Today, I wanna explore an interesting question.
How is the story of David taking the Shewbread from the High Priest at Nob connected to Yeshua and his followers picking and eating grain from a field on the Shabbat?
Let’s take a look at this incident as told in the Book of Matthew.
“At that time Yeshua went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, ‘Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.’
“He answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.'”-Matthew 12:1-6
Now, the usual (and incorrect) gentile church interpretation is that Yeshua was criticizing the Pharisees for their manmade traditions that resulted in them desecrating the Shabbat.
There’s only one wee little problem with that interpretation.
It completely overlooks verse 5:
“Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?”
Isn’t this a mysterious verse?
Here we have Yeshua saying that per the Torah, the priests do indeed desecrate the Shabbat…
Yet, somehow they are considered blameless by God…
And that this is similar to what David did when he received the loaves of Shewbread from Ahimelech.
What exactly is being said here?
Well, the first thing we do is throw the typical Christian interpretation straight into the trash bin because Yeshua’s criticism is NOT about manmade traditions.
He specifically said the command for the Levitical priests to desecrate the Sabbath comes from the Torah.
So it can’t be about tradition.
So here’s the thing.
According to the Torah, the Shabbat is to be a day of rest for all.
The seventh day mimics the Lord when He rested after creating the heavens and the earth.
It is also to be a sign that those who keep the Lord’s Shabbat are God’s chosen people.
If you don’t keep Shabbat, you are NOT one of His.
No “normal” work is to be done on this day.
No kindling of a fire…
No gathering of food…
No engaging in business transactions…
Yet, there seems to be an exception to this when it comes to the Levitical priests.
They are commanded to do their normal “work” at the temple on Shabbat.
This involves lighting the altar fire and slaughtering and preparing the animals for ritual sacrifice.
Then afterward they gotta clean up the mess…
Replace the shewbread and so on…
Only after all this work can they sit down to eat what’s left after the week’s duties are completed.
Again, the important point to be emphasized here is the priests are commanded to do all this work on the Shabbat per the Torah.
So the sixty-four thousand dollar question is…
Why the heck do the priests get a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to working on the Shabbat?
While everyone else risks getting stoned if they so much as pick up a twig on the seventh day?
Ya feeling me?
There’s no two ways around it folks.
We’ve got a conflict here…
A conflict that Yeshua himself acknowledged and affirmed.
On the one hand, God commands Israel to refrain from normal work on the Shabbat…
Yet, on the other hand, he commands the Levite priests to continue their normal work in order to HONOR the Shabbat!
Holy cow!
If this isn’t a conundrum, I don’t know what is.
Okay, so here’s the divine paradox at play being fleshed out here I want you to grasp.
The priests are commanded to go ahead and break the Torah (commit a sin) so that the common people of Israel can have their sins atoned for and they can have their relationship with Adonai restored.
Remember the sacrifices performed on Shabbat were national or communal sacrifices done on behalf of Israel as a nation.
In other words, the priests sinned so that Israel would be sinless (have their sins forgiven)…
And be reconciled to the One who had called them out of Egypt.
Ain’t that interesting?
That’s why Messiah said that despite profaning the Shabbat, the priests were held blameless.
When two laws bump heads against each other, mercy is more important than a non-yielding and inflexible adherence to the letter of the law.
And speaking of Messiah…
Isn’t that exactly what he did for us with his sacrifice?
He became a curse on a tree so that we would not be cursed.
See ya all next time.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“God made him who
had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.”
-2 Corinthians 5:21
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