And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
David arrives at Nob hungry and on the run, and asks Ahimelech the priest for bread. The priest's reply shows the problem. The only food he has is bread set apart for priests, and he will give it only if David's men are clean.
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This bread was not leftovers from a kitchen. It belonged to the tabernacle's weekly service.
He arrived on the Sabbath day when the priests had changed the twelve loaves of showbread ("the bread of the face," or "of the presence"). God had told the priests to set these loaves on the golden table in the holy place every Sabbath (Ex. 25:30; Lev. 24:5-9)... David asked the priest for some of the stale loaves for himself and his companions. This was a bold request. This holy bread was made without yeast and covered with pure frankincense. It was one of the most holy fire offerings to Jehovah, and only the priests ate it, in the holy place (Lev. 24:7-9).
Which loaves did David actually receive?
The priests had just put fresh bread in the vessels of the sanctuary to replace the bread that was there before. So David was not asking for the showbread itself, but for the loaves taken off the table. By law only the priests could eat it, but in these circumstances Ahimelech was right to give it to David. The Lord Jesus speaks approvingly of this in Matthew 12:3-4.
By law the bread belonged to the priests alone. Commentators point to several conditions in Israel that made this moment different.
First, the priesthood had seriously failed in Israel. Second, the tabernacle service was in the wrong place, not the place God had chosen. Third, the ark was not there. Fourth, the true king was in exile and hungry because of persecution. This last point alone was reason enough for Ahimelech to give the bread to David. Real need comes before mere formal exactness.
The deepest reason is the last one. When God's chosen king is thrown out, the rituals of the people who threw him out lose their standing.
He goes to the priest, who gives him the holy bread. This is according to the sovereign grace of God. God rises above the ordinances tied to blessing when people reject that blessing — when they reject Him in His chosen one and in the power of His testimony. When that happens, His sovereign grace sets faith above ordinances. Since people had rejected God Himself and His testimony, the showbread counted as common. God was in fact arranging everything anew.
Another writer puts the same truth as a question the story forces on us.
How could anything needed by David be viewed any longer as holy in the eyes of God where David was rejected, the anointed of Jehovah?
Rules did not stop mattering. But God would not let men use His own institutions against His anointed.
Men could not reject the Lord's anointed and his companions, leave them in desperate need, and then try to use God's institutions to keep those needs unmet. No divine ordinance was to stand in the way of God caring for His anointed and those with him.
The priest bends the rule about who may eat. He will not bend the rule about purity — whether the men are clean by the law's standard.
He did want to make sure that the men were ceremonially clean, and he took David's word for this.
One writer draws the same balance out of the priest's own meal, and warns of two opposite errors.
It is only in the power of personal holiness, and in the immediate presence of God, that we can really share in our priestly portion... The way we get that place shows absolute grace. The place we get demands personal holiness. To speak of effort in reaching the place is the fallacy of legalism. To think of unholiness in the place is the blasphemy of lawlessness. I reach the position only through grace. I occupy the position only in holiness.
One writer traces what the loaves have become for believers now.
The showbread was priests' food. Believers are priests to God, and we live on holy bread... For Israel, the Jew, the holiness of the showbread was gone; it had become as common as any other bread. But for the church it has become the symbol of a blessed truth... This bread is "common" to us, the common privilege of all believers. But we cannot enjoy this high communion with the Father and the Son without separation from the world... Are the young men pure? asks the priest. They are, said David. It was not enough to follow David in profession; is there practical holiness? To such people the bread is common.
- The bread — twelve loaves without yeast, set before God each Sabbath, food for priests alone.
- The rejection — with God's anointed king cast out and hungry, the loaves were no longer holy. Grace rose above the rule; it did not break it.
- The need — God would not let men use His own institutions to starve His anointed and those with him.
- The condition — Ahimelech changed who could eat, never whether they were clean. We reach the place by grace and hold it in holiness.
- The reach — priests' food alone is now the common privilege of all believers. Enjoying it still calls for separation from the world.
And David answered the priest and said to him, Yes indeed, women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the [bread] is in a manner common, and the more so, because to-day [new] is hallowed in the vessels.
