Real Life

1 Samuel 21:1-10

¹Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” ²And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. ³Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” ⁴And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” ⁶So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. ⁷Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen. ⁸Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” ⁹And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.” ¹⁰And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.

One of the central aspects of the Biblical narrative is that it deals with real life. This isn’t a book of sunshine and lollipops or only angels and miracles. God’s Word addresses our simplest and most complex needs. As David begins his life on the run, he has to address his most urgent and basic of needs, physical hunger. He runs to Nob, near his own home fairly close to Jerusalem. There he enters the place of worship and has an interaction with Ahimelech, the high priest.

It’s a fairly bold request David makes of Ahimelech; “Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” This bread he is requesting is the “Show Bread” or “The Bread of the Presence”. This bread was baked fresh each Sabbath Day and was made up of 12 large loves (one for each Tribe). Twelve fresh loaves were baked weekly and the priests would eat the bread from the previous offering. Each loaf was quite large, having been made from 12 cups of flour. Supposedly, only the priests were fit to eat this bread. David boldly demands some of this bread for himself and his men – none of whom were priests. (There is some doubt as to whether or not David even had and “men” at this point. It may have been David alone at this time.)

Why does God allow the breaking of His ordinances on David’s behalf?

Matthew 12:3-4

³He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: ⁴how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

God prioritizes the showing of mercy over external conformity to regulations, so if this was simply a matter of using the holy bread to feed those in desperate need, the preservation of life should have been given precedence. Jesus used this incident to teach that God’s Law was not designed to prevent actions that serve human needs and preserve life. This general principle is articulated by Jesus in other ways also. The priests were allowed to violate the Sabbath regulation against work in order to bring forgiveness and eternal life to Israel through the sacrifices. Circumcision was permitted on the Sabbath in order to bring a child into the blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham. Jesus taught that this principle even applies to animal welfare: one could do work on the Sabbath by providing water for animals or rescue an animal that had fallen into a pit or well. Moreover, if the requirement of priesthood was set aside for the sake of feeding David and his men, how much more should the Son of David, “the Lord of the Sabbath”, be able to feed his disciples on the Sabbath! All baptized believers in him comprise “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation”. He himself serves as their great High Priest. For the sustenance of their faith and life, he provides them with the holy food of his own body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, in his Holy Supper.

Steinmann, A. E. ©2016. 1 Samuel. (p. 412). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

I think that sometimes we lose sight of the fact that God is interested in our real lives, not just the upper echelon of His plan for us. He cares if we have the food we need and the safety we require. God’s care extends even to bread and for a final thought, we can ponder the fact that Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life.