{"id":17463,"date":"2021-07-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotionwednesday-14th-july-2021"},"modified":"2021-07-14T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T05:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-wednesday-14th-july-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-wednesday-14th-july-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Wednesday 14th July 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>ednesday 14th July 1 Samuel 21:1-6<\/strong><\/p>\n

David came to Nob to the priest Ahimelech. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, \u2018Why are you alone, and no one with you?\u2019  David said to the priest Ahimelech, \u2018The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, \u201cNo one must know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.\u201d I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place.  Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.\u2019 The priest answered David, \u2018I have no ordinary bread at hand, only holy bread\u2014provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.\u2019 David answered the priest, \u2018Indeed, women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?\u2019  So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In context this passage doesn\u2019t reveal David in a good light.  He deceives a priest, Ahimelech, by pretending he\u2019s on a mission for Saul to join up with some young men (warriors?) when, according to the narrative, he is fleeing for his life away from Saul.  By deception he acquires a supply of food for himself, holy food, symbolic of Israel\u2019s covenant with God and intended to be eaten by priests as part of a ritual (Leviticus 24:5-9; cf. Exodus 25:30).  Might this story once have been part of a different narrative?<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading the passage in isolation it suggests that David secured the support of the priesthood and that he was engaged in activity that was part of a \u2018holy war\u2019 to ensure Israel\u2019s victory over the Philistines.  From this perspective David\u2019s words about the young men stress their holiness \u2013 they are in right relationship with God and fit to be part of his expedition.  (Exodus 19:15 stipulates a period of sexual abstinence as preparation for entering the sphere of the holy; and the Hebrew word translated \u2018vessels\u2019 is a euphemism for genitals.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 12:3-4 reads this story as though David was accompanied by his band of men and they all entered the house of God when they were hungry and ate the bread of the Presence.  The story is used to justify Jesus and his disciples gathering grain on the Sabbath, to satisfy their own hunger.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture is God\u2019s living word, that speaks into different contexts in different ways.  It is dangerous to assume that there is only one \u2018right\u2019 interpretation of a passage; and dangerous to distort one to make it say what we want.  The Spirit is given to guide us into truth (John 16:13) \u2013 may we always be open to the Spirit as we read.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Holy God, we thank you for your written word, in scripture, your living Word, Christ Jesus; and for your Spirit of truth.  Help us to discern your words and to understand their meaning in every situation of life.  May we be open to new understandings of familiar passages and at ease when faced by obscure ones, trusting in the Spirit\u2019s guidance as we seek to learn and to respond.<\/span>
Amen.<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 14th July 1 Samuel 21:1-6 David came to Nob to the priest Ahimelech. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, \u2018Why are you alone, and no one with you?\u2019  David said to the priest Ahimelech, \u2018The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, \u201cNo one must know … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Wednesday 14th July 2021”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}