When, in the Old Testament, King David sins against God, the prophet Gad tells him to offer a sacrifice by way of reconciliation. Hearing of this, a well-intentioned King Araunah offers to ease David’s burden by providing both the site for the altar and the sacrificial oxen. David reproves him, asking, how can “I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing”?11 Abraham, the wise men, and King David understood that in true worship, we approach the Divine with the desire to offer treasures and gifts, not to seek them.
