Matthew 14:1 ¶ At that time
Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, 2 And said unto his servants, This is John the
Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth
themselves in him. 3 For Herod had laid
hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake,
his brother Philip’s wife. 4 For John
said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. 5 And when he would have put him to death, he
feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the
daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. 7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give
her whatsoever she would ask. 8 And she,
being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head
in a charger. 9 And the king was sorry:
nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he
commanded it to be given her. 10
And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. 11 And his head was brought in a charger, and
given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. 12 And his disciples came, and took up the body,
and buried it, and went and told Jesus.
Judaea was ruled by Herod the Great until his death at which time
it was divided between three of his sons and his sister as a tetrarchy, with
Judea as a Roman province until Rome assumed complete control later in the
first century. This Herod was one of his sons.
Luke 3:1 ¶ Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of
Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being
tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the
region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests,
the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
Here is the story of the death of John
the Baptist. He was murdered, executed by a spineless, lascivious, and morally
bankrupt Herod, son of the so-called Herod the Great, murderer of children.
Remember his father’s slaughter of the innocents.
Matthew 14:13 ¶ When Jesus
heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and
when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the
cities. 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. 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. 20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and
they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. 21 And they that had eaten were about five
thousand men, beside women and children.
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, needed to get away by Himself
when He heard of His cousin’s murder, the death of the one who directly
foretold His arrival.
But the multitudes who followed Him moved Christ to compassion.
Here is the feeding of the 5,000. We can’t help but ask ourselves if the 12
baskets represent the 12 tribes of Israel. There is so much symbology in these
passages.
I am reminded of Sewall Smith’s sermon, “What are you going to do
with YOUR 5 and 2?”
Jesus met immediate needs of healing and also fed those who
followed after Him in a world that had neither insurance or government welfare
and food stamps. These people were totally dependent upon themselves and their
own efforts and in their poverty and in the uncertainty of living with few
medical remedies compared to us today were blessed immensely by Jesus as their
benefactor, healer, provider, and Saviour.
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