In The Word
Read: Matthew 14:13-36
Five Thousand Fed
13 Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. 14 When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.
15 When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” 17 They *said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” 18 And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”19 Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds,20 and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. 21 There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.
Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. 23 After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. 24 But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. 26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
28 Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”29 And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. 33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”
34 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding district and brought to Him all who were sick; 36 and they implored Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Here we see that even Christ, the Son of God, was emotionally impacted by the death of His cousin John the Baptist. So what did He do? He sought out a quiet place to pray and encourage Himself in His Father. However, people found out where He went and came by the thousands. He had compassion on them, so He taught, healed, and met their physical need of hunger. Wow, what a Shepherd. Even in His pain of loss, Jesus reached out to serve others.
He told the disciples to feed the five thousand people, which didn’t include the number of women and children that were also in the crowd. All they had were five loaves of bread and two fish. It seemed that He had given them an impossible task. Yahshua said, “Bring them to Me.” As we see, what is impossible for man is very possible with God; Peter experienced this when he walked on water. Healings of bodies, miracles of food, control of weather, and defiance of gravity…what a day!
It’s true that at times we need to find a quiet place to rest and strengthen ourselves in the Lord. However, we learn here that there are times when we will have to minister through our pain to others before we find that place. We also learned that God will many times ask us to do what is impossible for man. If He only asks us to do what we can do, then we wouldn’t need Him to do it. If we give our whole life to Christ and keep our eyes on Him, we would experience so much more.