You're a Priest, So Go Ahead, Eat the Holy Bread! [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

When you're just reading along the stories of David, if you had grown up in a faithful Jewish home, part of the Hebrew culture, you would be utterly completely shocked by this story in which David does something that's unlawful and nobody condemns him. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Son of David, as presented at Rinaldin Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. We're going to be in 1 Samuel 21, and then we're going to be in Matthew 12 as we continue the exploration of the life of David that we call the Son of David, because everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus, and everything that we have by way of instruction from the apostles points to Jesus. It's all about him.

I had a really funny thing happen this week, and I was set to the stage for a funny story, and this is for the purpose of telling you, ultimately, illustration of why it is I read the Bible the way I read the Bible, but it was pretty funny. So our son Bennett is a freshman in college, and his roommate is named Daniel. Very smart, young, passionately Christian man, young man, his family's from India. And Daniel and Bennett got to know each other because they were in the same speech and debate association, and they would debate against each other and so forth. Well, Daniel was a very good debater, but he's also a very good speaker. And there are many different categories of speech that you can be a part of. And Daniel last year made it to the national competition, tough accomplishment, made it to the national competition in two of his speech categories.

And one of those speech categories is called biographical narrative. And it's a 10-minute speech that's on some real life person, living or dead, who is especially interesting, aspiring, or whatnot. And so Daniel had done a beautiful speech, very inspiring, about the renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Ben Carson, who became well known for his surgery that separated conjoined twins, very well known for the story Gifted Hands in both the book and in the movie, that told the story about how he came out of a life of poverty against all odds, how he was educated and became such a prominent neurosurgeon. And now he's become even more well known because he's spoken twice, most recently at the national prayer breakfast, the second time he's spoken to that.

And so many people know Ben Carson. And so he does this great speech on Ben Carson. It was so good that it reached the final 16 in the nation, this speech on Ben Carson. We really liked it. It was very inspiring.

And Ben Carson, an inspiring man. Well, Daniel is also in a category called impromptu. And impromptu is a very difficult, challenging speech to give because you have absolutely no idea what it is you're going to be speaking about. You just come into the room, the judges give you a card and on it, it has a word or a phrase or maybe a short quote.

And then you have two minutes to prepare. And then you got to give a speech all about that subject. I mean, it might be something as simple as they just hand you, you know, everybody that comes in gets a different color that day. They might just hand you red or yellow and you get yellow and you're like, okay, I'm going to talk for five minutes about yellow sunshine and bright things. Or you could talk about yellow representing cowardice or you know, whatever you want to do.

You just talk about yellow. And sometimes it'll be a short quote. And it's, you know, this is hard because you want to, you know, it's hard to make it flow, hard to some relevant to say.

So at the national competition, we got into the silly mood one day and a bunch of kids and I was there having fun with them and talking with Daniel. And so we said, Daniel, you got this award-winning speech on Ben Carson. All you have to do is just find a way to whatever your subject is, morph it into a speech about Ben Carson, you know?

And so, I mean, if the word is yellow, then, you know, you could talk about it and say, well, yellow often represents cowardice, people that are afraid to move forward in their lives. But the important thing in life is to have courage because when we have courage, we can do all things, which reminds me of a man of great courage. His name was Ben Carson. And so we played this game. We played it for hours where we'd sit around and we'd try to throw out the most unusual word or phrase and challenge one another to make it relate in some way or another to Ben Carson. And so this is actually something we not just had fun with him, but we've talked about this all year.

We'll play this little game. It's the Ben Carson speech game. And so I was out at the National Religious Broadcaster Convention and guess who one of the main speakers was at the NRB this year? Ben Carson. Ben Carson. And so on Monday afternoon, I was on my way with my buddy and we were going to go and Ben Carson and Eric Metaxas, who's a friend from years before, they were going to be on the platform and they're going to be talking in this big room.

And so we're on our way over there. And then as we're walking over there, our friends are coming down the elevator and they say, we're just coming down from this reception with Ben Carson. Would you like to take our passes and go up and meet Ben Carson?

