took his son Isaac to this very same spot to offer him as commanded as a burnt offing to the Lord. “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will show you.” Genesis 22:2.

As the story goes,  Abraham is obedient to God but at the last moment, before the knife is driven into Isaac’s chest, God intervenes and provides a substitution; a ram who was caught in the thicket.  In verse 8 of the Genesis 22 passage Abraham informs his son that God will provide for Himself the lamb for the sacrifice. This mountain top of Moriah and the rock cropping where Abraham and Isaac were standing, would become the threshing floor David is trying to purchase from Araunah. This beautiful picture, of a father willing to give up his own son in worship of God, was planned by God to demonstrate His own love for the world He created.

You see, unlike Isaac who was spared, the Father was willing to send His one and only son to that same mountain to be humiliated and sacrificed as payment for the world’s sin on a wooden cross.