When we look at the life of David, we find three anomalies, cases where he appears to act against the express word of God as given in the Torah. In none of those cases does God correct him. Yet there are other cases where David makes what we might regard as minor errors and God reacts immediately. What's going on here?

Let's start with the two instances where God reacts quickly. The first is where David was trying to bring the Ark to Jerusalem on an ox cart. As we know from the Torah, the Ark was to be carried only by the Levites. So when the cart wobbled and Uzzah reached up to steady it, he was struck dead on the spot. David learned from this and upon his next attempt used Levites to carry the ark. The second instance where God corrected David is when he conducted a census. There God brought a plague upon the people and only relented when David acknowledged his sin and offered a sacrifice.

No problem understanding these examples. The king sinned and God corrected him.

The other instances are curious. The first occured when David was fleeing from Saul. He went into the tabernacle and demanded that the priest give him the bread of the presence to eat. This was to be eaten only by the priests at the end of each week when new loaves were provided. The second instance occured during the above mentioned second attempt to bring the Ark into Jerusalem. There we see that David wore an ephod which is an levitical garment. The account of this incident in 2 Samuel also indicates that David himself offered sacrifices (the Chronicles account is a bit more ambiguous and it could be read that the Levites offered them). The final instance is in connection with the census. There David purchased a threshing floor, made an altar and offered sacrifices (here the Chronicles account also indicates that David was himself doing the sacrifices).

So in two instances we have David violating Torah and incurring God's quick displeasure, but in three others he appears to violate Torah and God not only does not object but actively approves. Curious. Surely it is not the case that God sometimes lets thing slide and at other times really comes down hard - that would make Him capricious which cannot be. Perhaps the answer is that David was not in violation of Torah.

We have been talking about instances of the Pattern of Three for the past several weeks. In last week's article on The Coming Temple we briefly mentioned that there are three orders of priesthood, the order of Melchizedek, the order of Aaron and the 'royal priesthood of an holy nation' which is all believers. We can infer that priests of a higher order might be authorized to offer the sacrifices of a lower order. We can see this in that a Levite who is part of the priesthood of all believers would be authorized to offer the 'sacrifice of praise' just as can any child of God today. A Levite could also offer a sacrifice at the Jerusalem Temple when it is rebuilt.

We know that Messiah is a member of the order of Melchizedek. We also know that Melchizedek was both a priest and a king - as is the Messiah. We know from Scripture that David is a king and is the earthly ancestor of the Messiah. We see in our examples that David took on priestly dress, offered sacrifices and ate priestly food. What conclusion should we draw?