It's all about saving lives...

I've always been a little puzzled by that story in the first few verses of 1 Samuel 21 - the part where David is running for his life, pursued by a rival who wants to kill him, and he apparently tells a "pack of lies" to a priest in order to get food and a weapon.

It's not so much the story itself that surprises me, but rather the way that Jesus refers to this incident in the first eight verses of Matthew chapter 12. Rather than condemning David for this subterfuge, Jesus seems to mention it as something okay when He is talking to the Pharisees about how His own disciples had picked and eaten a few heads of grain on the Sabbath day. Jesus wasn't saying that a need justifies a crime: He wasn't saying that it's okay to lie and steal if you're hungry.  What He wanted the Pharisees to understand was that God gave the Law, including the law about the Sabbath for man's good, and not to make things harder for people. Jesus was speaking against legalism. (Jesus wasn't excusing David's lying; he was only excusing the fact that he ate some consecrated bread.)

He could have simply said, "Look, guys, the Law says not to work on the Sabbath. Picking and eating a few grains of wheat isn't exactly work!" Instead, Jesus broadened the principle by mentioning what happened with David. Probably the law about consecrated bread was given so that the priests had food to eat, and other opportunists didn't just go in and help themselves. But if a priest chose to give some of his bread to a person in need, that wasn't a problem - as long as the person wasn't "unclean" according to their religious guidelines. Jesus was saying that God gave us laws and commandments for our own benefit, and not to cause us hardship. It's easy for people to lose sight of that nowadays. I can remember, about ten years ago, observing a discussion among some trainee youth workers, with some of the team members objecting that "The Ten Commandments" weren't appropriate teaching material for a youth camp because the commandments were "too oppressive" for today's young people and it wasn't right to focus on "the law." The group made a decision to work with different topics instead, but I remember feeling sad that these young staff, leaders of the next generation, were unable to see the ten commandments as a reflection of God's loving care for us. They felt fine about seeing God as our Saviour and Friend, but they were rejecting the concept of God as a Lawgiver and Judge.

Maybe their response was a reaction against the opposite trend - the legalism that has been so prevalent in some church traditions. That's what the Pharisees were doing: instead of seeing God's Law as an expression of His concern for our wellbeing, they were burdening people with more and more "extra" little laws to keep them in line. Likewise, generations of Christians throughout the ages haven't always realised that God's law and God's love for us are inextricably linked.

Many who watched the award winning movie, "Chariots of Fire," admired Olympic runner Eric Liddle for taking a stand and refusing to compete on a Sunday. Too few people are willing to stand up for what they believe in nowadays. But what about that little scene near the beginning of the film, where parents reprimanded little boys for having fun and kicking a football around after church? Was that really what God had in mind when He told us to work only six days out of seven? Nowadays it wouldn't be shocking for believers to relax on their free day by taking a long hike in the mountains and enjoying God's creation. But the Pharisees had legislated exactly how many kilometres you were allowed to walk before it constituted "work."  If they'd been around today, perhaps it would be illegal to walk the dog on the Sabbath. Their legalism was becoming ridiculous; that's why Jesus pointed out that you wouldn't leave your animal to die in a pit on the Sabbath, just because it would be hard work to pull it out. That's why emergency surgeons and lifeboat rescue services don't shut down shop on a Sunday. They're there to save lives - just like Jesus Himself sometimes healed people on the Sabbath.

But this doesn't mean that we can simply discard the sabbath principle in the twenty first century. The Sabbath is still for saving lives: it saves them by reminding us to get enough rest and not work ourselves to death. Yes, the sabbath principle is perhaps more important than ever in our fast paced world. (And yet, it seems that the idea of sabbath is a controversial one for some people today; I got several comments and emails after writing my blog posting about sabbath rest last autumn. Click here to read that post.) 

In fact, all of the ten commandments are still important for us today - despite the fact that the masses believe, "Do not commit adultery" is outdated, or that "Do not kill," doesn't refer to the unborn child in the womb. Something will be deeply changed in our attitude  towards God's laws and instructions when we truly have revelation that they are all for our own good; it's all about saving our lives!