DAY 9 OF 21 SON OF GOD 21-Day Devotional Previous Day Next Day John 6:1-14 Jesus Feeds Five Thousand (Matthew 14.13-21; Mark 6.30-44; Luke 9.10-17) 1After this, Jesus went across Lake Galilee (or, Lake Tiberias, as it is also called).2A large crowd followed him, because they had seen his miracles of healing the sick.3Jesus went up a hill and sat down with his disciples.4The time for the Passover Festival was near.5Jesus looked around and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, so he asked Philip, “Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?” (6He said this to test Philip; actually he already knew what he would do.) 7Philip answered, “For everyone to have even a little, it would take more than two hundred silver coins to buy enough bread.” 8Another one of his disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peters brother, said,9“There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But they will certainly not be enough for all these people.” 10“Make the people sit down,” Jesus told them. (There was a lot of grass there.) So all the people sat down; there were about five thousand men.11Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed it to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, and they all had as much as they wanted.12When they were all full, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces left over; let us not waste a bit.”13So they gathered them all and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left over from the five barley loaves which the people had eaten. 14Seeing this miracle that Jesus had performed, the people there said, “Surely this is the Prophet who was to come into the world!” Week Two: Jesus in Ministry Day 9: All You Can Eat Key Verse “Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed it to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, and they all had as much as they wanted.” - John 6:11 Sorting It Out This is a story about human need. A large crowd is following Jesus, and after seeing him miraculously heal the sick, perhaps they hope he can heal them, too. Perhaps they have loved ones who are ill. Perhaps they’re simply curious. Whatever the motive, they end up en masse on a hillside, with nothing to eat. Among the thousands of assembled people, the Gospel of John tells us one little boy had all of five loaves of bread and two small fish. Jesus could have opened the heavens and rained down manna like God did for the Israelites in the desert. He could have simply caused food to appear in everyone’s hands. But instead, he took what little the boy had to offer and multiplied it. We never know when God is going to use our small gifts to do big things. What if the boy had balked, or tried to keep his food for himself? Yes, Jesus could still have performed a miracle. But the young boy—and the assembled crowd—would have missed out on the big blessing God had planned for them. Jesus had big plans for the boy’s small lunch. And Jesus has big plans for our offerings, too, no matter how small. Your Turn Memorize John 6:35 using the free memorization app Bible Minded (available at the App Store, Google Play and Amazon). God’s Turn Jesus, thank you for the food that I have. Remind me that everything I have comes from you and everything I need, you supply. This is day 9 of 21. See you tomorrow. Good News Translation (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 06:11:02 +0000
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