God’s Invitation to the disciples and the multitudes to His heavenly
feast
The feeding
of the five thousand
The feeding of the five thousand is
an amazing incident in the Bible which always has something new to offer every
time one reads it. There is grandeur in
this portion of the scriptures where the King is out in the middle feeding the multitude. There is no mention of what the Lord exactly taught
the people. For whatever He taught was
for the multitude present at that time since it is not mentioned for us. But what we have here is the Lord’s work
which gives glory and eminence to the Person of Christ Himself. So the events in this riverside deserted
place with our dear Lord as the centre unveils the wisdom and purpose of the
Holy Spirit to put it on record for us who are reading today. The whole incident is a prophecy of the
coming grace age where we will feed upon the heavenly bread (John 6:35) until
the Lord’s second coming. It was a
foretaste of the Heavenly feast with the King of kings.
The Background
 |
| the world today |
The Lord withdrew along with his disciple to a deserted
place after the religious people rejected him and the death of the forerunner,
John the Baptist. The notes from ‘The Holy
Bible the recovery version’ give us a good understanding about the significance
of the Lord’s withdrawal from the city to a deserted place.
Matt. 14:13 ‘withdrew’
Because He had been rejected by
the people in religious, cultured, and political circles, the heavenly King
departed from them and withdrew to a deserted place privately. This indicates
that thenceforth He would hide Himself in a deserted place, in a place without
culture, away from the religious, cultured, and political circles. He did this
by means of a boat, implying that He would do this through the church. Because
He has been rejected by the civilized world, the Lord, through the church, has
always hidden Himself in a realm without much culture, away from religious and
political circles.
The Lord though rejected by the religious hard nuts was a
joyous and mysterious person who attracted crowd like a magnet. His yoke is easy to bear and His presence so
warm and loving. His words were few but
full of life and grace. What a wonderful
person is our dear Lord!! His life was
not only words and doctrines, but full of wisdom, love and glorious deeds. The Lord took a boat ride towards this
deserted place with His chosen disciples.
When the people came to know about this, they followed on foot from the
cities to meet Him. This is an excellent
prophetic message from God the Spirit for this generation. Today the Lord is in a deserted place withdrawn
from the religious society and the sin infested world along with His disciples. Hallelujah, people from the city are on the
foot to meet the Christ who is in the deserted, lowly place. The city is a worldly place full of earthly
entanglements and sin. Satan has
penetrated every system of the city.
This was already left by the Lord and His few faithful lovers. The city people are leaving on foot (paying
the price) to meet this great Christ who is full of grace and joy on a daily
basis. Mark 6:33 says that people ran to
meet the Lord. We need to run to meet
this great Lord who is the only meaning in this futile fallen world. People speak about investment and security for future
while there is no surety about their tomorrow.
What meaninglessness!
The
King of kings seeing the multitude moved with compassion because they were like
sheep without Shepherd (Mark 6:34). He
began to teach them and heal them out of His great compassion. Time passed by and the hour became late. The hour was late signifies the age of
darkness and dangers with scarcity of food.
In such a critical situation, the disciples suggested the Lord to let the
people go, but the Lord sought earnestly to glorify God the Father, told the
disciples to give the multitude something to eat. He was not mocking the disciples as He knew
the disciples ability. Today the Lord instructs
us in the same way as He told the disciples.
He wants His disciples of today to feed the multitude of this age. You might think that He knows my ability and
then how can He ask such a formidable thing from me. Hallelujah, because He knows our ability He
asks this from the disciple. It is never
the ability of the disciples but His strength and power of the Triune God behind
the disciples. Amen.
