Set the table: Take a moment and think of all the things stewing in your mind and heart – and then lay them down. Ask God to clear your mind and to open your heart to hear Him speak.

Do not get upset because of evildoers, Do not be envious of wrongdoers. ² For they will wither quickly like the grass, And decay like the green plants. ³ Trust in the Lord and do good; Live in the land and cultivate faithfulness. ⁴ Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. ⁵ Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. ⁶ He will bring out your righteousness as the light, And your judgment as the noonday. ⁷ Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not get upset because of one who is successful in his way, Because of the person who carries out wicked schemes. ⁸ Cease from anger and abandon wrath; Do not get upset; it leads only to evildoing. ⁹ For evildoers will be eliminated, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.   Psalm 37:1-9 NASB

On the Menu

Beverage:  Drink in His Presence.

Sing for joy in the Lord, you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright.
² Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.
³ Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
⁴ For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in faithfulness.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.   Psalm 33:1-5 NASB

Main Course:  Study His Word.

12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. ² Now when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath!” ³ But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions— ⁴ how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? ⁵ Or have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath, and yet are innocent? ⁶ But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. ⁷ But if you had known what this means: ‘I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”   Matthew 12:1-8 NASB

(The same occasion can also be found in Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-5)

Main Course 1 – Satisfying Hunger

Verse 9 after this passage says Jesus and His disciples went on to the synagogue. So that’s where they had been headed when the Pharisees stopped them. It’s possible they had simply not had time to eat that morning before time to go to the synagogue. Or perhaps they had gotten so caught up in their time of listening to Jesus teach or pray that time had passed too quickly from them. Whatever the reason, they were hungry as they passed through the grain fields. So, they reached out their hand, took some of the grain, rubbed it together to get the hull off, and then ate the grain.

This act of going through someone’s grain field was not in itself unlawful.

²⁵ “When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you are not to use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain. Deuteronomy 23:25 NASB

Neighbors were to allow people passing through their property the option to eat the grain or fruit from their vineyard. But just what they could pick as they were going. This was an act of showing love to their fellow man. A person was not to abuse that right and intentionally try to harvest some of the produce, but simply eat of it to satisfy a need.

That was exactly what the disciples were doing. They were taking just enough to meet the need of hunger. But how often do we have a hunger and try to satisfy it with things that are not ours, or things not right for us? Too many people try to feed the hunger they feel within themselves (which is actually a spiritual hunger and they don’t recognize as such) with all kinds of things other than God. They try to feed that hunger with worldly things that only causes more harm and leaves them even more hungry.

That deep hunger and desire within us can only be filled with a relationship with God. Once we have received Christ as our Savior, we then hunger for even more of Him. But unlike the hunger we had before having a relationship with Christ, the hunger we have as a child of God will be continually filled by God Himself.

¹⁴ The Lord supports all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down. ¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. ¹⁶ You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. ¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways, And kind in all His works. ¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on Him, To all who call on Him in truth. ¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry for help and save them. ²⁰ The Lord watches over all who love Him, But He will destroy all the wicked. ²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.  Psalm 145:14-21 NASB

You there! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;  And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. ² Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. ³ Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.  Isaiah 55:1-3 NASB

God will richly supply our needs and hunger out of His abundance. We simply must come to Him.

²⁴ The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; ²⁵ nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; ²⁶ and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, ²⁷ that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’  Acts 17:24-28 NASB

Here Paul was talking to the people of Athens who were found worshipping a bunch of different Gods. The people were so spiritually hungry, so craving the blessings of any god, they even had an idol set up for the “unknown god,” just in case they had left one out. Paul explained to them about the one true God, who created all and gives us all we need. It is in God that we live and breathe and have our being. So of course, He will supply all we need, as well. May we never get over being hungry for our Lord!

Main Course 2 – Caught Reaping

Verse 2 says the Pharisees saw the disciples picking and eating the grain. My first thought was, how did they see them? Were the grain fields close to the synagogue where they were headed and the Pharisees were watching people approach? Were the Pharisees following Jesus and the disciples? Or did the disciples still have evidence of the plucked grain in their hands or on their faces when they came near?

We do not know the answer to how they saw, but just that they saw. And once they saw, they started pointing accusing fingers and speaking condemning words.

People today seem to enjoy being just like the Pharisees. They are looking for people who are doing something they believe is wrong, and then they are more than willing to point out those faults to others.

As believers, are to walk in an upright way.

⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, ⁸ Guarding the paths of justice, And He watches over the way of His godly ones. Proverbs 2:6-8 NASB

 ¹⁴ Do all things without complaining or arguments; ¹⁵ so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding firmly the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I can take pride because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.  Philippians 2:14-16 NASB

The disciples were doing nothing wrong, but they were still accused of wrongdoing. So how are we to respond when we are striving to walk uprightly, yet are still accused of doing wrong? That answer comes from 1 Peter.

To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble; ⁹ not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing. ¹⁰ For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
¹¹ He must turn away from evil and do good;
He must seek peace and pursue it.
¹² For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
And His ears attend to their prayer,
But the face of the Lord is against evildoers.”  1 Peter 3:8-12 NASB

It certainly isn’t easy to be “harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.” When someone accuses us of something, it is our human nature to want to defend ourselves, to point fingers back at our accuser, or to react in some other way that is less than Godly. But what did the disciples do? They did not speak a word. Jesus is the one who responded in their defense.

Think about that a moment. If we have done nothing wrong, then we have no reason to get angry or defensive. No, Jesus cannot physically speak to our accusers today like He did for the disciples. But we allow Jesus to speak through us and our actions. The way we respond and the manner in which we speak can portray Christ. Jesus even promised that when we are accused of wrong-doing, the Holy Spirit would give us the very words to speak.

¹¹ Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the officials and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:11-12 NASB

This world is just looking for a reason to belittle or accuse Christians. May we stand firm in our faith, living our lives unto Him. We can be sure the Holy Spirit is with us, enabling us to live the way He directs us to, and will be our defender when we are unjustly charged.

And on the other hand, we should strive to not be like the Pharisees who were so quick to judge others. The actions of the disciples could have been interpreted as work, but Jesus knew the intent of their hearts. Sometimes the actions of our fellow believers may appear or seem to be one way, when the real intentions are nothing like what our mind interprets. We need to remember we are not to judge others. That is the work of the Lord. What we are called to do is to come along beside those who are of the body, to encourage, edify, and love one another. And if a brother or sister does fall, we are to help them up and restore them to the fellowship of the body. Leave the judging to God.

Main Course 3 – The Charge

The Pharisees accused the disciples of breaking one of the commandments given to the Israelites from God. The reason God gave that commandment is found in Genesis.

² By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:2-3 NASB

When God met with Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments, this was the fourth commandment given:

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ For six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your resident who stays with you. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  Exodus 20:8-11 NASB

God emphasized again the importance of the Sabbath a few chapters later. This observance of the Sabbath, along with the other commandments, set the people apart from all the other people in the world. It was a symbol that they belonged to the Lord.

¹² Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹³ “Now as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You must keep My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. ¹⁴ Therefore you are to keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it must be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. ¹⁶ So the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a permanent covenant.’ ¹⁷ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”  Exodus 31:12-17 NASB

When the new generation of the Children of Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, Moses once again reviewed with the people the Laws of the Lord. Along with observing the Sabbath for the reason of remembering God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, Moses added that they are to remember how they were once enslaved by the Egyptians, forced to work against their will. God set them free from that bondage, giving them rest from their labor, just like God had rested from His labor. They were told to celebrate the Sabbath because they were given rest.

 ¹² ‘Keep the Sabbath day to treat it as holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ For six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work that day, you or your son or your daughter, or your male slave or your female slave, or your ox, your donkey, or any of your cattle, or your resident who stays with you, so that your male slave and your female slave may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to celebrate the Sabbath day.  Deuteronomy 5:12-15 NASB

When the Pharisees accused the disciples of working on the Sabbath, Jesus defended them. Jesus was not disputing the fact that God had commanded people to observe the Sabbath. The problem was that man had added to the Laws of God. They had caused the laws to become burdensome, to the point of observing the day as a day to be restricted rather than a day to remember and worship the Lord.

Man has no right to restrict the worship of God. We are to worship God for Who He is, for what He has done. Following man-made requirements, or rituals, which attempt to make an unholy people become holy, defiles the holiness of God. Only God is holy. We become holy only by allowing His holiness and righteousness control and consume us. It is nothing of ourselves or our actions, it is all Him. Which is what God intended for people to remember when they observed the Sabbath. To remember Him and what He had done for them, and not to try to be holy by performing rituals or restricting movements.

When Christ resurrected from the grave on the first day of the week, believers began worshipping on what became known as the Lord’s Day instead of the Sabbath. But just as observing the Sabbath identified the Israelites as God’s people, observing the Lord’s Day identifies us as a people who believe in the resurrected Christ. To many people, Sunday is just another day of the week. For the Christian, it should be a day to gather with fellow believers and worship as a body before the Lord.

