Overview
Ornan (also called Araunah in 2 Samuel) was a Jebusite landowner whose threshing floor near Jerusalem played a crucial role in Israel's spiritual history. When God's plague stopped at Ornan's location during David's census judgment, David recognized this as the place where God had revealed His mercy. David purchased the threshing floor to build an altar, and this site eventually became the foundation for Solomon's temple.
Key Scriptures
"Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite" (1 Chronicles 21:18, ESV).
"So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site" (1 Chronicles 21:25, ESV).
"And Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite" (2 Chronicles 3:1, ESV).
Application
Recognize how God's judgment often contains mercy, and how He can use unexpected circumstances to accomplish His eternal purposes.