Once when King David sinned, it caused a plague among God’s people. Thousands of Israelites died. King David cried out to God for mercy and pleaded that the plague would stop.
God opened David’s eyes and he saw an angel with his sword drawn standing above a threshing floor in Jerusalem that belonged to Ornan.
David ran up to Ornan and bought his threshing floor. Then he sacrificed on that threshing floor to God. God was pleased with the sacrifice, and the angel put his sword in its sheath. The plague stopped among God’s people.
The threshing floor is a place that operates during harvest time. Grain is taken from the field to the threshing floor and is beaten out. The chaff is separated from the grain at the threshing floor, and the chaff blown away or burned. The grain is then taken into the barn.
We are like grains of wheat that God is purifying for his purposes. God is removing the chaff from our lives, which represents sin and evil. He is preparing us. For this to happen, sometimes we must go to the threshing floor.
Threshing is a time of separation. We are called to be holy, separated from sins. We are also called to be separate from unbelievers – “come out from among them and be separate says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17). We are called to be separate from the filth of the world and to seek first the kingdom of God.
The threshing floor represents a time of cleansing, tribulation, conflict, salvation, and judgment.
Jesus said the harvest is a picture of the end of the age (Matthew 13:39). At the end of the age, the entire world will be brought to the threshing floor of God. The things that are according to God will remain, but that which is not according to God will be destroyed.
After the plague stopped, King David realized that Ornan’s threshing floor was to be the place for God’s temple. Over the following months, David prepared everything to build God’s temple, gathering all the materials. Then he gave these materials to his son Solomon, along with instructions about how to build God’s temple. Solomon then built the temple in Jerusalem, at the site of Ornan’s threshing floor (2 Chronicles 3:1).
The temple was built on the place where God’s judgment against sin was stopped, and the plague ended. This was the place where God’s mercy was shown to his people, and his glory was seen.
Today, the house of God is the church. The church is built on the foundation of the sacrifice of Christ, which brings an end to God’s wrath against us for sin. This perfect sacrifice ends the plague of God that was against us.
Ornan’s threshing floor was located on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1).
Abraham had once taken his son Isaac up to Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2). God had told him to sacrifice his son Isaac on that mountain. Abraham knew that Isaac was destined to be the heir of the promises of God, but now God was asking him to kill him. Abraham didn’t flinch, but promptly took him up the mountain and prepared to kill him. Abraham knew that even if Isaac died, God would raise him up from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). Abraham believed in the power of resurrection, and he knew that God’s promises would never fail.
When Abraham’s knife was about to slash into his son, an angel stopped him. Abraham quickly saw a ram, and sacrificed that ram to God instead. The ram represents Jesus Christ, who is the true sacrifice to take away our sins. He died in our place, so we don’t have to die but can have eternal life.
Centuries later, in the same spot, at Ornan’s threshing floor, God stopped the angel that had unleashed a plague among God’s people. The angel sheathed his sword, and this holy site became the place of God’s temple.
The house of God will be built upon the earth at the end of the age. God’s house will be manifested all over the world as his faithful people. It will be a testimony to the triumph of mercy over judgment. Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God. In the place of trouble and challenge, God’s house will be revealed. God’s people will be kept safe in his house, as the chaff is blown away and burned in the fires of the end times.
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