The Perfectionist

When we hear someone described as a 'perfectionist', we all have an image of someone dedicated to details.

If the perfectionist is working FOR us ... we are delighted at the quality we can count on ... but if we are being compared to a perfectionist we quickly feel inferior and defensive, knowing we do not measure up.

While we love the idea of 'perfect', there is a tension in us... the longing for it yet the reality that it is always beyond our grasp.

Only God is truly Perfect and Jesus the God/Man is the only true Perfectionist who ever walked our earthly soil. He came dedicated to fulfilling every detail of the Old Testament. Every detail ? yes... in His own words every jot and tittle. (Matt.5:28)

We are familiar with the obvious prophecies that speak of Him....and are aware that some of the OT characters are types foreshadowing Him, but what about the details that fall into 'jot and tittle' category - the ones that maybe you have to look for; the ones that only a Perfectionist would fulfill.

I found one of these today tucked into the following Old Testament story. (found in I Sam.21:1-7)

David, and the men with him, were fleeing from the wrath of Saul. Being on the move, any food they had with them was quickly consumed .

Three days had passed and the men were hungry.

The men were under David's command; he felt responsible for their needs. What could he do? An idea came to him.... he must have dismissed it at first because it was something against the law. But his men were hungry. He put them first.

David slipped into the temple and said to the priest named Abimelech, "Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand or what there is present."

Overturning the law, the priest gave the hallowed loaves to David... bread that had been dedicated to God. It cost him his life.

Fast forward a thousand years.... and we have two similar stories

One is in Matt. 6.

Jesus, and the people with Him, had consumed the food they had brought with them. Time passed and the people were hungry. Jesus had been meeting all their needs, were they not also looking to Him to feed them?

Jesus asked, "what do you have?" The answer was 5 loaves and two fishes.

He looked up to His Father (Abimelech means "Father of the King") , 'hallowed' the bread to Him.... and passed it out. The 'hallowed' bread fed the multitude.

We are told of another time in Matt.15:32, when Jesus fed the multitude ... this time three days has passed and again the people were hungry. Once again Jesus hallowed the bread and God provided from heaven the provision needed. Jesus overturned natural law, Jesus fulfilled heavenly law.

To provide living bread cost Him His life.

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You might ask, why is it important that we have this parallel of stories?

Perhaps at first glance, it is not important at all as it supplies no new information, nor does it add to any understanding of either the OT or NT stories.

But this is what it does do ; it gives to us the confirmation that God's Word is always true in every detail . We have the assurance that we can trust it.

God's Word is so tightly woven that its intrinsically connected details make it impossible for anyone other than God to have written the bible over a period of 4000 years.

The scriptures are indeed wondrously spoken forth. With what awe should we guard it, and obey its Words.

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