NO SEAT EMPTY
I’m always amazed as I read God’s Word each day to learn so much about our everyday lives. This morning I read the story of David trying to save his life from King Saul who wanted to kill him. David and Jonathan were working out their plan together. You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 20.
David was currently living in the palace and expected to sit with the royal family for meal time. David said to Jonathan: “Tomorrow is the new moon and I SHOULD NOT FAIL TO SIT with the king at meal.” In the Hebrew the infinite absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis! It means “I am CERTAINLY EXPECTED to sit with the king to eat.” It was mandatory.
Later Jonathan said to David: “Tomorrow is the new moon and YOU WILL BE MISSED FOR YOUR SEAT WILL BE EMPTY.”
We notice from this story that it was the expected and normal thing for every member in the household to be seated at the table for the evening meal. It is a sad thing to see an empty seat. That means someone in the family or extended household is missing. And it is always disappointing when someone is missing.
When our children grew older and were out at work with their own jobs, I still expected them to be home every evening for the family meal. They had to call me in good time to let me know if something very important cropped up. Otherwise they were expected to fill their seat. This is normality, and yet it is passing away from families today. Do you make it a priority for all the seats around your table to be filled each night?
I noticed something else too. Each person sat at their assigned place. Verse 25 says: “The king sat down in his usual place by the wall, with Jonathan opposite him and Abner at his side. But David’s place was vacant.” This shows us that it is important to have order in our home and at the table. Each person knows the seat they are to sit at each evening, rather than everything trying to compete for their own seat.
At our table, Colin always sits at t the head of the table as he is the head of the home and I sit beside him. Each person then has their particular seat.
I also remember how that when Jesus fed the five thousand plus people and later the four thousand, that He did not distribute any food to them until they were all sitting down.
I believe God intends us to sit for our meals. We are not meant to eat standing up or walking around. We are meant to SIT and eat and fellowship together. We don’t receive the same goodness and value from our food when we walk around eating. We need to sit to receive. That means physically and spiritually. We cannot even receive from the Lord when we try to get something from Him in a rush. We must sit to receive, just as Mary “SAT AT JESUS FEET and head his word” (Luke 10:39).
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
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