Consecrated Bread

1 Samuel 21:1-6

Good morning!  Today we continue our series of David’s transition from shepherd to king, titled “Walking Through & Stepping Up.”  Last week Carl gave us an extensive recap of events from 1 Samuel chapter 8 (where Saul is anointed king) to the end of chapter 20 where Saul is intent on killing David, which caused David to have to flee for his life. Carl ended his message with a verse from John 16:33 where Jesus said “In the world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

Today, starting in 1 Samuel chapter 21, we will continue our series where Carl left off.  But before we begin, let’s pray and ask the Lord to use this message today to teach us about His compassion and mercy toward David and toward those of us who believe and have put our trust in Him and in His suffering and death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

Lord, we do pray that you would speak to us today, that Your truth and Your message would go forth, and that we would learn what You have to teach each one of us today.

So let’s look at our passage now.  We read in 1 Samuel 21:

Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?” David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” David answered the priest and said to him, “Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?” So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. –I Samuel 21:1-6 (NASB)

So what was this consecrated bread of the Presence that the priest gave to David?  It was the bread that God commanded Moses to have set on the table in the tent of meeting. We read about it in Exodus 25:30: “You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times.”

Moses writes also about this bread in Leviticus 24:

Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the LORD.  This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. –Leviticus 24:5-9 (NASB)

Note that this bread was the most holy part of their regular share of the offering, and only Aaron and his sons could eat it.  However, Jesus referred to David’s situation with this bread when the Pharisees were trying to condemn His disciples for and eating grain on the Sabbath when they were hungry.

At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”—Matthew 12:1-8 (NASB)

This event of David eating the consecrated bread is also described in Mark 2:23-28 and in Luke 6:1-5.  Now, from the time David took the consecrated bread when he was hungry and ate it until the time that the Pharisees condemned the disciples for eating the grain when they were hungry, it appears that no Pharisee had ever condemned David or his companions’ actions of eating the consecrated bread.  The Pharisees would not dare condemn King David for these actions.

Note that Jesus also states that priest in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent.  He goes on to say, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.’”

Let’s also look at what happened when the crowds came looking for Jesus after he fed the five thousand with five small barley loaves of bread and a two fish in John 6:26-63

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.—John 6:26-63

Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 15:16:

Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Your name… 

These words which Jesus spoke were spiritual words and they become our spiritual food. They will be a delight to our hearts as we meditate on them and we will be called by His name.

Now the true spiritual significance of the consecrated bread of the Presence was not understood by His disciples when Jesus consecrated the Passover unleavened bread during the Passover meal at His last supper.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. –1 Corinthians 11:23-28

Remember that in Leviticus 24, the bread was to be set out before the Lord regularly Sabbath after Sabbath on behalf of the Israelites as a lasting covenant, it belonged only to Aaron and his sons.

This new covenant bread which represents Jesus’ broken body and this new cup which represents the blood that was shed on the cross was not just for the priests (Aaron’s sons) but for the whole world (whoever believes and put their trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins).

Paul says that whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  He goes on to say a man must examine himself and in so doing he is to eat the bread and drink the cup.   

Paul writes later in 2 Corinthians about examining yourselves to see if you are in the faith. He says:

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? –2 Corinthians 13:5

We read in 2 Chronicles about a multitude of the people who had not consecrated themselves to eat the Passover.  They would have died except that Hezekiah petitioned the Lord on their behalf:  

Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.” So the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people. –2 Chronicles 30:18b-20

Finally, Luke writes of travelers who were with Jesus on the road to Emmaus but they did not recognize Him until He gave thanks and broke the bread.

They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.—Luke 24:35

So today let us consecrate this bread and these cups that are set here before us and prepare our hearts to receive them.  We do this by giving thanks in remembrance as Jesus commanded and by examining ourselves to see if He is truly in us.  If we pass this test, let us eat the bread and drink of the cup as He commanded in remembrance of Him and His suffering and death on the cross. Each time we do this we will recognize Jesus as our Savior and we will proclaim His suffering and death on the cross as payment for our sins until He comes again in His Glory.