David is on the run from Saul, and the priest at Nob will hand over the holy bread only if his men are clean. This verse is David's answer, and older translations add a clause about the bread itself: "the bread is in a manner common."
The request only makes sense against the state of Israel's worship at the time. One account sets the scene:
David, chosen of God and anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel, was fleeing from Saul, who wanted to kill him. It was a day when the arrangements the Lord had made for His worship and praise in Israel were sadly out of course. The ark was at Kirjath-jearim, while the tabernacle was at Nob, where the priests were too. There David came, a fugitive from the king's anger and starving with hunger. He arrived on the Sabbath day. That was the day the priests changed the twelve loaves of showbread ("the bread of the face," or "of the presence") on the golden table in the holy place, as God had told them to do every Sabbath. The ritual was therefore going on, though there was no ark inside the most holy place.
David was not asking for loaves still lying before God:
David also makes the point that the bread was "in a manner common, and the more so, because today (new) is hallowed in the vessels." Priests had just put fresh bread in the vessels of the sanctuary to replace what was there before. So David was not asking for the actual showbread, but for what had been taken off the table. Only the priests had a lawful right to this, but the circumstances made it right for Ahimelech to give it to David.
The qualifier is deliberate. David does not scrap the sanctuary system; he says it yields:
What virtue could remain for them in the old institutions? Everything now depended on David alone. So we can understand his words, a puzzle as they still are to most interpreters: "it" — the showbread — "is in a manner common; yes, even when it is sanctified that day in the vessel." David says "in a manner common," because God had not finished with these institutions after all. They were soon to be revived, and they would last for the appointed time. They were "common" as subject to his needs.
Ahimelech asked one thing: that the men be clean. David gives his word here, inside a speech that was not honest:
His words were not true that the king had sent him on some secret mission. He did not want Ahimelech to know that Saul was set on killing him. That might make the priest afraid to show David any open kindness. His words deceived Ahimelech, however, and the priest gave David the used bread of the sanctuary. He did want to make sure the men were ceremonially clean, and he took David's word for this.
The deepest reading turns on who David was: the anointed king, cast out. Christ Himself drew it out of the story:
Jesus is the light, and only in His light can we see light. So from the precious word of God He draws out this astonishing fact for us, and it truly is a fact. The rejection of the beloved of God among God's own people profanes what was most hallowed. David was the anointed of the Lord, and that place had rejected him. How could anything he needed still count as holy in the eyes of God?
The Pharisees attacked His hungry disciples for plucking grain. Jesus pointed back to this scene:
David was rejected and a fugitive. In that state, the holy things tied to the ceremonies God had given Israel stopped being holy. The sin was David's rejection, and this made the consecrated showbread common. The rejection of God's anointed had profaned everything. This is the thought our Lord expressed to the Pharisees. They had rejected Him. How absurd for these hypocrites to talk about Sabbath-keeping while they were rejecting the Lord of the Sabbath!
The bread and the purity of David's men both reach forward to believers:
The showbread was priests' food. Believers are priests to God, and we live on hallowed bread… For Israel the holiness of the showbread was gone; it had become as common as any other bread. For the church it has become the symbol of a blessed truth. To eat together is the sign of communion. We are made priests to God, and we have fellowship with one another as we eat of the bread from heaven. There is more than fellowship with one another: the bread is holy, and in it we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. This bread is "common" to us, the common privilege of all believers. But we cannot enjoy this high communion with the Father and the Son without separation from the world. Are the young men pure? the priest asks. They are, said David. It was not enough to follow David in profession; is there practical holiness? To those who have it the bread is "common."
- Rejection — God's anointed king was cast out. That one fact rules the scene: it made the holiest bread in Israel count as common.
- Common — Common "in a manner," not abolished. The old institutions kept their place, but they gave way to the rejected king's need.
- Clean — Ahimelech asked for ceremonial cleanness. This verse is David's answer, and the priest took it on trust — from a man who had already misled him.
- Grace — David received the loaves already taken off the table. This was priests' food, yet the circumstances made it right to hand it over.
- Christ — Jesus turned this moment against the Pharisees, who guarded the Sabbath while rejecting the Lord of the Sabbath. Believers now feed as priests on hallowed bread, and that calls for separation from the world.