Question

One of the Bible passages that I have read lately was the "Feeding of the 5000," which is located in all four gospels. I was reflecting on this and trying to find a meaning that it would have for us in the present day, and I was wondering if you could give me your interpretation?

Answer

The feeding of the 5,000 is one of my favorite miracles, for in reality it was the feeding of the 25,000 plus!  The Scripture says, "The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children." [Matthew 14:21]  Figure most were families of at least five and you have 25,000 plus fed.

Obviously, you see the Lord's concern and care for His followers, and His ability to feed them. But I have always thought the greatest message of the text was the testimony that Jesus is God! It was God, the Triune God that created a universe from nothing. And Jesus, starts off with five small loaves of bread and two small fish, and these were a little boy's lunch, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" [John 6:9]

It was most likely his lunch, and would have been similar to some small crackers (not loaves of bread that we are familiar with) and some pickled fish (like sardines that we get from cans, certainly not big fish).  Always remember that this was a young boy's lunch. The little boy would have spread the fish onto the crackers. So the point is that it wasn't much to start with. We know that all the people were very hungry, they hadn't had any food for a long while, and then they ate until they were satisfied, and there was a twelve basketfuls of food left over.

I would guess it would take maybe 10 barley loves (crackers) and 4 small fish to satisfy these 25,000 famished folks (on the average). So 25,000 x 10 loaves = 250,000 barley loaves, and 25,000 x 4 = 100,000 small fish. We know where 5 barley loaves came from and 2 fish, so where did the other 249,995 loaves, and the 99,998 fish come from? Jesus, as God created them from the thin air! A grand testimony of His deity!

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Tony Capoccia's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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