How did he enter the house of God in the days of Abiathar the High Priest and eat the Bread of the Presence, and also give it to those who were with him, though it was not lawful to eat it except for the priests?”
This verse continues David’s example and confirms that need and mercy sometimes reveal the law’s deeper purpose better than a merely formal application. The consecrated breads were normally reserved for the priests (1 Samuel 21:1–6), yet in an extraordinary situation David received them without bearing condemnation from God, because what mattered here was the preservation of life and the continuation of the path of God’s anointed. By this example Christ does not teach disregard for the law, but shows that the law must be interpreted according to God’s heart—with mercy, truth, and wisdom. In this way He reveals that for the Pharisees the law was too narrow and lacked spiritual understanding.