The American Wisdom Series

Presents
Matthew #2534

Christ performs two miracles for the purpose of teaching His disciples (students), those of the brethren with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Next we are going to observe Jesus Christ perform two miracles for the purpose of teaching His disciples (students), those of the brethren with eyes to see and ears to hear who have been instructed in the kingdom of heaven (Mat. 13:52), concerning what they are to do in these last days.

Are you one of His disciples, meaning one who is disciplined in His Word?
If so, then surely you know that Christ did not bring forth miracles just to show people that He could perform supernatural feats. He did however, use both that which is natural along with that which is supernatural to teach us things which are spiritual, things which are not visible to flesh eyes but can be easily understood by the things which are visible.

Paul explains this teaching tool in Romans 1:20:

Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Again, invisible things are spiritual things which one cannot see with the naked eye.For example, you cannot place an "attitude" under a microscope and see it, nor can you measure love in the three dimensions of L x H x W, nor can you see words enter into one's forehead and lodge in the brain.However, we all know what a loaf of "bread" is and that we must physically eat bread in order to sustain life in the flesh. Well, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is called the "bread of life" because He is that spiritual bread of which we must partake if we are to have life eternal. It is a simple analogy and not at all hard to understand.
John 6:33-35
For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

[34] Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

[35] And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

We learned from the Parable of the Sower that if you understand that parable, which means you have been instructed in the kingdom of heaven, then you must be as an householder, the head of a house, and bring forth out of your good treasure the knowledge and wisdom that you have found in the Word of God and then... shall we say, feed your household, i.e. your family. The question is, "Have you been instructed unto the kingdom of heaven?"
Matthew 13:52
Then said He unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
Your knowledge and wisdom as a Christian householder are of little value if you do not share them with your brothers and sisters of the lost house of Israel, those widows and orphans who have gone into a spiritual wilderness, a desert place wherein there is no true bread to be found. Therefore Christ is going to use a miracle to show us, to give us a visual picture in our mind's eye, of that which we are to understand on a spiritual level concerning this late hour of the day.

To that end, you may recall that Jesus Christ had departed into a desert place following the news of John the Baptist's death and a great multitude upon whom He had compassion to heal their sick followed after Him. Now it is "getting late in the day" and all the multitude are in the wilderness with nothing to eat and no place nearby to purchase food. What to do? What to do?

Here is what the disciples suggest:

Matthew 14:15
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.
Again, who is it that goes out into the wilderness, into a desert place? It is the blind and lost sheep of the House of Israel, the multitude of Christianity who are without understanding. Just look around you this very day and if you open your eyes you should be able to discern that our people are in a spiritual desert right now, even the valley of dry bones described in Ezekiel 37. You see, this is the time just before it gets really dark and the winds are let loose to blow upon the earth and we see there are virtually no "houses" around to feed the true bread of life to our people. That, my friend is what the famine of these end times is all about...
Amos 8:11-12
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
The famine of the last days is a "spiritual famine" caused by the withholding of the true bread of life.
[12] And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
It is therefore incumbent upon God's servants to bring forth the true bread of life from the altar of God and feed the multitudes. Most of the churches of land sure aren't teaching the words of the LORD. They are too busy following the traditions of men. In fact, we get letters and e-mails almost every day from people asking if we know of any churches in their area that teach the truth of His Word chapter by chapter and verse by verse. I sometimes will tell them, "You are the church". The church is not a building but rather the body of Christ. Why don't you start a Bible study?

Again, the 8th and last part of the Parable of the Sower is that if you understand the kingdom of heaven and His plan, then you are to bring forth and share that precious truth and those pearls of wisdom from His Word. So the question is, "If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, and you know you are in a desert place with the multitude, what are you going to do... send the people away?" No, give them some bread and meat to eat!

[16] But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
If you possess the knowledge of the parables and are instructed in the kingdom of heaven, then DO NOT send people off to the villages to find food for themselves! Many will end up at fast food joints eating spiritual junk food totally void of nutrition!  If you are a truth seeking disciple of Jesus Christ, they need not depart because you can feed them! You can give them both bread and meat from His Word IF you have understanding and that which you possess goes through the process in verses 18 and 19 below. The fact is, if the multitude is to be sent away then as we shall see, it is up to Jesus Christ to do so, i.e. let Him do it. So until such time as the whole multitude is fed and Christ tells us the job is finished, let us continue to give them to eat as per instructed! "Give ye them to eat!"
[17] And they say unto Him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
Oh, I see! You don't think you have what it takes to feed such a multitude? You cannot envision five loaves and two fishes feeding 12,000 people? Guess that would depend on whether or not it is the truth and meat from His Word or the traditions of men.
[18] He said, Bring them hither to me.
You take that which you do have and make sure it is blessed and sanctified by the Word of God which means that it comes from Him, from His Word, for then it is blessed from above. You see, traditions of men are not blessed from above, but a little bit of pure truth, that rich spiritual bread of life, can go a long away and get the job done! A word to the wise!
[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.
There is much to learn and observe from this verse. First of all, Christ did not feed the multitude Himself. His disciples did! Furthermore, all the bread and fish were not given to just one disciple. They all shared in the feeding. And Christ showed them how to do it in an orderly fashion by having the multitudes sit down in ranks and in small groups, like in companies of fifty as described in Luke 9:14. God is not the author of confusion.

Another thing we need to take careful note of is the Biblical numerics involved here. For instance, the number "5" denotes "grace" while the number "2" represents "witness", as in when two agree (See appendix 10 in the Companion Bible). Fishes are symbolic of Christianity and you "see", during this period of grace in these last days, even during this period of the fifth trump when the teaching and sealing of the "12 Tribes" in Rev. 7:4 and the "great multitude" in Rev. 7:9 takes place, there are only two Christian churches who agree together in what they teach (i.e. feed the people). In fact, they are the only two churches who understand the Parable of the Tares and therefore know who those are who claim to be of our brother Judah, i.e. the sons of Cain, but are liars and are of the synagogue of Satan. They are the "2" churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia, the only two out of the seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three, with whom Jesus Christ found no fault. Read Rev. 2:9 & 3:9 to learn what they both know and teach that the other churches do not.

So... Jesus Christ blessed the bread and the fishes that the disciples brought to Him as per His command, and it became more than sufficient to feed the entire multitude. However, not everyone was able to handle all that they were given and so there were "twelve baskets full of fragments" remaining when the feeding of the entire multitude was completed.

[20] And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
Twelve is the number of time and of government, even governmental perfection in the kingdom, as in twelve tribes and twelve apostles.
[21] And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.
It is obvious that there were more than 5,000 who were fed when you add the women and children. Conservatively speaking there would have easily been 12,000 people in all... and there were 12 baskets taken up... hmmm! The reason that makes sense is because this is the feeding that precedes the "storm" which we will read about next  where Christ immediately constrains His disciples to get into a ship once the feeding of the whole multitude has ended and 12 baskets of fragments are gathered!

It is getting late in the day! A word to the wise!

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.


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