THE THRESHING FLOOR III

One of the most well known stories about threshing floors is when the prophet Gad had a word from the Lord and told David “to build an altar on threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite” (2 Samuel 24:18-19). David went to buy the threshing floor and Araunah wanted to give it to him. Araunah told David, “My lord the king may take whatever he wishes and offer it. Look! Here are oxen for burnt offerings, and threshing sledges and harnesses (yokes) for wood.” (24:22) (Threshing sledges were heavy boards used in ancient times for loosening grain from husks. On the bottom sides of these boards sharp stones were embedded, and the boards were then dragged across the grain on a threshing floor by an ox or donkey.) NET notes.

The famous line from David is next in the story: “No, I insist on buying it from you! I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt sacrifices that cost me nothing.” (24:24)
The same story is in 1 Chronicles 21 and tells us that David paid ‘600 shekels of gold’ (about 15 pounds) for the threshing floor site (1Chronicles 21:25). David did build an altar there “and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.” (21:26)

But there is more to the story: The threshing floor of Araunah was on Mount Moriah… the Temple Mount… where the temple was built. “Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.” (2 Chronicles 3.1)

Araunah’s threshing floor is still under the temple on Mount Moriah.

“I say to you, in this place there is One who is greater than the temple.” Jesus