Remembrance Day will be with us again on November 11, so it’s time to call to mind the costly price of sacrifice. When King David needed a certain threshing floor as the site for an altar, its owner offered it as a gift, work oxen included. But, knowing that sacrifice has its price, David refused. “No, I will surely pay you for it; nor will I offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24)
A definitive sacrificial act is recorded in 2 Samuel 23:14-17. Hiding from King Saul in a cave, David voices his longing for a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem, his hometown. On hearing it, his three mightiest warriors, captains all, break through the ranks of the Philistines, draw water from the well, and bring it to him.
x“Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out unto the LORD, saying, ‘Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this; is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?’ Therefore he would not drink it.”
David’s three mightiest men had been willing to shed their blood to satisfy their king’s desire. David saw that their offering was priceless. His thirst still unquenched, David poured out the water as a drink offering, as a libation to the LORD.
A thousand years later, the Son of David poured out His desire as a drink offering. “Nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done.” Jesus knew the well from which David’s mighty men had drawn the water. Bethlehem was his hometown. He knew the priceless value of King David’s sacrificial offering. As a warrior himself – the greatest ever — Jesus broke through a far greater enemy, Death, to draw the water of life for all who were thirsty. The difference was that he paid the ultimate price by shedding his precious, sinless lifeblood. When the time came he faced up to the call of God and did his duty.
The blood of Jesus is priceless. Do we recognize the value of the life that was poured out for us? We value the memory of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have sacrificed their lives for our country. But do we value to a greater degree the life Jesus willingly poured out for the life of the world when he shed his blood for you and for me? Calvary. Lest we forget.