SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2016 11:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Fulfilling Dinner
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:10-13
Message of the verses: “10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit
down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in
number about five thousand. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and having given
thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as
much as they wanted. 12 When they were filled, He said to His disciples,
"Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost." 13
So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the
five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.”
As we look
at this familiar story which as mentioned is recorded on all four gospels I
think that there are times when we just kind of read over it knowing what it
say and perhaps we do not picture ourselves as being there in perhaps the
places of those who are being feed, or the disciples, or the young man who
provided the beginnings of the food that Jesus would multiply so all 20 +
thousand could eat and be satisfied. How
about thinking about what must have run through the mind or our Lord when He
had done so many miracles in the presence of His disciples and the fact that
they themselves had just returned from doing miracles in His power, and then
not having enough faith feed these physically hungry people. I am sure that Jesus was disappointed in
their lack of faith, and also knowing that most of the people He would feed
would not understand the spiritual aspect of the miracle He was doing for
them. As we look at the attributes of
Jesus, the same as all Persons in the trinity, we know that love is one of them
and that is what He was demonstrating as He feeds these people. Now Jesus did not reprimand His disciples for
their lack of faith, instead He put them to work. Mark adds that Jesus told His disciples to
have the people set in groups of 50 to 100 people “39 And He commanded them all
to sit down by groups on the green grass. 40 They sat down in groups of
hundreds and of fifties (Mark 6:39-40).”
Matthews adds the following “21 There were about five thousand men who ate,
besides women and children (Matt. 14:21).” This is how many come up with the
number of those feed as somewhere between 15-25 thousand people as it is hard
to determine how many wives and children were there.
There was
no fanfare in what Jesus did next as He asked God’s blessing on the food, “He
distributed to those who were seated; likewise also the fish.” MacArthur adds “The Lord id not create a vast
amount of food all at once, but continually ‘broke the loaves…kept giving them
to the disciples to set before them; and…divided up the two fish among them all’
(Mark 6:41). The astonished crowd seated on the grassy hillside that evening
witnessed the Creator God at work.” Now
we know from or study of John’s Gospel that Jesus is the One who created
everything that was created, “3 All things came into being through Him, and
apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being (John 1:3).” “2 in these last days has spoken to us in His
Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world (Heb. 1:2).” Knowing this it is not hard to believe that
Jesus could create bread and fish to feed this large crowd. This was a great miracle that Jesus did here
and yet it was not at all difficult for Jesus to do this, but the main reason
that Jesus did this is found in our theme verses “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also
performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God; and
that believing you may have life in His name.” We will see more about how this miracle comes
into play as something spiritual as we move through this chapter.
The other
gospels show us that Jesus used the disciples to distribute the food, but He
did not have to use them for He could have just had the food appear to all the
people at one time. MacArthur writes “God,
however, often works through weak, fallible humans. He used Moses, who was ‘very humble, more
than any man who was on the face of the earth’ (Num. 12:3), to deliver His
people from bondage in Egypt; He used Gideon, the youngest child in the least
important family in Manasseh (Jud 6:15), to deliver Israel from the Midianites;
and He used David, an unknown shepherd boy, to kill the might warrior Goliath
and deliver Israel from the Philistines.
‘God,’ Paul reminded the proud, arrogant Corinthians, ‘has chosen the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak
things of the world to shame the things which are strong’ (1 Cor. 1:27).”
Philip has
said to Jesus that three years worth of money could only give each a taste but
we see that when Jesus was done feeding this crowd that they were all full, and
that there was twelve baskets filled.
These baskets were of type used to carry food or produce, not like when
Jesus feed the 4000 when what was left over were the large baskets, the kind
that Paul was let down in Damascus, to escape harm right after he became a believer.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: My Lord does not do anything in half measure,
He will give to me the spiritual food that I truly need to do the work that He
has called me to do.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I trust the Lord, as I have
stepped out by faith to teach a Sunday school class this coming summer, that He
will help me to prepare for it a little bit each day and not allow me to get
lax, but continue to trust Him to bring honor and glory to Him through the
power of His Spirit as I prepare for these lessons. It took a while for me to say yes to this,
but I believe that the Lord has led me to do this, and He will see me through
it.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Publicans and sinners” (Matthew 9:12).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘"Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone
else?’”
Answer in our next SD
3/26/2016 12:26 PM
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