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Feeding of the five thousand.

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Matthew 14:15-21 Mark 6:35-44 Luke 9:12-17 John 6:5-14
15And evening coming on, His disciples came to Him, saying, The place is deserted and the time has already gone by. Send the crowd away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves. 16But Jesus said to them, They do not need to leave, you give them something to eat. 17And they said to Him, We have here only five loaves and two fish. 18And He said, Bring them here to Me. 19And He commanded the crowd to recline on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to Heaven He blessed and broke, and gave the loaves to His disciples. And the disciples gave to the crowd. 20And they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve hand baskets full from the fragments that remained. 21And they who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
MKJV
35And it now becoming a late hour, His disciples came to Him and said, This is a deserted place and it is now a late hour. 36Send them away so that they may go to the surrounding fields and villages and buy loaves for themselves. For they have nothing to eat. 37He answered and said to them, You give them food to eat. And they said to Him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii of loaves and give them to eat? 38He said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they knew, they said, Five, and two fish. 39And He commanded them all to recline, group by group, on the green grass. 40And they reclined group by group, by hundred and by fifty. 41And taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to Heaven, He blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them. And He divided the two fish to all. 42And they all ate and were filled. 43And they took up twelve hand baskets full of fragments, also from the fish. 44And those eating the loaves were about five thousand men.
MKJV
12But the day began to wear away, and coming up the Twelve said to Him, Send the crowd away so that they may go into the villages and farms all around, and lodge, and get food. For we are here in a deserted place. 13But He said to them, You give them something to eat. And they said, We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people. 14(For they were about five thousand men.) And He said to His disciples, Make them recline by fifties in a company. 15And they did so, and made them all recline. 16And He took the five loaves and the two fish. And looking up to Heaven, He blessed them and broke, and He gave to the disciples to set before the crowd. 17And they ate and were all filled. And there was taken up twelve hand baskets full of fragments of that left over to them.
MKJV
5Then Jesus lifted up His eyes and saw a great crowd come to Him. He said to Philip, Where shall we buy loaves so that these may eat? 6And He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. 7Philip answered Him, Loaves for two hundred denarii are not enough for them, that every one may take a little. 8One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 9There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are these among so many? 10And Jesus said, Make the men recline. And there was much grass in the place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. 11And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those who had reclined; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing is lost. 13Therefore they gathered and filled twelve handbaskets with fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over to those who had eaten. 14Then seeing the miracle that Jesus did, those men said, This is truly the Prophet, the One coming into the world.
MKJV
Insights
  • The disciples were not thinking of super-natural things, they were thinking of how they could meet the need by known earthy means.
  • The disciples experienced the miracle first hand, for they were also part of the miracle. If you consider five thousand men, besides women and children, this could easily be twelve thousand people. And as they sat in groups of hundreds, and fifties, this would be at the minimum fifty groups and would cover several acres of land, being far too much for one man to waiter the entire area. The multiplication had to have taken place right in the basket that each disciple was serving from.
  • We cannot believe by sight, we must believe by faith. In Matthew 16:10 and in Mark 6:52 . Jesus questions His disciples as to whether they had forgotten about the loaves? Questioning if their hearts were still hardened? For even though they took part in the miracle, they still did not believe.