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This sign/miracle of feeding the 5,000 is recorded in all 4 Gospels. Matthew 14:21 specifies 5,000 males, and further emphasizes the point by adding, “Besides women and children.” Many Bible scholars believe the actual number fed that day could have been 15,000-20,000 people.
The over-arching idea here is that feeding the people came from Jesus, not the disciples. The vision was cast by Him, and it would be only in Him and through Him that it would be accomplished. This is why it is so important for us today to be rooted in the Word of God. The Word is living and active. It’s a verifiable supernatural revelation, and when we read it, the Holy Spirit will apply it to our lives.
For some reason, in our culture, individual revelation is looked at as superior to Biblical truth. Scripture is a personal revelation. This is why when you hear good Biblical teaching you leave and say things like, “I felt like that Pastor was speaking directly to me.” It wasn’t the Pastor. It was the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.
Jesus could have simply snapped his fingers and fed the bellies of these people, which is usually our expectation of God, and how most of us pray. But there was tension, struggling, and wrestling. And when they were on board, Jesus went as far as to let the disciples hand out the food to the people.
The miracle was inclusive for the disciples after they engaged in the responsibility of trusting Him. Where does this speak to you today?
In the OT, Jerusalem was a place of victory and power. Many of the Jews read the Old Testament literalistically and this led to a misguided interpretation of who their Messiah would be and what He would look like when He came. They expected the Messiah to restore Jerusalem to her former glory, however, in the New Testament, Jerusalem does not become a place of glory but a place of death and destruction. In fact, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem (Luke 19).
In Luke 9, when the text says that “Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem,” it means that He is setting His face upon not only His own death, but the death of the old dispensation. The New Covenant had come and the old was being done away with. Interestingly, the Samaritan village on the way foreshadowed His coming rejection. Though this story is short, it is highlighting major themes that would play out over the rest of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Jesus would experience rejection in Jerusalem just like in the Samaritan village. That rejection, however, was not to be condemned as the disciples wished to do. They ask Jesus to call fire down from the sky to destroy these people! That was not the way of Jesus. He would accept the rejection and ridicule because He came to save sinners, not destroy them. It is a fascinating reality. Even though humanity rejected Jesus, and Jerusalem would be destroyed, something new was taking place. The church would be established in the power of His resurrection!