SUNDAY 20 November, 2016
Judgment Restrained
And when the angelstretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lordrelented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lordwas by the threshing floor of Araunahthe Jebusite. - 2 Samuel 24:16
As the angel continued in a path of destruction––with His hand was about to destroy Jerusalem, but God in His mercy restrained Him. The allotted judgment period was over and the angel of the Lord remained by the threshing floor of Araunah.
Araunah’s threshing floor was on an elevated plateau. It was a place where the chaff was separated from the wheat. Later, David’s son, Solomon chose the site to build the temple of the LORD:
Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lordat Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan [Araunah]the Jebusite (2 Chronicles 3:1).
Both in the New and Old Testaments, the threshing floor symbolizes judgment. Notice how David prayed to the Lord concerning his enemies:
Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind… Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them(Psalm 35:4-6).
Who else is described as chaff? Psalm 1:4 tells us: The ungodly…are like the chaff which the wind drives away. John the Baptist used this familiar picture to warn the ungodly of God’s judgment.
His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.
~Luke 3:16-17~
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