4th December 2023

4th December 2023


Pray (ACts)


Read - 1 Samuel 21:1-9 & Mark 2:23-28


Message Alan Burke 


Human need is a higher law than religious ritualism. That is the emphasis that Jesus makes when he uses what happens here in 1 Samuel to defend the actions of His disciples. What had happened in Mark which you have read is that the disciples were hungry and while going through a field of grain they pluck some heads of grain and eat it. Doesn’t sound that appetising but then we’re use to having the biscuit cupboard and crisp cupboard jammed packed with things that appeal to our desire for junk food. Anyway walking though they pick some heads of grain and eat. What happens in 1 Samuel is that David fled Saul and headed to Nob. What we learn as the passage continues is that David went to enquire of the Lord there (22:10,15). Remember at this stage there is still no Temple in Jerusalem and Nob had become the centre for worship after the sanctuary was destroyed in Shiloh. Nob was basically a priestly city Ahimelech is the great grandson of Eli the priest who oversaw things there. 


Now just on this, in Mark Jesus speaks of here occurred in the days of Abiathar the high priest, that is his lifetime his father Ahimelech was high priest as 1 Samuel makes clear. The reason why Jesus said Abiathar rather than Ahimelech is that Abiathar had a much more prominent part in what follows. With David’s arrival Ahimelech trembles and asks, why are you alone, why is no one with you? There was no reason for Ahimelech to fear unless he knew fine well of Saul’s hatred for David and that he was even a hunted man. Even speaking to David,  Ahimelech was putting himself at risk, his actions would have been seen by the paranoid Saul as treason. 


In the conversion that comes between David and Ahimelech about the secret mission, the bread of the presence is really a fudge. What I mean by that is that David here is spinning a story for his own advantage, this is a blatant attempt to deceive Ahimelech. What you need to notice here and throughout this passage is that there is no moral judgement made by the text about David’s actions, there is silence. The question of David about the bread is one of those ones that wasn’t asked in ignorance, David would have known fine well that there was the bread of the presence that was only to be ate by the priest and his family (Lev 21). David is chancing his arm, and the priest plays his part, making the necessity of the men keeping themselves from women and being pure, in reality all of this is a nonsense. There is nothing in the letter of the law that allowed for the bread to be given to anyone else other than the priest. 


Jesus makes the same point in Mark 2 appealing to this passage when debating with the Pharisees. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with the disciples actions, the law of Moses said that as long as you didn’t use a sickle you could take what you needed from the field (Deut 23:25). The Pharisees saw the disciples as harvesting a violation of the sabbath. To them these disciples of Jesus were not only taking liberty with the sabbath but they were breaking it, they were sinning publicly, in such a way that it cast Jesus in a poor light. The Pharisees had taken something good, that God had given for good and they had by their method of interpretation misused it. That’s what we see here, their sinful hearts. 


To this Jesus takes the Pharisees to this passage in 1 Samuel pointing to how it was the priests who were alone allowed to eat this bread, yet David ate (cf. Exod 25:30; 35:13; 39:36; Lev 24:5–9). Jesus uses this to remind the Pharisees that although the action of David was contrary to the law, he was not condemned. Jesus does not claim that the Sabbath law has not technically been broken by David but that such violations under certain conditions are warranted. “Human need is a higher law than religious ritualism”. David’s need that day for food was more important than ritualism, more important than the law. After receiving the bread he then enquired of a weapon. Again David knew fine well that the sword of Goliath was there and he was given it by Ahimelech. Human need is a higher law than religious ritualism. Our Confession of Faith makes this point when it comes to the Christian Sabbath and how it is to be kept holy unto the Lord except in regard to the duties of necessity and mercy (XXI.8). There are times that human need comes above God’s word but those times are a lot less frequent than we might imagine and are more than some are willing to recognise. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q6 How many persons are there in the Godhead?
There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. (1 John 5:7, Matt. 28:19)
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