And I was like, yeah, yeah, we do. And so up we go into this little reception with just about 20 people or so milling around with Eric Metaxas, who I've known the past year. I got to say hey to Eric, but I was like, get out of the way. I want to meet Ben Carson.

And so we get over there and we meet. He had our picture made with Ben Carson. And afterwards I'm sitting around talking to him, I'm like, what do I talk to Ben Carson about?

Do I talk to him about what an inspiration he is? So finally I just immediately said, I just got to tell you, my son's roommate came in tops in the national competition doing a speech about you, Ben Carson. And he said, oh, that's great.

That's inspiration. I said, let me tell you a funny story. And so I just monopolized him for a few moments and I told him about how the impromptu speeches could all be morphed to Ben Carson.

And he thought this was such a hoot that he started playing the game himself. He's like, let me try one. So he just threw out the first word that came to his mind, tractor.

Tractors can pull heavy weights against big odds, just like Ben Carson did in his mind. So the last thing I said to him as I was leaving, I was like, I came over and he was talking to somebody important, but I didn't mind. That's when I went and put on my hand on his shoulder and interrupted him. And I said, just remember, all speeches can be about Ben Carson.

And he was laughing as I left. I just say all this to say, I want you to understand my philosophy of reading the Bible. All stories are about Jesus Christ. I want to tell you my philosophy of preaching. Every sermon, it's about Jesus Christ. I don't care where you take me in the Bible, one way or another, I'm going to morph it back to what the whole subject is all about. It's about Jesus Christ. And today we got a story that is beyond dispute about Jesus Christ because Jesus himself applied the story to his own life. It's stories in 1 Samuel chapter 21 at verse 1 where we are reading a story about David on the run from the insanely jealous King Saul. Saul who tries to kill him multiple times. And here we get a scene where David has now begun to develop a little ragtag assortment of men around him. Eventually it'll grow into a large number down later when they're at the caves of Adullam hiding. But here's David and we can see him really hungry on the run.

So keep that in mind. He's on the run from the enemy. He's escaping the spear of the enemy. He's really hungry.

It comes and there's a really intriguing thing that happens. 1 Samuel chapter 21 verse 1. Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling. He was just scared that why in the world is David here and Saul's not with him what's going on.

And said to him why are you alone and no one with you? And David said to Ahimelech the priest the king has charged me with a matter and said to me let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you and with which I've charged you. I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such place. Now then what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. And the priest answered David I have no common bread on hand but there's holy bread if the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when there's an ordinary journey.

How much more today will the vessels be holy? And so the priest gave him the holy bread for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day that it is taken away. Now jump over to Matthew chapter 12. And here's a day in which Jesus is once again in a have a moment where if he had just been willing to tone it down a little bit and not do stuff on the Sabbath then people wouldn't have been so mad at him.

But he's always always messing with them by doing something that he knew they would find offensive. Because he's making his point about who he is and about the inauguration of the era of the new covenant of grace. And so here we are in Matthew chapter 12 verse 1. At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it they said to him look your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. And he said to them have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who are with him how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who are with him but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Got some giants to slay? Need some encouragement in the midst of a trial?

Wondering if God really cares? Meet David. Who can compare to him? He was the ruddy, handsome, youth-tending sheep writing psalms and worshiping God in the humble Bethlehem fields. He was the lone Israelite brave enough to decapitate Goliath and the sole warrior adept enough to cut off the scourge of the Philistines.

He was the stately king who established peace expanded the borders and reigned in prosperity for 40 years. Who else could be a gentle shepherd a glorious hero and a noble king? Would there ever be another leader like David? Yes, the son of David. His name is Jesus and he is a better David than David could ever be. He came to be your shepherd your hero and your king. In a 12-message audio series, Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling adventure with David in order to point you to the answer for your every need, the son of David.

