Luke 9:1 ¶ Then he called his
twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils,
and to cure diseases. 2 And he sent them
to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. 3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your
journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have
two coats apiece. 4 And whatsoever house
ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. 5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye
go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony
against them. 6 And they departed, and
went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where. 7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was
done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John
was risen from the dead; 8 And of some,
that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen
again. 9 And Herod said, John have I beheaded:
but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.
Jesus now send out His
twelve disciples to the people of Israel, having authority and power to expel
devils and cure sickness. They were to preach the kingdom of God, that the
power of God was with them, as they healed the suffering. In this stage of God’s
plan they took nothing with them but depended completely upon the good will of
the people to whom they were preaching and whom they healed.
The stir caused by
their actions sparked Herod to want to meet this man that some were saying was
John the Baptist risen from the dead. Others said that Elijah had returned or
one of the Old Testament prophets. Herod the tetrarch, not the former King
Herod who is dead now, wanted to see Christ.
Luke 9:10 ¶ And the
apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took
them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called
Bethsaida. 11 And the people, when they
knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the
kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing. 12 And when the day began to wear away, then
came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go
into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are
here in a desert place. 13 But he said
unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves
and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. 14 For they were about five thousand men. And he
said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
16 Then he took the five loaves and the
two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to
set before the multitude. 17 And they
did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained
to them twelve baskets.
Here, Christ performs
the feeding of a multitude of people, five thousand men, a number that does not
include the women and children that were there. As I do not want to start
making this study a harmonization of the gospels, as there are many of those
that are good, I am not going to discuss the different accounts of these mass
feedings.
Again, we have the
number twelve as significant in this
passage. Remember, the nation of Israel was built on signs and wonders and the
Jews required signs to make them believe.
Deuteronomy 4:34 Or hath
God assayed to go and take him
a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs,
and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm,
and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in
Egypt before your eyes?
1Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews
a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
There is so much
preaching material here it is staggering. I have heard many good sermons on
things like, “what are you going to do with your five and two?” that suggested
we can do great things with very little. I heard that sermon given by a great
African-American preacher from Baltimore named Sewall Smith.
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