Food Miracles

2 Kings 4:42-44, Luke 9:10-16

Isaiah 55:8-9

There were about 5,000 people needing food “in a remote place”, and the Twelve asked Jesus to send them on their way to grab a bite to eat.  Luke 9:13-16 says,

^“13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” ¹⁴ (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. ¹⁶ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people.”

 

The food miracle Jesus performed is well known.  Probably lesser well known is the food miracle in 2 Kings.  That’s probably because Jesus feeding more people with less available food is more memorable.  Anyway, 2 Kings 4:42-44 says,

^“42 A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.

⁴³ “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.

But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” ⁴⁴ Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.”

 

I think it’s safe to say that both food miracles were unexpected, with ordinary situations being turned into extraordinary situations.  Isaiah 55:8-9 reads,

^“8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God Knows

Matthew 6:31-32

My dad planned and planted a flower garden for us, and it seems to make a lot of little critters happy.  One day, I watched a carpenter bee feeding on some sedum, covered in pollen, looking like he was going for a pollinator-of-the-year award.  God used my dad’s master gardening skills to provide for that bee, and other insects too, like beautiful butterflies.

The bee looked like he didn’t have a worry in the world, and that’s how humans should be.  God knows the needs of His Creation, including people.  In Matthew, Jesus said, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?…for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

“Something to Eat”

John 6:1-15, John 21:1-14, Mark 8:1-10, Mark 5:21-43,Galatians 6:9-10

Galatians says, “Let us not become weary in doing good” so what does that look like?  When Jesus was on earth it was important to Him to feed others.  He fed two fish and five loaves of bread to roughly 5,000 people and fed several fish and seven loaves of bread to approximately 4,000 people.  After Jesus rose from the dead, He cooked fish over coals and had bread available.  He surprised His unsuspecting disciples after a fishless outing with a sudden net full of fish.  Then, after He asked them to get a few of the freshly caught fish, He probably smiled as He said, “Come and have breakfast.”  And you may remember that when Jesus was told a girl had died, He raised her to life “and told them to give her something to eat.”

In the above examples of doing good, Jesus didn’t just provide or arrange for physical food.  He sought to spiritually feed people.

What’s important to Jesus should be important to Christians.  Even though Jesus had breathtaking show stopping miracles to accompany His actions, let’s do what we can to get food and Jesus to others this Thanksgiving and whenever we can.

Uncle Paul

Acts 22:3, 23:12-35, Acts 24

Many people have heard of Paul and how he suffered while spreading the Gospel.  His Christian mission is spelled out in the letters he wrote in the Bible.  He became a famous traveling missionary because of Jesus.

What do we know about Paul’s personal life?  In Acts 22:3, he said he was “born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.”  He was raised in Jerusalem and had a sister (Acts 23:16).  His sister had a son, giving Paul a nephew.

I believe the Lord sent Paul’s nephew to help him.  Paul’s nephew was in the right place at the right time to hear the bad plot that over 40 enemies made an oath to not drink or eat “until they had killed Paul.”  Paul’s nephew was able to tell him what he heard, which led to Paul’s rescue.  The nephew’s actions showed he loved Uncle Paul.

I wonder what happened to the 40+ men that didn’t love Paul, the men that made the oath not to drink or eat until they murdered Paul.  I lost track of the time that passed after they made that oath, but it would have been at least two years and eight days.  My husband and I think they gave up.

 

Walking With Jesus

Luke 24:13-35

My family loves to go on walks.  So when I read this passage about two people taking a famous walk with Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, it grabbed my attention.  Can you imagine going on a walk and then Jesus joins you?  Wow!  A fascinating twist though, was that the people walking to Emmaus with Jesus didn’t realize it was Him until it was time to eat and He gave them bread.  Then, they were allowed to recognize Him.  Once they recognized Him, He disappeared.

One great thing about Heaven is that Jesus lives there.  And whenever Christians enter Heaven, they can enjoy Jesus eternally.

Edible Treasure

Matthew 4:4

In recent news, a store owner in Canada was frustrated with squirrels that took candy bars.  The candy bars were treasures to those squirrels.  Maybe they were squirreled away in a tree.  Out of Curiosity, I decided to put out a small candy bar with nuts near our bird feeder to see what our neighborhood squirrels would do.  After a couple of days, a squirrel came and quickly munched the candy bar away.  Clearly, the candy bar was an edible treasure to the squirrel.

Yesterday, our young American Eskimo dog had some wall guard instructions in his mouth and got ready to plop down and chew on them.  The instructions were an edible treasure to him (until I asked him to give them to me).

When Jesus said that man shouldn’t live only by bread, but by each word that comes from God’s mouth, that sounds like spiritual food to me.  So, the way I see it, we should see Scripture, our instructions, as a sort of edible treasure.  Eat it up.