The
disciples gave some brilliant suggestions to the Lord which He discarded
immediately. The Lord is steadfast and stuck
to His demand. He said to disciples, “You
give something to eat.” Mark 6:37. Let
us see the abilities of the disciples when the Lord said that. They had 200 denarii. It was definitely not possible to feed a
multitude. Their second ability was finding
a boy with 5 loaves and 2 fishes which was again meager. The Lord didn’t permit the disciples to go to
the market to buy food for 200 denarii and then do the miracle with it. It was already late. The real need of the multitudes of all the ages
(John 6:31) was the pure heavenly bread which is the Lord Jesus Christ (John
6:33-35, 6:48) without the mixture of any human elements. He didn’t directly make bread and fish out of
nothing. But instead He took the five
loaves and two fishes, blessed it and broke the loaves of the bread and then
gave the pieces to the disciples. Then
the disciples gave it to the multitude. The
Lord’s earthly life was sacrificed to give us our real food in such a manner to
feed the multitude. His body that was
broke is our heavenly manna which will give eternal life (John 6:54). This is particularly mentioned in all the
gospels that the Lord made the disciple distribute the bread to the multitude (Luke 14:15). The disciples of today are filled with the
life giving Spirit (1 Cor 15:45 Rom 8:9)
The
Lord gave thanks to the Father and broke the bread which signifies that the
Lord is the living bread (John 6:51) who had broken Himself willingly (John
6:51) on the cross to be distributed because they were like people without a
Shepherd. He also instructed to break
bread in remembrance of Him (1 Cor. 11:24, Mark 14:22). The Lord gave thanks to the Father for the
glory He is about to receive from the creation.
The hour was late indicates that there was still time for the feast to
take place before the actual darkness.
The green grass and the orderliness indicate how the Lord recovered the
same rest and orderliness which Adam through sin had lost. The multitude for ages were wandering and
seeking the Lord. They travelled from
the city to the wilderness. Finally they
met the Lord and now they were orderly seated in the green pastures in the
deserted place. It was a grand
event. Food came from nowhere in
abundance. The multitude was filled, every
one of them. In this age the gospel will
be preached throughout the world, and they will be filled until the Lord will
outweigh the multitude. The Lord is
infinite and inexhaustible. Who ever
goes to Him will never go hungry (John 6:35) and He will never drive anyone
away even though the hour is late (John 6:37).
The bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life
to the world.
Today
He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He is giving the bread to the multitudes
through his lovers. He needs disciples
to fulfill this task, a few ordinary people who will set this heavenly bread
before the multitudes. Our ability is
just 5 loaves and 2 fish which is nothing when you have some 20,000 mouths to
feed. So when He breaks our effort which
is almost nothing, it is increased by a 10,000%. His riches will never get exhausted, but
after everyone ate and filled, they still gathered many baskets of bread in
abundance.
The
faster we realize we don’t have a Shepherd, the faster we will run for
Jesus. The faster we reach Lord Jesus (on
foot, effort) the sooner the Son of God will have compassion on us. The sooner His healing work and the feeding
of the heavenly bread begins through His disciples of this age whose ability is
nothing. The sooner you ate and get filled,
the quicker the abundance of the Lord can be seen when the baskets of fragments
of heavenly bread is left in excess.
Now you don’t stop there, but
answer the heavenly calling and love the Lord (disciple), the sooner you admit
that all you have is a portion which is nothing compared to the portion the
Lord needs, the sooner you take it to the Lord, the sooner He breaks it and give
it back to you. You will distribute it
to the multitude for their salvation. At
the end you will still be carrying the remaining baskets of heavenly
bread. The Holy kingdom is a place of
abundance, and The Lord’s hands will never cease giving. You will be tired taking the bread from Him,
but He will not be tired giving it to you.
Disciples said to the
Lord
This place is deserted and there is a multitude without
Shepherd and the hour is late. The hour
is late means there will be a time of darkness soon, but still there was time
when the Disciples of Christ realized this.
The hour is late but there will be time ahead, which will be full of
dangers from beasts, and robbers. If
they don’t act now, they will be exposed to dangers, will not find a place to
sleep and will not find food. The hour
is late now, but it will be too late soon.
The fig tree (Israel) has blossomed; the summer is going to come (Mt
24:32, 33; Mark 13:28; Lu 21:30). Are we
a Christian with great doctrinal knowledge without love or deeds of Christ? Our Lord was a person with warmth and
love. Are we like the Lord or are our
words full of condemning doctrines without love? When it comes to the real life situation do
we behave like the worldly people?
The end is nearing, let’s be filled
with the bread from heaven, be it one from the multitude or the disciples let
us be filled. Let us love with the love
of our Lord. Let us not condemn one
another but build one another with pure heart full of our dear Lord Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah, Christ is the way. Amen
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