Discover how Christ enables you to face your biggest obstacles, deal with your fiercest persecution, and live as an heir of grace. It's an audio series from Alan Wright. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. When you're just reading along the stories of David, if you were, if you had grown up in a faithful Jewish home, part of the Hebrew culture, you would be utterly completely shocked by this story in which David does something that's unlawful and nobody condemns him. It's very interesting. I actually just spent a little time trying to read what some of the rabbinical tradition has said about this because, you know, if you're, if you're part of Israel, you love David. And, and so there's a lot of people that try to come up with different ways of sort of excusing what David did here, like it wasn't, it wasn't against the law or something, you know, something like that.

But the fact of the matter is it's just a shocking story that's just inserted right in the middle of the narrative. And what we realize is that then Jesus, and think about this for a moment, Jesus not only is fiddling around out amongst the grain fields on the Sabbath where he knows that his disciples who are hungry are likely to start plucking grain and he doesn't, doesn't speak against it at all. But not only does he stir up that controversy, but then when they rebuke him for this, he points back to this controversial story of David. Of all the things you could point back to, to try to justify it, he points back to David, identifying himself once again as the son of David, as the greater David, as the one who is the fulfillment of everything that David was simply a shadow of.

And I want to tell you about this, this story and, and how amazing the story is so that you'll see something about the power of the gospel that's being unveiled in the story of David and the holy bread, but also so you'll see something really important about who you are in Jesus Christ. All right, so to start with, we ought to get in our mindset, just the, again, if you're not familiar with it, or a refresher, a reminder of what the tabernacle was like. This was called the tent of meeting.

Here is on the screen a replica that's in Israel. You'll see that it is rustic looking. It was designed to be movable, that it had to be set up with the fence that was delineating the courtyard according to very specific instructions. And in that courtyard, a large altar upon which animals could be sacrificed, and then a big bronze bathing bowl, a washing bowl, a basin that was called the laver, the bronze laver. And this tent of meeting, or the tabernacle, was the meeting place of God and man.

And only the priest could minister in the tabernacle. You can see that because of its rudimentary nature, why it was that early on David, once he was in his palace, said, Lord, I'm dwelling in a palace. I should build you a wonderful temple.

The one that God said no, but later Solomon would build this glorious temple. But even when the temple was built, it would have the same furniture and it would have the same basic design. This design, which we could put a little diagram up to show you that it has this big altar out in the courtyard, the bronze laver. And then once inside the tent, there are two main compartments, the larger of which was called the holy place. And in the holy place, as you came in on your left, there would be a golden lampstand and the lampstand burning symbolizing the light of God.

All right. And then the incense that would constantly be burning on the altar of incense, all of this is by God's prescribed specifications. And then there would be a table made of acacia wood. And this table would have on it the showbread. Now the showbread would be 12 loaves of this bread, probably unleavened bread that was stacked in these two stacks of six loaves. And also it was accompanied by frankincense that is like an offering of prayer that is rising up. Now, what would happen is that these 12 loaves would be prepared by the priest and only by the priest. And the priest would make hot fresh loaves of this bread. And on the Sabbath day, they would come and they would put it on the table and they would remove the bread that had been there from the previous Sabbath. And then the priest would take that bread and they'd eat it. That bread is called literally the bread of the face. It's known as the bread of the presence, because what it meant literally was it's bread that stays in the face of God.

It is bread that stays in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And you can see the richness of this symbolism first that 12 is a highly symbolic number in the Hebrew culture and in the word of God. 12 is a number that you could just count on that every time you see 12, there's a reason that it's 12, because there were 12 tribes of Israel. And so the totality of the people of God is represented by the number 12. You see the number 12, think the people of God.

And you think of the whole people of God. And so Jesus come, there was no surprise that how many disciples did he have? 12 disciples. And when you get to the end of your Bible and you'll see the revelation that John has of heaven, and he sees that there's a lamb, and he sees 144,000 saints around the lamb, does this mean they're only gonna be 144,000 of us in heaven?

