SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2022 6:03 PM
My Worship Time Focus: More from
Matthew 15:29-39
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 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 begin this section by looking at verse 34 where
Jesus is inquiring about how much food the disciples had on hand and the answer
was similar to what they got from a young boy when the 5000 were fed. So what we see here is again similar and they
brought what little they had and gave it to Jesus. In verse 35 we see again something similar to
the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 as Jesus directed the people to sit on
the ground. We are not sure if He had
them sit in groups of hundreds and fifties in order to simplify the
distribution. “They sat down in groups
of hundreds and of fifties.” Mark is
speaking here of the feeding of the 5000.
“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.” MacArthur writes “The verb translated “started
giving” could also be rendered ‘kept giving.’
In either case the idea is that of repeated giving out of the food as it
was multiplied. When his basket of food
was emptied, a disciple would bring it back to the Lord for refilling, until
all ‘the multitudes’ were fed.”
Now here is the reason that
MacArthur thinks that Jesus did not just have the food given like it had been
done in the OT when the manna was given to the children of Israel found in
Exodus 16:14. He writes “But Jesus was
teaching the disciples as well as feeding the multitudes. He wanted them to learn the practical as well
as the theological reality of His compassion.
He wanted them to participate firsthand in God’s concern for the daily
needs of people as well as for their eternal redemption and physical wholeness,
because divine compassion embraces every dimension of human need.”
One thing is for sure and that is no
one went away hungry, because “they all ate;” and no one went away half full
but they were all completely satisfied.
I have to think that this food that they ate was the best food that they
had ever eaten as none of it was affected by the curse. Now it was after everyone had eaten all that
they wanted to eat, that the disciples “picked up what was left over of the
broken pieces, seven large baskets full.”
Now since Jesus was feeding Gentiles
there were different terms for the word “basket” as these were very large
baskets, the kind we see in the book of Acts.
Ac 9:25 but his disciples took him by night and let
him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.”
In order to put Paul in this large basket we can see that there was
probably more left over than when the 5000 were feed and twelve baskets (Jewish
sized baskets) were left over.
We now quote from Alfred
Edersheim once again who said “The Lord ended each phase of His ministry with a
feeding. He ended the ministry in
Galilee with the feeding of the five thousand. He ended the ministry in the Gentile area
with the feeding of the four thousand.
And He ended the Judean ministry before His death on the cross with the
feeding of His own in the upper room.” I
am pretty sure that this quote has been used before, but it is a good one to
re-read and to think about.
Now we actually have one
more paragraph to look at in order to finish looking at these verses from
Matthew 15:29-39 and then Lord willing, we will begin looking at a number of
important lessons we can learn from Jesus’ ministry to the Gentile crowd in the
Decapolis.
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.
The identity of “Magadan" is really not known not even of this word’s identity and the reason is
there is no other biblical, historical, or archaeological information about
it. The following is what Mark said in
Mark 8:10 “And immediately He entered the boat with His disciples and came to
the district of Dalmanutha.” The same is
true with this as that location is also uncertain. However because no land travel is mentioned,
the region apparently bordered the Sea of Galilee. I guess that there are some things that we
will never totally understand, and I suppose that this one does not have a
great deal of meaning to it.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the things learned here by me is that
when Jesus fully feeds you that you are not left hungry and that is what I
scribe for whenever I read and study His Word each day even though today I am
doing it in the evening and not in the morning.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will satisfy me as I
read and study His Word each and every day.
8/5/2022 6:38 PM
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