In First Samuel, the chronicler tells many stories from the life of David. David’s wheel of fortune leaves Boethius’s life looking like an afternoon stroll. His fortunes rise and fall quickly as he moves from being a shepherd, to a valued companion to the king, to a successful warrior, to a hunted man, to the king of Israel, and finally, an old and broken man who cannot keep warm.
The story of David and the Holy Bread has always fascinated me, perhaps due to Jesus’ [re]telling of it in the gospels. David, fleeing Jerusalem at Jonathan’s warning, enters a temple and pleads for but “five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” The priest, for a reason not explained to the reader (perhaps he saw the Spirit’s presence in David’s face, or he simply had pity on a frightened and hungry boy), allows David to eat the bread that sits before the Presence of the Lord (once he is satisfied as to David’s purity).
This is the bread reserved for the priests (see Leviticus 24:9), reserved for the priests by the commandment of the Lord God, the commandment delivered to Moses at Mt. Sinai. Now, it is true that Israel hadn’t done the best of jobs keeping even the first commandment, so it is not surprising that the priest might let law # 154 slide. But, when one considers Samuel’s recent rebuke of Saul:
Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Surely to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed than the fat of rams.
as well as the Lord’s word through Hosea (quoted by Jesus after his telling of the story of David and the bread):
I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
this story takes on a different tenor. This is from the same God who gives laborious and detailed instructions to the Israelites stretching to every corner of their leprosy inflicted homes.
Is every word of the commandments of God important? Yes.
Is mercy more important than bread? Yes.
How does this work? I don’t know.
But, I do know that this incident must have been a startling reminder to David that God is not a unreasonably exacting god, but one who desires obedience and mercy– a necessary lesson for a future king.
Rebecca
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