James Nisbet Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:24 - 24:24

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James Nisbet Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:24 - 24:24


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THE COST OF WORSHIP

‘Neither will I offer … of that which doth cost me nothing.’

2Sa_24:24

Here we have great principle of all worship for all time. Neither in worship, expressed by material sacrifices, nor by the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise will God accept offerings made without cost. Our worship should cost us:—

I. Money.—Apostolic precept enacts rule of Christian almsgiving as a weekly accompaniment of weekly worship. The re-establishment of the weekly offertory is the restoration of this principle. But the offering must cost something. ‘Cost’ is a relative term, but whatever gift we do not feel is a gift that costs us nothing.

II. Time.—The Jews sacrificed a great deal of time (e.g. journeys to Jerusalem) for their worship, yet in our own day, with churches at our very doors, want of time is the excuse for absence. Even shortened services are too long for the present generation. Yet time is given ungrudgingly to amusement.

III. Thought.—Worship can never be by proxy. The worshipper’s own spirit must be alert. Easy to be a silent auditor, but the chief glory of English Church worship is the audible part worshippers are bidden to take in the service. What concentration of thought and heart needed to worship in spirit and in truth!

Canon John Robertson, d.d.

Illustration

‘David would not serve the Lord with that which cost him nothing. The thought needs only to be put in words to commend itself to every conscience. God’s service is neither a form nor a sham; it is a great reality. If we desire to show our honour for Him, it must be in a way suited to the occasion. Yet how often is God served with that which costs men nothing? Men that will lavish hundreds and thousands to gratify their own fancy—what miserable driblets they often give to the cause of God! The smallest of coins is good enough for His treasury. And as for other forms of serving God, what a tendency there is in our time to make everything easy and pleasant,—to forget the very meaning of self-denial! It is high time that that word of David were brought forth and put before every conscience, and made to rebuke ever so many professed worshippers of God, whose rule of worship is to serve God with what does cost them nothing.’