I love how you can have your choice in the scriptures. You can get the pure doctrine in the Doctrine and Covenants, or you can get the symbolic story in the Book of Mormon or the Bible. King David is a great example. As I read about David in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel chapters 1 through 10, I admire his great qualities, his obedience and pure heart, but I know Samuel 11 is coming up soon and cringe at the thought of having to read one of my two saddest chapters (the other being Mormon 6 and the fall of the Nephite civilization).
We know the story of David’s adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. The three great kings of Israel–Saul, David, and Solomon were all overcome by three temptations of pride, uncontrolled appetites of the flesh, and worldliness. Saul was taken down by pride, Solomon succumbed to worldly philosophy and riches, and David was overcome with lust. Jesus, as the King of kings, overcame all of these in Matthew chapter 4.
You can read about confidence to stand in the presence of God in D&C 121:45: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.” Or, you can read about pre-Bathsheba David and post-Bathsheba David.
The pre-Bathsheba David was confident enough to fight the giant Goliath without metallic armor and equipped with five smooth stones, a staff, and a sling. He is victorious and acknowledges God’s grace.
We read about the post-Bathsheba David in 2 Samuel 24:2, as he says to Joab, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.” The post-Bathsheba David wants to know if he has enough troops to beat the enemy. David has lost his confidence. Joab warns him concerning his lack of faith, but the king’s command prevailed.
David’s “heart smote him” after he numbered the people. The word of the Lord came to him via the prophet Gad. David could choose between seven years of famine, three months of running from his enemies, or three days of pestilence. He chose the three days of pestilence, and it cost him 70,000 men.
Gad, the prophet, came to David and said, “Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite” (2 Samuel 24:18). This would become the site for Solomon’s Temple. 2 Chronicles 3:1 states, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.” This was the same place where Abraham was commanded to offer Isaac (see Genesis 22:2).
We see the law of sacrifice displayed here. Araunah (also called Ornan) is willing to give David the threshing floor, oxen for a burnt sacrifice, and the threshing instruments for free, but David replies, “Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing.” David pays fifty shekels of silver. Yes, discipleship has a cost.
The threshing floor as a temple site is highly symbolic. When grain was harvested in olden times, there was no machinery like today. The grain had to be separated from the straw and the husks. The threshing floor was a hard, flat surface. The sheaves were spread on the floor, and oxen, or other heavy animals, repeatedly tromped over them, breaking the hard husks and separating the grain from the straw. Then, winnowing forks, called “fans” in the scriptures were used to throw the mixture into the air where the wind would blow away the chaff, and the heavier grain kernels would fall to the floor.
David offered a “burnt sacrifice” (`olah in Hebrew, meaning “to ascend”). The ascending smoke of the sacrifice symbolizes surrender to God. I like to think of this as my will going up in smoke in favor of the Lord’s will. Jesus told the Nephites that He would not accept their animal sacrifices. Instead, He would require “a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 9:19-20). This constitutes the real surrender.
Like the crushed chaff, we come to the temple with broken hearts, placing our will on the altar of sacrifice. But we are “sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 27:20). In both the Old and New Testaments, wind and spirit are the same word (ruwach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek). Just like the wind separates the chaff from the wheat, the Holy Ghost allows us to discern between good and evil. The Spirit is a refining and sanctifying power.
John the Baptist prepared the way for the Savior by saying, “I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable” (Luke 3:16-17). Elder David A. Bednar said the garners are the holy temples (David A. Bednar, “Honorably Hold a Name and a Standing,” April 2009 General Conference). He also quotes President Oaks in this talk: “The baptismal covenant clearly contemplates a future event or events and looks forward to the temple.”
