Matthew 14:13 On hearing about this <<John the Baptist’s death>>, Yeshua left in a boat to be by himself in the wilderness. But the people learned of it and followed him from the towns by land. 14 So when he came ashore, he saw a huge crowd; and, filled with compassion for them, he healed those of them who were sick.
15 As evening approached, the talmidim came to him and said, “This is a remote place and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go and buy food for themselves in the villages.” 16 But Yeshua replied, “They don’t need to go away. Give them something to eat, yourselves!” 17 “All we have with us,” they said, “is five loaves of bread and two fish.” 18 He said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 After instructing the crowds to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking up toward heaven, made a b’rakhah. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the talmidim, who gave them to the crowds. 20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and they took up twelve baskets full of the pieces left over. 21 Those eating numbered about five thousand men, plus women and children.
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Mark 6:30 Those who had been sent out rejoined Yeshua and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 There were so many people coming and going that they couldn’t even take time to eat, so he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a place where we can be alone, and you can get some rest.” 32 They went off by themselves to an isolated spot; 33 but many people, seeing them leave and recognizing them, ran ahead on foot from all the towns and got there first. 34 When Yeshua came ashore, he saw a huge crowd. Filled with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time, the hour was late. The talmidim came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s getting late. 36 Send the people away, so that they can go and buy food for themselves in the farms and towns around here.” 37 But he answered them, “Give them something to eat, yourselves!” They replied, “We are to go and spend thousands on bread, and give it to them to eat?” 38 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and check.” When they had found out, they said, “Five. And two fish.” 39 Then he ordered all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 They sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred. 41 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and, looking up toward heaven, made a b’rakhah. Next he broke up the loaves and began giving them to the talmidim to distribute. He also divided up the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate as much as they wanted, 43 and they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces and fish. 44 Those who ate the loaves numbered five thousand men.
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Luke 9:10 On their return, the emissaries detailed to Yeshua what they had done. Then, taking them with him, he withdrew by himself to a town called Beit-Tzaidah. 11 But the crowds found out and followed him. Welcoming them, he went on to speak to them about the Kingdom of God and to heal those who needed to be healed.
12 The day began to draw to a close. The Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they can go and get lodging and food in the towns and farms around here, because where we are is a remote place.” 13 But he said to them, “Give them something to eat, yourselves!” They said, “We have no more than five loaves of bread and two fish — unless we ourselves are supposed to go and buy food for all these people!” 14 (For there were about five thousand men.) He said to his talmidim, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 They did what he told them and had them all sit down. 16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking up toward heaven, made a b’rakhah, broke the loaves and began giving them to the talmidim to distribute to the crowd. 17 Everyone ate as much as he wanted; and they took up what was left over, twelve baskets full of broken pieces.
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John 6:1 Some time later, Yeshua went over to the far side of Lake Kinneret (that is, Lake Tiberias), 2 and a large crowd followed him, because they had seen the miracles he had performed on the sick. 3 Yeshua went up into the hills and sat down there with his talmidim. 4 Now the Judean festival of Pesach was coming up; 5 so when Yeshua looked up and saw that a large crowd was approaching, he said to Philip, “Where will we be able to buy bread, so that these people can eat?” 6 (Now Yeshua said this to test Philip, for Yeshua himself knew what he was about to do.) 7 Philip answered, “Half a year’s wages wouldn’t buy enough bread for them — each one would get only a bite!” 8 One of the talmidim, Andrew the brother of Shim‘on Kefa, said to him, 9 “There’s a young fellow here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But how far will they go among so many?”
10 Yeshua said, “Have the people sit down.” There was a lot of grass there, so they sat down. The number of men was about five thousand. 11 Then Yeshua took the loaves of bread, and, after making a b’rakhah, gave to all who were sitting there, and likewise with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 After they had eaten their fill, he told his talmidim, “Gather the leftover pieces, so that nothing gets wasted.” 13 They gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
14 When the people saw the miracle he had performed, they said, “This has to be ‘the prophet’ who is supposed to come into the world.” 15 Yeshua knew that they were on the point of coming and seizing him, in order to make him king; so he went back to the hills again. This time he went by himself.
In the midst of His mourning, Yeshua still had compassion for the people. But notice the frustration He had with the disciples. This is what we want to focus on here.
What would your belief structure look like if you witnessed firsthand demonic deliverance, consistent healing, the submission of nature, and even people coming back from death?
Take a few moments and consider what you would believe if you had seen all of this with your own eyes on a regular basis.
What’s impossible? Absolutely nothing, right? Anything can happen with this Guy.
These guys had seen some pretty amazing things lately. The servants had watched the Master and they knew what kind of Master they served. This was the Son of God and everything obeys His word.
Well, almost everything.
The only thing Yeshua did not have control over was freewill.
Natural elements? They obey.
Demons? They obey.
Sicknesses? They obey, too.
Death? Yep.
People? Well…
If you notice, through obedience people are set free. People are the ones that benefit from these other things heeding the Word of the Messiah. People can now live their lives in pure shalom because even death itself has no authority over them.
People…people have better lives because of submission to authority. Whether these demons wanted to go or not made no difference at all. They obeyed because they had no choice but to obey.
Us? We don’t have to obey. In fact, we don’t have to do anything. We do exactly what we want, when we want, and we do it however we choose. And if we can’t? You guessed it, we manipulate until we get it.
Think about it, though. If people’s lives are made better through the demons’ obedience, how much greater would it be through your obedience?
We don’t really consider that in our day-to-day lives, do we? We’re too busy out there gettin’ ours to be concerned with other people’s freedom, right?
If only people would be a little less selfish, our lives would be so much better. Ugh! Freewill is frustrating!
Now, what happens when free will is challenged?
Then it came.
“Give them something to eat, yourselves!”
Oh, no!
The Man that had all of this authority now was telling His servants to go, in the Master’s Name, and do the work on behalf of the Master.
How on earth is that possible? It isn’t. At least as long as your will has anything to say about it.
The disciples thought they were being benevolent by asking Yeshua to slow His role so these poor folks could make their way to the buffet before it closed. Imagine you in this situation. Wouldn’t you do the same thing?
When people get hungry, they are no longer interested in healing. We need to feed that flesh before our true colors come forth. People are all in on that deep teaching until the flesh comes demanding its upkeep. Once that happens, we can’t close it down and pack up quick enough.
So was it really the people that were hungry? Or did the disciples need a quick bite also?
“Ok, Pal…we’ve all heard this before and yeah, it’s great these people are getting healed, but we’ve seen this already. Let’s go ahead and shut this production down so we can get back to our lives.”
Has this ever happened to you? I know it has for me. We’ve sat through a long teaching and then it opens up for prayer at the end and then…that person starts unpacking a ton of deep dark struggles there in front of everyone. No one can really leave because that would be rude, but no one wants to be there either. We’re getting hungry! Not for more of His Word or His Spirit. But for food. That flesh rears its ugly head and you are just an innocent victim, right? The nerve of this person choosing to seek healing when we're all starved. The people here need some food. How selfish can this person be?!
Feel guilty yet? If so, there’s an offering for that. If not, I have a closing question for you:
Why didn’t you feed them yourselves?