I Again Miraculously Fed Thousands

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

October 8, 2019

I Again Miraculously Fed Thousands

Page 140

Matthew 15:29-37; Mark 8:1-10

This is the second mass feeding in the last week of our reading, but the story is more than Jesus just “doing it again.” The people had been in the countryside with Jesus for three days. Jesus’ use of scripture from the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, make it clear that for three days Jesus, the Messiah, had been teaching the people about the Kingdom of God. (Compare verses 30-31 with Isaiah 35:5-6 and the response of the people in verse 31 with Isaiah 29:23b) The Messiah has a personal concern for his people. When the Messiah reaches out to meet the needs of his people, he involves his disciples in the process. He asks his disciples to identify their resources.

The disciples still are looking in the wrong direction. In the first feeding (Matthew 14:13-21), the disciples said “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish” (Matthew 14:17 NRSV). In today’s reading, they only had “seven loaves, and a few small fish” (Matthew 15:34). Their focus was on the insufficiency of their resources. Nevertheless, Jesus blesses their resources and sends his disciples to feed and care for his people. As in the case of the first mass feeding, there is an abundance of food left over.

My Takeaway: In time, the disciples grew in their faith and learned to keep their eyes on Jesus and not just their resources. A measure of my growth as a disciple of Jesus is whether my focus is on what I have, or what I can do, instead of keeping my eyes of Jesus. (See Hebrews 12:2)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.