More from Matt. 15:29-39

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/3/2022 10:16 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  More from Matt. 15:29-39

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 15:29-39

 

            Message of the verses:  “29 And departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up to the mountain, He was sitting there. 30  And great multitudes came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, dumb, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them, 31 so that the multitude marveled as they saw the dumb speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. 32 And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "I feel compassion for the multitude, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not wish to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way." 33 And the disciples said to Him, "Where would we get so many loaves in a desolate place to satisfy such a great multitude?" 34 And Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven, and a few small fish." 35  And He directed the multitude to sit down on the ground; 36  and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples in turn, to the multitudes. 37 And they all ate, and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. 38 And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And sending away the multitudes, He got into the boat, and came to the region of Magadan.

 

            We are not really told about the scene here as Matthew just writes “He healed them.” There must have been people in this large crowd who were in much pain, as in just getting some of them to this place had to be painful for them.  Then at the same time as people were begin healed by Jesus there would have been great sounds of joy as people who never saw could see as people who had never walked before are jumping for joy.  I think that sometimes we kind of miss reading between the lines as we look at the miracles that Jesus did.  Now there is another kind of healing that people need and perhaps many times when people receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord that they are rather quiet, they don’t jump up and down like some of these people must have done, and I suppose that is ok, but I can remember when I was saved many years ago, and I can remember that I was different, I was free from having sin rule over me, I was free to live a life that is no pleasing to the Lord, and for that I am thankful each and every day of my life even though I still struggle with sin and probably don’t express like I should it is there, knowing that some day because of what Jesus did for me almost 2000 years ago that I will one day walk the streets of gold praising the Lord for taking my sin upon Himself on that cruel cross, dying for me so that I can now live for Him.

 

            When we looked earlier at the feeding of the five thousand it seems to me that those who were feed believed that they had all of that food coming to them each and every day from the Lord.  They chased after Him wanting Him to be their King, but for all the wrong reasons.  These were all Jewish people, but the people whom Jesus healed and feed in our section we are looking at are Gentiles and the scene seems different to me as I read over it.  I guess what I am trying to say is that these people were more thankful for what the Lord did for them.  Mark says “they were utterly astonished, saying, ‘He has done all things well’” (Mark 7:37).  I like that!  MacArthur seems to agree with what I am saying about this crowd:  “The wonder of these Gentiles was greater than the wonder of the Jews, whose awe was often tempered by spiritual pride and skepticism.  When the crowd at Decapolis saw the perfection of the healings, they knew the power behind them was divine—in great contrast to the Pharisees who charged Jesus with casting out demons by Satan’s power (Matt. 12:24).”

 

            These people realized that their Gentile pagan gods did not have the power to do things like this and so they glorified the God of Israel.  I have to believe that many of these people did not even know who Jesus was, but I’m sure they knew He was Jewish, but also knew that He did not act like most of the stuck-up Jews that they knew, as He was the gentle healer.

 

The gentle Healer came
Into our town today
He touched blind eyes
And the darkness left to stay
But more than the blindness,
He took their sins away
The gentle Healer came
Into our town today

The gentle Healer came
Into our town today
He spoke one word,
That was all He had to say;
And the one who had died
Just rose up straight away
The gentle Healer came
Into our town today

Oh, He seems like just
An ordinary man
With dirty feet
And rough but gentle hands
But the words He says
Are hard to understand
And yet, He seems like just
And ordinary man

The Gentle Healer
He left our town today
I just looked around
And found He'd gone away
Some folks from town
Who followed Him, they say
That the gentle Healer is
The Truth, the Light, the Way.

 

            We conclude this SD with a two paragraph quote from MacArthur’s commentary.  “The multitudes were so large and the needs so great that the healings continued for several days.  After that miraculous but exhausting time, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, ‘I feel compassion for the multitude, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat.’

 

            I feel compassion is from the verb splanchnizomai, which literally means to be moved in one’s inward parts, in the bowels or viscera, which the ancients considered the seat of emotions.  The English word compassion is taken from the Latin, which means to suffer with, but it has come to mean much more than that.  According to one definition, it is ‘a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain and remove its cause.’” 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that the more that I get to know my Lord the more I am convinced of this great truth that He has compassion for me.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To learn to have this kind of compassion for others, even my enemies.

 

8/3/2022 10:55 AM