8/28/2006

Araunah's threshing floor

2 Samuel 24:15-16 - So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, "Enough! Withdraw your hand." The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

I wonder if David was the only one who could see the angel. Araunah doesn't seem to have noticed the angel because he is puzzled as to why David is paying him a visit. You'd think that, if Araunah had seen and recognized the angel, he could have put two and two together.

I wonder how David knew it was the angel of destruction that he saw at the threshing floor. Was it from Gad's message and the being's location? Was it the general appearance of the being? Did David see the angel strike anyone dead before God stopped him? Did the angel look capable of doing so?

I wonder what plague the angel used to strike people dead. Or was the angel himself the plague? Was some natural occurance, like a heart attack, used? Was it some less common disease? Or even a common yet deadly, untreatable disease? It seems to have been something that took effect quickly as it sounds like the 70,000 all died that one day.

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