When we last left off, at David’s behest, the High Priest was about to give David the consecrated Shewbread.
Now it took about 12 cups of flour to make one loaf of this special bread.
In other words, one loaf was HUGE…and David was about to take five of them.
So right off the bat here, we encounter a couple of Torah violations.
The first obvious one is that only the priests were allowed to partake of this holy bread.
And it had to be consumed at the sanctuary.
But wait a minute here.
If the Shewbread can only be consumed at the sanctuary, that means there had to be some sanctuary at Nob.
What?!
What in the heck was it?
And what did it look like?
It was probably some makeshift tent sloppily put together, and not a permanent piece of architecture.
I mean the Scriptures don’t talk about a central sanctuary at Nob…
Or that being the place where God established His Name.
It was just one of many worship sites patterned after the original Wilderness Tabernacle at Shiloh.
The original one was by now in tatters and abandoned.
So this was Israel’s messed up situation at this time.
There was no central ruling authority.
It was once Samuel, but once Saul became king, he retired.
So who was Israel’s chief religious authority at this time?
There was no clear answer to this question.
It depended on where you lived and who you asked.
There were supposed to be 48 special cities for priests and Levites to live in and do their important religious work.
These cities were supposed to be spread all over the Promised Land and paid for by the 12 tribes.
But that never happened.
So some priests and Levites had to find other ways to support themselves.
Some worked as private priests for rich families, which we learned about in the Book of Judges.
Others joined tribal leaders to set up worship sites so they could still do some of their religious duties and support their families.
Either way, you slice it, it was a far cry from the Torah ideals that God had established at Sinai.
But you know what’s interesting?
When I read about the state of Israel during this time…
I might be reading an article from today’s Jerusalem Post.
Compared to back then, conditions today are eerily similar.
Christianity has over 20,000 different denominations…
Judaism is just as fragmented…
And Muslims want to destroy believers from both of these religions that preceded Islam.
There is little if any unity to be found anywhere within the monotheistic faiths.
Imagine what this looks like to outside observers who see all the chaos and decide they want nothing to do with what seems to be a jumbled and hypocritical mess.
Is there anything that can be done to solve this problem?
All I can think of is to share the words of that itinerant preacher who preached a message that is just as valid today as it was back then:
“Do not think that I have come
to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear,
not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear from the Law
until everything is accomplished.
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of
the least of these commands and teaches others
accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven,
but whoever practices and teaches these commands
will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
-Matthew 5:17-19
Remember folks, the answer to chaos is to return to the foundations found in the core of God’s Word.
Return to the pure and undiluted truth of the Torah…
As Messiah commanded us to do.
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