Remember from the scriptures above that God told the Israelites to observe the Sabbath because it was the day God rested from His labor and because He had released the Children of Israel from bondage? When we observe the Lord’s Day, it is also for the same reasons. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ set us free from the bondage of sin of which we were captives. And the rest God experienced from His labor is a preview of another day to come. One glorious day in the future, we will experience a permanent rest from our labors. But it is only for those who receive Christ now in this life. Those who refuse Him will not enjoy this eternal, Sabbath rest.

Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. ¹¹ Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience. Hebrew 4:9-11 NASB

May we make every effort to worship with other believers on the Lord’s Day as we look forward to that eternal day of rest!

Main Course 4 – Jesus Answers

Jesus responded to the accusations of the Pharisees by reminding them of scripture, which they should have been very familiar with.

Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” ² David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” ⁴ The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread, if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ David answered the priest and said to him, “Be assured, women have been denied to us as previously when I left and the bodies of the young men were consecrated, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then will their bodies be consecrated today?” ⁶ So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence which was removed from its place before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day it was taken away. 1 Samuel 21:1-6 NASB

Even though only the priest and his family were allowed to eat the consecrated bread, David was given that bread out of necessity to meet his physical needs. Jesus then went on to remind the Pharisees that the priests themselves labored on the Sabbath day.

⁵ “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. ⁶ And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷ You shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, an offering by fire to the Lord. ⁸ Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. ⁹ And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.” Leviticus 24:5-9 NASB

⁹ ‘Then on the Sabbath day two male lambs one year old without defect, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and its drink offering: ¹⁰ This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. Numbers 28:9-10 NASB

Jesus was emphasizing that there were necessities that were more important than ritualistic laws. A man’s body had to have nourishment, and serving before the Lord was of more importance than denying the body to labor.

Even Jesus, Himself, often “worked” on the Sabbath, performing miracles and healings. The Pharisees were aware of that, too.

¹⁶ Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was dissension among them. John 9:16 NASB

After giving examples of how the necessity of tasks such as serving in the temple and obtaining necessary, daily food is acceptable on the Sabbath, Jesus makes the statement that something even better than the sanctity and holiness of the temple was present. And that was Himself. He was God in the flesh. He came to fulfill all that was written in the Law and the Prophets. And if it was permittable for priests to serve the temple on the Sabbath, how much more for the disciples to serve Him, God in flesh, who had instituted the Sabbath day to begin with?

Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Matthew 5:17 NASB

If you read the rest of Matthew 5, you will get the understanding that it wasn’t just the letter of the law that God looked at people to fulfill. It was the intent, the motives, in their hearts that God looked at. Which is what Jesus meant when He then quoted Hosea 6:6 to the Pharisees.

 For I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice, And the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6 NASB

More importantly than following all of the laws and rituals put in place by man, was to have a pure and clean heart before the Lord. The Pharisees spent their time looking at the outward actions of people while God looks at the inward parts.

Paul touched on this subject in his letter to the Colossians. We are to live Godly lives, but that doesn’t consist of following man-made rules and rituals.

Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day— ¹⁷ things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, ¹⁹ and not holding firmly to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. ²⁰ If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ²¹ “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” ²² (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of man? ²³ These are matters which do have the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.  Colossians 2:16-23 NASB

Yes, the Sabbath day was an important day. However, Jesus was greater than the Sabbath. God had given the Law to the people to teach them how to honor Him. How to live their daily lives for Him. But when Christ came, lived, died, and resurrected for us, then the new covenant was established in our hearts. We don’t follow laws, we follow Christ. We don’t follow traditions in order to appear holy, we follow a Savior, guided by the Holy Spirit that lives within us. When we allow the Holy Spirit to do His job, then our outward behavior will automatically be in line with God’s commands.

Our take-aways from this lesson today.

1. We ought to have a hunger for the things of God more than for the things of this world. This hunger grows as we spend more time with our Lord and only He can satisfy our every desire.
2. Actions speak loudly, but sometimes actions are not what they appear. We should allow the Holy Spirit to guide our every step, and if we are following Him, He will be our defender against those who accuse us falsely of wrong-doing. And we are not to judge others, but instead, love others with the love of Christ that resides in us.
3. We should remember the Lord’s Day and spend it in worshiping our Savior. It should remind us that we have been set free from sin and we are looking forward to an eternal rest with our Savior!
4. It is more important to follow the Lord with all our heart instead of following a set of rules in our actions only. The condition of our heart is what the Lord looks at.

Dessert:

Spend a few moments in prayer