Tuesday, August 2, 2022

More from Matthew 15:29-39

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/2/2022 8:33 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.”

 

            Jesus had gone up to the mountain and was some distance from populated areas which was His plan to be away to teach His disciples of what was going to happen to Him and what they were to do.  We know that it must have taken several days for the word of His presence to spread and for the multitudes to get to Him from the various parts of the region.  Travel was a lot slower in those days compared to what it is today.  Think of how long and hard it would be to get all those who were diseased, lame, crippled, blind, dumb to get to where Jesus was.

 

            MacArthur writes “Crippled (from kullos) refers to any part of the human body that is deformed or unable to be used, and includes mutilation or total loss.  Jesus used the term to describe a person who has had a hand or foot cut off (Matt. 18:18).  The people seeking help therefore included the most seriously deformed.”

 

            So many, many people came to see the Gentle Healer in order to be made whole in body and better to be made whole in spirit, but probably not all of them were seeking Him for that.  The loved ones bring these seriously deformed people would laid them down at His feet and then He would heal them.  I really have a hard time understanding this scene in my mine.  We know that the crowd eventually numbered “four thousand men, besides women and children “(15:38), and therefore could have totaled as many as twenty thousand.  We don’t know the total number as only men were numbered, but needless to say there were many thousands more than the 4000 mentioned.

 

            Do to having an appointment this morning I will have to make this SD shorter.  8/2/2022 8:55 AM

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