MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/9/2026
9:13 AM
My
Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “In
The Grainfields”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
6:1-5
Message of the verses: “1Now it
happened that Jesus was passing through some grainfields on
a Sabbath, and His disciples were picking the
heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2But some of the
Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not
lawful on the Sabbath?” 3And Jesus, answering them,
said, “Have you not
even read what David did when he was hungry, he
and those who were with him, 4how he entered the
house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread,
which is not lawful for anyone to
eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his
companions?” 5And He was saying to them,
“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
This morning I want to continue to look at these
verses from the sixth chapter of the gospel of Luke, and continue from where I
left of in yesterday’s evening SD.
Now it was this particular Sabbath that
found the Lord and His disciples passing through some grainfields. Sporimos (grainfields)
literally means, “sown fields”; the crop being grown in these particular fields
was probably either wheat or barley.
Since the grain was already ripe enough to eat, it was probably spring
or early summer. Now as they walked
along the paths between the rows of grain, the disciples were picking the
heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain. They had to get the chaff off of the grains
in order to eat the grain. To do so was
not wrong in itself; travelers were permitted by the Mosaic law to pick grain
from their neighbors’ fields to satisfy their hunger, but of course were
not allowed to harvest it as seen in Deut. 23:25 “When you enter your neighbor’s
standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not
wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.
An illustration of this is found in
the book of Ruth as she was instructed to go out into a field during harvesting
time to pick the corners of the crop that was being harvested in order to get
food for Naomi, her mother-in-law and for herself. If you have a moment today read the short
book of Ruth.
John MacArthur writes “But to do so
on the Sabbath was a violation, not of the Mosaic law, but of the rabbinic
restrictions described above,” (earlier in this section that was written in
yesterday’s SD). Specifically, the
disciples were guilty in the eyes of the Pharisees of reaping (picking
the grain), threshing 9rubbing the husks together to separate them from the
grain), threshing (rubbing the husks together to separate them from the grain),
and winnowing (throwing the husks away), and thus preparing food. The self-appointed guardians of the Sabbath
were quick to pounce on the blatant violation of their silly regulations. ‘Why do you do what is not lawful on the
Sabbath?’ they demanded. Although
they addressed their question to the entire group, the Pharisees’ rebuke was
directed primarily at Jesus, since His disciples were surely following His
teaching and example. They viewed the
incident as a direct attack on their whole religious system to which, as noted
earlier, the Sabbath was central.
Obviously, their presence in the grainfields indicates the constant
scrutiny to which the religious leaders subjected Jesus, as they dogged His
steps looking for an excuse to condemn Him.”
Now as I read over this passage and have learned how far a person was to
walk on the Sabbath, I wonder how far these Pharisees had to walk in order to condemn
Jesus and His disciples.
Jesus assumed responsibility for His
disciples’ actions, and He responded with a mildly sarcastic rebuke of the
Pharisees’ ignorance, and ignorance is a good word when it came to describe the
Pharisees. They of course, knew the
history He was about to relate, but had ignored its true significance. As He frequently did (cf. 5:23; 10:26;
20:3-4, 24) Jesus read (cf. Matt. 19:4; 21:42; 22:31; Mark 12:10) what
David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered
the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful
for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?”
Now the incident that the Lord referred to is recorded
in 1 Samuel 21:1-6, which I will now quote “1 ¶
Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to
meet David trembling and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one with
you?" 2 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 have
charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a
place. 3 Now then, what do you have on
hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here." 4 And the priest answered David, "I have
no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread— if the young men have kept
themselves from women." 5 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 it is an
ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?" 6 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 it is taken away.”
MacArthur
states “Fleeing Saul’s relentless pursuit of him, David came to Nob, about a
mile north of Jerusalem. David was
hungry, as were those who were with him. Seeking food, they entered
the house of God (the tabernacle), and asked Ahimelech the priest for five
loaves of bread. The tabernacle, of course,
was not a bakery, and the only bread available there was the consecrated
bread. Also called the ‘bread of the
Presence’ (Ex. 25:30), it consisted of twelve loaves, placed each Sabbath on
the golden table in the Holy Place.
After the bread was replaced with fresh loaves, it could be eaten, but
only by the priests (Lev. 24:9).
Ahimelech was willing to give some of the consecrated bread to David and
his men, on the condition that ‘they young men [had] kept themselves from women’
(1 Sam. 21:4) (i.e., were ceremonially clean).
After David assured him that they had done so, Ahimelech gave them the
bread and they ate it.
“The point of the account, which was
lost on the Pharisees, was that mercy, compassion, and human need were more
important than rigid adherence to even biblical ritual and ceremony. (Mark 2:27 records that Jesus also said to
them,’ The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,’ while
Matthew records His rebuke, ‘But if you had know what this means, I desire
compassion and not a sacrifice,’ you would have not condemned the innocent’
(12:7). If a human priest could permit David
to violate part of God’s ceremonial law (perhaps even on a Sabbath, since the
old bread being replaced had not yet been eater by the priests), how much more
could the Son of God allow His disciples to violate unbiblical human
traditions?”
MacArthur then concludes this
section by writing “Then Jesus stunned and outraged the Pharisees by declaring,
‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’
As such, He along had the right to decide what behavior was
appropriate on the Sabbath; He is the interpreter of God’s will, law, and
word. Since the Sabbath was established
by God (Ex. 20:8-11), He, the Son of God had authority over it.”
(Ex. 20:8-11)
“8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do
all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or
your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or
the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
“Thus, by
claiming authority over a divinely instituted ordinance, Jesus was claiming
full equality with God. Compare John
5:9-17, where our Lord was again confronted over His Sabbath activity and
replied, ‘My Father is working…and I Myself am working’ (v. 17). Here again He clearly declared His equality
with God, as evidenced by His sovereignty over the Sabath.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: “Man was made for the Sabbath, and not the
Sabbath for Man.”
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
I’m trusting the Lord to give pain relief to my wife today as she and our
daughter are going to the zoo, and she needs grace to be able to do this.
6/9/2026
10:04 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment