Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 12:4

4 How he entred into the house of God, and did eat the shew-bread, which it was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?

Mark, and Luke, add little, only Mark specifyeth the time, In the days of Abraham, the High Priest, and saith, When he had need, and was an hungred. We have the History. 1 Sam. 21.6. David was upon his Flight from Saul, upon the notice of his danger given him by Ionathan, Chap. 20. and being hungry, he asks of the High Priest five Loaves of bread, The High Priest tells him he had none but Hallowed Bread, which the High Priest gave him, v. 6. what this Shew-bread was, may be read, Lev. 24.5, 6, 7, 8, 9. it is expresly said, A Stranger shall not eat thereof. (Now saith our Saviour) notwithstanding this David and his Followers being an hungred did eat thereof, tho strictly according to the Letter of the Law, none but the Priests might Eat it: But some may object. What was this to the purpose? It was not upon the Sabbath Day? An. It was either upon the Sabbath Day, or immediately after, for it was to be set on every Sabbath Day, and to be Eaten in the Holy Place, Levit. 24.8, 9. and the High Priest told David, 1 Sam. 21.6. That it was taken away to set hot Bread in the Room of it. 2. But Secondly that which our Saviour produceth this for, was to prove a more General proposition, which being proved, the Lawfulness of his Disciples Act, would easily be inferred from it. That was this. That the Letter of a Ritual Law is not to be insisted upon, where some eminent necessity urgeth the contrary, in the performance of some Natural or Moral Duty. The Law of Nature commandeth every Man to feed himself, when he is hungry. The Moral Law confirms this, as it is a means to the Observation of the 6th. Commandment, and especially on the Sabbath Day, so far as may fit us for the best Sanctification of it. The Law concerning the Shew-bread, was but a Ritual Law, and that part of it which restrained the use of it, when taken off from the Holy Table, was of lightest concern, as it commanded it should be eaten by the Priests only, and by them in the holy place, where the Life, or necessary Relief of Men was concerned, the Obligation of the Ritual Law ceased, and that was Lawful both for David, and the High Priest, which in ordinary Cases had not been Lawful. Works necessary either for the upholding of our Lives, or fitting us for Sabbath Services, are lawful upon the Sabbath day. Tho theLaw concerning the Sabbath, be a Moral Law, yet it is jus positivum, not a Law Natural, but Positive, and must be so interpreted, as not to destroy the Law Natural, which Commands Men to feed themselves: nor yet to destroy it self. The Scope and end of it, is to be considered, which is the keeping of a day, as a day of Holy and Religious rest. What Labour is necessary to such keeping of it, is also lawful. The time of the Sabbath, is not more holy than the Shew-bread, and as David in a case of necessity, might make a common use of that Holy Bread, so the Disciples in a case of like necessity, might make use of a little of that holy time, in such necessary Servile Work, as might fit them for their Sabbath Service. Thus it was Lawful by the Law of God and if the Pharisees had not been ignorant, or had understood what they had read, they would never have disputed this, the instance of Holy David might have satisfyed. So that this little kind of Labour could only be a Breach of one of their by-Laws, by which they pretended to expound the Law of God, in which he sheweth they had given a false interpretation.

Marginal references: Em. 25▪ [illegible: 1 letter]. Lev. 8.31.