Jesus fed 5000 men (plus women and
children) with five loves of home
made peasant bread and 2 small
fishes.
We can read about this amazing
miracle in Matthew 14:15-22,
"And when it was evening, his
disciples came to him, saying,
This is a desert place, and the
time is now past; send the
multitude away, that they may
go into the villages, and buy
themselves victuals. But Jesus
said unto them, They need not
depart; give ye them to eat.
And they say unto him, We have
here but five loaves, and two
fishes. He said, Bring them hither
to me. And he commanded the
multitude to sit down on the grass,
and took the five loaves, and the
two fishes, and looking up to heaven,
he blessed, and brake, and gave the
loaves to his disciples, and the
disciples to the multitude. And
they did all eat, and were
filled: and they took up of the
fragments that remained twelve
baskets full. And they that had
eaten were about five thousand
men, beside women and children.
And straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship,
and to go before him unto the
other side, while he sent the
multitudes away."
This was a super miracle. Everybody
had been there all day and many of
them had not brought anything with
them to eat. One little boy had a
lunch his mother prepared for him.
He was willing to share it, and then
Jesus prayed, and shared it with the
disciples, who shared it with the
people. And when all was said and done,
after all the people had eaten all they
wanted, 12 baskets of fragments, of
leftovers if you will, were gathered up.
Where did all these people come from?
Five thousand men, plus woman and
children. That is a whole lot of people.
Jesus did not advertise, "come to hear
the gospel by the sea." There were no
newspapers, or radio or television in
those days. They did not have
the internet with UTube to promote
things. In fact, Jesus did absolutely
NO advertising of any kind.
These people could have all been
someplace else. They had jobs.
They had other things that probably
needed doing. So what was it that
caused them to skip work, to stop
their house cleaning, to set aside
all the plans for that day to go and
listen to Jesus instead?
I am trying to put myself right
into the story. WHAT was the
thing that drew these people to
Jesus.What could he have possibly
said or done that would make all
these people from all different
walks of life, from poor people to
wealthy people, from the leaders
to the lowliest followers come
out to hear Jesus?
It was the fact that Jesus LOVED
them. He was talking to them
about a kingdom founded on LOVE.
His ideas and concepts were so
startling and innovative, so mind
boggling and yet compelling that
these 5000 men (plus women and
children) not only came to hear
what Jesus said, they stayed all
day. They were spell bound by what
they were hearing.
It made sense. It fed the deep
longings of their hearts. Jesus
showed them he loved them.
There were entire villages
where Jesus had passed through
where there was not even one sick
person. Jesus had healed them all.
He LOVED them.
He did not just TALK about love,
he WALKED the walk about love.
He healed them all. And here we
find that the disciples were
concerned. These people had been
listening to Jesus all day!!! They
had not gone anywhere. They
could not get enough. And now
it was almost night. The disciples
were suddenly aware that THEY
were hungry. They said, "Jesus,
send the people away so they can
go into the surrounding towns and
villages and get something to eat."
And Jesus said, "no.I have a better
idea. YOU feed them."
With WHAT? the disciples asked.
Even if we had thousands of dollars,
we can not buy a meal out here
away from all the towns and
villages. There are no facilities
here to cook anything. How are
we supposed to feed this vast
multitude. There were probably
at least 10,000 people there
including women and children
as well as the men. Imagine the
expense of catering for that many
people. It would have cost a
fortune, if it could have even
been done. I mean a simple
wedding meal today costs several
thousand dollars for a few
hundred guests.
And Jesus said, YOU feed them.
One disciple said, "all we have
is this one little boys sack lunch."
All it is is 5 small loves and two
tiny fishes. What good is that
among 10,000 people? It barely
will feed the boy who brought it.
You have got to be kidding Jesus.
Feed these people. HOW???
Then Jesus blessed that tiny bit
of food and started giving it to his
disciples. They started handing it
out to the crowd of people. And
everyone ate all they needed, and
there were twelve baskets of left
overs. One basket for each disciple.
YES!! It was a miracle.
The disciples knew it. The people
knew it. The little boy who shared
his lunch with Jesus knew it.
Imagine the story he had to tell
his mother.
"Mom!! You won't believe what
happened!! Jesus took that little
lunch you gave me and fed over
ten thousand people."
Why did not Jesus send the
crowds away hungry? It would
have been the sensible thing
to do. It was what the disciples
suggested.
I would suggest that he did not
send them away hungry because
He felt their need. He loved
them. This was just a graphic
illustration of God's love, of
Jesus love. He was teaching
everyone, including the
twelve apostles, a lesson.
It was a lesson that they never
forgot. And now we can
read about it in the bible.
The reason all those people
came out to hear Jesus was
that he LOVED them.
Sincerely,
David A. Youngs
I recently saw a video in which dolphins were happily playing with rings of air in the water. You know, God made the dolphin to enjoy playing with rings of air, silvery vortexes in the water that they can create. Isn't our God a great God!! Even the animals play and have fun. Does our God really want us to have joy and happiness?
Of course He does. He created us to enjoy our lives. One of the very first fun things that Adam got to do after he was created and then God woke him up, was to look at all the animals God created. God actually brought each animal to Adam, one by one. Of course he was fascinated by them. He could see their form and function. He could sense their total and complete enjoyment of life.
Then God gave Adam the privilege as the first man of naming all the animals. You can read it right there in Genesis 2:19, 20 "19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field."
Imagine if you will all the fun and incredible pleasure seeing and naming all the animals must have been for Adam. Even today we go to the zoo -- to do what? To see the animals God created, because it is a lot of fun. And we watch nature programs on television. WHY? To see the animals that God created, and marvel at their diversity. So here is Adam, and God brings all the animals to him. What an incredible time that must have been!!
"Adam," God might have said, "Look at this big animal. What do you think about this one?" And Adam would say, "Wow, it certainly does have a long neck, and look at those long, long legs. It stands so tall God. Why did you make it stand up so tall like that with such a long neck?" And God would say, "just wait a minute Adam, and you will see why." And then the animal would reach WAY up in the air and way up in a tree and eat the fruit found in the top of the tree. "Now do you see why Adam? I wanted it to be able to get the upper fruit from the trees. You can reach the lower fruit, but this long legged, long necked animal that I created can reach the fruit way up in the tops of the trees so that fruit can serve its purpose too. "Oh yes, Jesus," said Adam with a happy chuckle. "Now I understand. I think I will call this animal TOP FRUIT EATER." And Jesus laughed and said, "that is a very good name Adam. Yes. That is what we will call it. Top Fruit Eater."
Of course Top Fruit Eater in the language of heaven sounds a lot like "gee raff full" in our language which today we have shortened and compressed so when we see a Top Fruit Eater we just call them a "giraffe."
That first day of Adam's life must have been a whole lot of fun. And that was only the very first moments of his consciousness. Yes, God created all his creation to be full of Joy, of Happiness, and of Life. And the good news is that when God restores everything back to the way it is supposed to be someday soon, His creation again will be full of joy, happiness, and life. And I believe that then God will bring the zoo to us too. "Look at this animal that I have made," Jesus will say, "What do you guys think about this one?" I want to go to heaven and see God's zoo with no bars, no cages, no limitations, and the animals will live forever--don't you? Because I am pretty sure that we are really going to have a lot of fun there. Lets go...
This is David Youngs sharing a moment in God's word.
Sincerely,
David A. Youngs