Matthew 15:29-39

Mathew 15:29-39

These are the final verse to Mathew 15. Once again Jesus was on the move via the Sea of Galilee. Jesus left the area of Tyre and was heading for the Northeast shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. This is significant because that was a Gentile area versus a Jewish area. Jesus traveled from Tyre, which is on the Mediterranean sea, to the Northeast side of the lake called the Sea of Galilee.

Mat 15:29 Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there. Mat 15:30 And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them.

There is no reference as to how the crowd knew that Jesus was there except for word of mouth. Jesus once again did a lot of miraculous healings and he then witnessed to them from a mountain. Most likely so that he could project his voice over the crowd so all could hear. The crowd had to be impressed since they stayed with Jesus for 3 days.

Mat 15:31 so the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. Mat 15:32 And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way." Mat 15:33 the disciples *said to Him, "Where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?" Mat 15:34 And Jesus *said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven, and a few small fish." Mat 15:35 And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; Mat 15:36 and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. Mat 15:37 And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. Mat 15:38 And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. Mat 15:39 And sending away the crowds, Jesus got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan.

Do you get the feeling that the disciples were slow to catch on. Once again Jesus feeds the multitudes. With seven (there’s that number again) and some small fish. He feed 4000 men along with wives and children. They picked up how many baskets? You guessed it 7. Like the number of days that it took for God to create the world we live in. 7 appears to mean completion.

Agape

Dave