Saul and David. What They Teach Us (11/04/23)
So the priest gave [David] the consecrated
bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence. (1 Samuel 21: 6)
Saul [as king] is a type of a natural and youthful understanding of truth which is limited in its power, and David as a type of a
spiritual understanding which is stronger and more successful in ordering our life. Saul's jealousy toward David and his persecution of David describe the difficulty of the natural [part of our] mind in yielding the rule of the life to a more spiritual understanding. There were trials for the Lord in humbling all natural thoughts and submitting all to the truth which was Divine.
The hardships of David in this part of the story picture the difficulty which a spiritual understanding and life find in becoming established in us. The persecution by Saul is the opposition on the part of our natural,
self-confident feelings.
The gentler, more useful and spiritual life seems weak to these natural
feelings; they despise it; they are annoyed and made angry by it. But in this time of hardship the new and struggling life looks up to heaven and the Lord, as David fled to the tabernacle. It finds new strength both for heart and understanding, represented by the bread...that [was] given to David [in this text].
"Bread which strengthens our heart," is satisfaction in unselfish usefulness, with a grateful sense of the Lord's goodness. This is the daily bread that we ask for in the prayer. This is represented by the bread of the Holy Supper and by the showbread of the
tabernacle. It was right that David should have the showbread, for the more spiritual, more trustful, more useful life that he represents, is sustained by this inward satisfaction.
In the beginning of this persecution David received bread at the tabernacle. We see in this a picture of the Lord's strengthening from the Divine by the bread of Divine goodness. The Lord cited this eating of the hallowed bread by David as justifying His use of the Sabbath. (Matthew 12: 3-8) What David's action represented, [the Lord Jesus] was actually doing: receiving the bread of the Divine goodness and
expressing it in abundant works of love. (NCL 1880)
