1 Samuel 21:1-6: a reflection

1Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” 2David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me to do something, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you. I have sent the young men to a certain place.’ 3Now therefore what is under your hand? Please give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever is available.” 4The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?” 6So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before the LORD, to be replaced with hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

When David, fleeing and hungry, comes to the priest at Nob, the only bread available is the holy showbread, set apart for the priests; yet the priest gives it to David and his men to eat. This was bread reserved for a sacred use; but in the face of genuine human need, hunger, it was given to feed the hungry. Long afterward, Jesus would point to this very event to teach that mercy and human need take precedence over rigid ritual observance, that the sacred rules were never meant to be kept so rigidly that a hungry person went unfed. The holy bread rightly fed the hungry; mercy and need rose above rigid ritual. God's law was given for the good of people, not to be observed so rigidly that it worked against the mercy and human need it was meant to serve.

Notice what the priest's action shows, and what Jesus drew from it: mercy and human need take precedence over rigid ritual. The showbread was holy, set apart; yet in the face of real hunger, it was given to feed the hungry, and rightly so. Jesus later cited this to teach that the sacred rules were never meant to be kept so rigidly that they worked against mercy, that human need was not to be sacrificed to ritual precision. God's law serves the good of people; it was not given to be observed so rigidly that a hungry person went unfed or mercy was crowded out. There is a rigidity that misses the point of the law, keeping the letter while losing the mercy the law was meant to serve. Mercy and genuine human need rightly take precedence over rigid observance; the sacred rules were meant to serve people, not to be turned against them. The law's purpose is mercy, not mere precision.

That is worth taking to heart, for mercy and genuine human need rightly take precedence over rigid ritual observance. We can hold to rules so rigidly that we lose sight of the mercy they were meant to serve, keeping the letter while a real human need goes unmet; but the priest gave David the holy bread to feed his hunger, and Jesus commended it, teaching that mercy and need take precedence over rigid ritual. The rules are meant to serve people, not to be turned against them. Do not hold to rules so rigidly that you lose the mercy they were meant to serve; let mercy and genuine human need take precedence, as the priest fed David with the holy bread. Let mercy and genuine human need take precedence over rigid ritual observance, as the priest gave David the holy showbread to feed his hunger and Jesus commended it; for God's law was given for the good of people and not to be kept so rigidly that mercy is crowded out or a real human need goes unmet, and there is a rigidity that keeps the letter of the rules while losing the mercy they were meant to serve.

Lord, when David, fleeing and hungry, comes to the priest at Nob, the only bread available is the holy showbread, set apart for the priests; yet the priest gives it to David and his men to eat. This was bread reserved for a sacred use; but in the face of genuine human need, hunger, it was given to feed the hungry. Long afterward, Jesus would point to this very event to teach that mercy and human need take precedence over rigid ritual observance, that the sacred rules were never meant to be kept so rigidly that a hungry person went unfed. The holy bread rightly fed the hungry; mercy and need rose above rigid ritual. Show me what the priest's action shows, and what Jesus drew from it: mercy and human need take precedence over rigid ritual. The showbread was holy, set apart; yet in the face of real hunger, it was given to feed the hungry, and rightly so. Jesus later cited this to teach that the sacred rules were never meant to be kept so rigidly that they worked against mercy. Your law serves the good of people; it was not given to be observed so rigidly that a hungry person went unfed. There is a rigidity that misses the point of the law, keeping the letter while losing the mercy it was meant to serve. Take that to my heart, for mercy and genuine human need rightly take precedence over rigid ritual observance. I can hold to rules so rigidly that I lose sight of the mercy they were meant to serve, keeping the letter while a real human need goes unmet; but the priest gave David the holy bread, and Jesus commended it. The rules are meant to serve people. Keep me from holding to rules so rigidly that I lose the mercy they were meant to serve; help me let mercy and genuine human need take precedence, Lord, as the priest fed David with the holy bread and Jesus commended it.