CHRIST FEEDS THE MULTITUDE – FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISHES FEED FIVE THOUSAND!
Would you be upset with me if I told you that Christ did not feed the Multitude? Lets go through the scripture line by line and I will explain why I would say such a thing.
Matt 14:14-21 14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. 15 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. 16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. 17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
Five loaves – five is the number for grace, God’s salvation through Jesus Christ Two fishes- two is the number for witnessing, union. Note that they are fed not only bread, but also meat-fishes.(Matt 4:4 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. KJV) There is more to the word of God than salvation. The remainder of the food Christ supplies is for His flock to learn from and feed to others
18 He said, Bring them hither to me. 19 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.
Christ first commands the crowd to sit on the grass. He does not just start throwing loaves into the crowd, but organizes them and settles them down. (in Mark :6 Christ commands them to sit by groups of fifties-the Holy Spirit- and by one hundreds-election, the chosen) Christ takes the loaves and fishes, looks to heaven, blesses them, gives them to His disciples, who then feed the multitude. Christ first gives the food to his disciples, they then feed it to others. Christ produces an endless bounty of food for the multitude, but it is His disciples that He has feed the multitude. (also note that the bread is fed first (also in Mark, Luke & John), salvation must come before the understanding of God’s word.) In this instance, Mathew : 14, Christ blesses the loaves and fish, and gives them to the disciples, but there is no mention of the fishes being fed to the multitude, just the loaves – the “meat” was for the disciples
20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. Twelve-governmental perfection, the number of Tribes of Israel, the number of Disciples
. Matt 16:5-12 5 And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. 8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. KJV
After the Word of God has been fed to man, never take what is left over, or returned. Man will “leaven” the word and it will no longer be the Word of God , but the traditions of men.
Christ will supply the food and no matter how many of His flock His disciples feed, there will always be more. And as man does not live by bread(salvation) alone, but every Word of God, as his disciples feed more and more from the meat of God’s Word, the more knowlege He will reveal.
This is a rather innocuous example of how the Word of God is made void by the traditions of man, but if you accept the traditional meaning of this passage, and read through it with that in mind, you completely miss the meaning(s) that were meant to be conveyed. Although it’s traditional meaning is that Christ performed a miracle and fed the multitude, the real meanings go much deeper. Much deeper than I have discussed here.
As long as you rely on the Word of God, and that Word only, you will never run out of food-knowlege, for yourself, or for you to share with His flock, and new and varied food will continually be supplied.
The real miracle is that the more you share the more God reveals. This is the “Work” God has for us to do., feed the true Word of God to His children. And the most wonderful part is that the more we share, the more we receive.
God Bless