The Law Versus Grace

We had an awesome, powerful housechurch study today. We studied I Samuel 21. Then this afternoon, I was able to deliver this same teaching in a sermon form at the retirement center at which I facilitate Bible studies.

In I Samuel 21, David is fleeing from Saul. He is running for his life. He comes to Nob. He goes to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech questions why David is alone. It is a well-known fact that David serves under King Saul. David lies.

David invents a story about being on a secret mission for the king. He just needs food. Ahimelech explains that the only food he has is the consecrated bread - the holy bread reserved for the priests. No one else can eat it. But he will give the bread to David and his men if David promises they are pure - that they have not defiled themselves.

David promises. Ahimelech gives David the consecrated bread.

David then asks for a weapon. He lies again and tells Ahimelech that he left in such a hurry on this secret mission for the king that he did not have time to gather supplies. Ahimelech tells him the only weapon he has is Goliath's sword, that he should take it if he needs it. He did, after all, kill the giant who owned the sword.

There are so many lessons in this first part of I Samuel 21. First of all, why did David lie? There are many speculations.

David may have lied to protect himself, to protect Saul (remember he would never lay a hand on God's anointed), to protect Ahimelech. But the fact is, he did lie. He did not offer a story anywhere near the truth.

Secondly, about the sword of Goliath, I have to wonder if David had this event in mind as he wrote the words "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies" (Psalm 23:5). Here he was taking the sword of his greatest enemy to defend himself.

Lastly, there's the issue of the consecrated bread. I love this lesson. Jesus actually referred to this lesson, as recorded in both Matthew 12:1-8 and Mark 2:23-28. It is interesting to compare the events of the life of David here in I Samuel 21 and what was happening with Jesus and His disciples in the accounts in Matthew in Mark.

In I Samuel, we see David fleeing for his life. He is hungry. He is tired. He needs nourishment. He eats the bread reserves for priests.

In Matthew and Mark, we see Jesus' disciples hungry and probably tired. They pick grain on the Sabbath and eat it.

The Pharisees, in the accounts of Jesus and His disciples, object to Jesus allowing His disciples to work on the Sabbath. After all, they did pick grain.

Of course, didn't I just mention the fact that David lied? Actually, didn't I mention the fact that David lied twice? And he ate the bread that was holy and reserved for priests?

Nah, I didn't mention that.

But isn't that our human nature? We look at the Pharisees and say, "How could they do that?" when we do the same types of things.

In fact, in the next Verses in I Samuel 21, we can condemn David again because he lied again. He feigned insanity to escape the grasps of a questioning king. Can you believe it?

This is one of my favorite teachings in the Bible because it is so, so, so easy to judge what other people do. It is even easy to judge ourselves.

But when speaking of His disciples' actions and of David's actions in this Passage, Jesus explains that He does not desire sacrifice but mercy. Man was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath (like all laws) was made for man's benefit.

This reminds me an awful lot of the words of James 2:13 - "Mercy triumphs over judgment."

That's what this lesson is all about. Mercy is better than sacrifice. Mercy triumphs over judgment. If God looks at us through the eyes of mercy, shouldn't we look through the eyes of mercy as well?

In this study, I was reminded of a quote from one of my favorite books - Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel. "Because I believe salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (Rev. 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me she could find no other employment to support her two-year old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually-abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last 'trick,' whispers the name of an unknown God he learned about in Sunday school; the deathbed convert who for decades had his cake and ate it, broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust and raped the earth."

The point of this study is really to show that we do not know why people behave the way they do. There are times when we are not even going to understand our own behavior. We're just doing what we have to do - right or wrong, with no thought of the consequences.

No one is made up of just right vs. wrong. I've always believed every human being has a gray area. If God sees the gray area, shouldn't we at least strive to do the same thing?

David had a gray area in the lies he told and the bread he ate. He had a gray area that dictated his deception. Let us not overlook those areas.