No way. Billy Graham's led more people the Lord than that. This is a symbolic number that means 12 times 12 times 100,000. It is the totality of the people of God. So this bread in one sense is representing the people in the face of God, but bread also is the symbol of nourishment at its essential level. If you were in some cultures, it might be rice, that's the staple of life. But amongst the mid-eastern fields where they grew grain, it would be various kinds of bread. So when you said bread, what you meant was a symbol for all nourishment. That's why if you pray give us this day our daily bread, you might be talking about pizza or a hamburger or something. But it's not referring to bread specifically, it's referring to this is essential. What it is that you need to live, how it is that you will grow, what it is that nourishes you, the bread. It's for this reason when Jesus says I'm the bread of life.

Everything that you need to live is in me. And so all of this is pictured in this showbread, it's called, or the bread of the presence literally the lechem of the face. And do not forget that David was born and bet lechem and so was Jesus, which means that house of lechem bread.

Don't tell me this Bible isn't all about Jesus, I'm telling you it's all about Jesus. And so to understand this you see that that first room is the holy place and then it's separated by a veil that behind it has the ark of the covenant that contains the law and is overlaid with gold and has cherubim overseeing it and this is the holiest place or the holy of holies and only one day a year on the day of atonement would the high priest go into the holy of holies. Only priests could make the bread, only priests could touch the bread, only priests could minister in the holy place and only priests could for sure eat the bread.

This is very holy stuff. Now to further understand the story you need to understand what a priest is and how you become a priest. So look with me in the second book of your Bible, Exodus chapter 29 and I'll give you just a real quick view of what it took to become a priest. Exodus chapter 29 describes the consecration of the priests.

So we're talking about these are the ones and the only ones that could eat that bread. Exodus chapter 29 verse 4. First requirement of being a priest, you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting.

We pause there. So the first and probably the most important thing you need to know about being a priest is that in order to be a priest you have to be born into the right family. Aaron was Moses's brother and it was Aaron and his sons that were the priests. You couldn't become a priest just because you had gone through a course of study. You couldn't become a priest because you are certainly a more spiritual person than other people. You couldn't be a priest because you just asked God and said I want to be a priest. You couldn't be a priest by any other means except you had to be born into this family. You're born into the priesthood. I say you're born into a priesthood. Secondly it said and wash them with water. In order to be a priest you got to be washed, completely washed.

It is a ceremonial cleansing. The priest was born into a certain family and then the priest was washed in a certain way. Alan Wright and today's teaching you're a priest so go ahead eat the holy bread. It's from our teaching our series Son of David and Alan is back in the studio here in just a moment as he shares his parting good news thought for the day.

Stick with us. In a 12 message audio series Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling adventure with David in order to point you to the answer for your every need. The Son of David. As our thanks for your donation we'll be delighted to send you Pastor Alan's audio messages in either a digital download or a CD album format. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website PastorAlan.org.

Back here in the studio to share Alan's parting good news thought for the day. So you're a priest. You're a priest.

Are you telling me Alan I'm a priest? That really is what the New Testament teaches us and this story here where David has really done something scandalous. He has gotten the holy bread from the temple and eats it which should have been only the priests that eat it and Jesus goes back and references this story and commends David for it. There's no rebuke and the only explanation for this is of course Jesus is Lord of all and so when his disciples are eating on the Sabbath or doing something on Sabbath that are criticized he references that but ultimately this story only makes sense when you know that the writer of Hebrews says that I need to start that whole thing over because that's not Hebrews. Oh that's all right that's okay. All right what was your question to me again how did you I said oh are we are we really priests yeah yeah are you calling me a priest yeah yeah yeah Daniel we are actually priests that's what the New Testament teaches. First Peter we're a royal priesthood and this is a fascinating and sort of scandalous story that David and his men eat the holy bread and Jesus later references it without criticizing David for it it all leads us to this incredible conclusion anyone who accepts Christ has been made holy the writer of Hebrews says and you are priests it means that all of the things that priests were allowed to do we're allowed to do meaning handle the holy things of God and in the old you had to be born into the priestly family washed clothed anointed well we're born again into God's family and washed of the blood of Jesus and clothed with his righteousness that's why we're priests. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.