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Five barley loaves and two fishes: Now when Yeshua heard the apostles give an account of all they had done and taught and about Herod’s beheading of John, He said to them, "Come away to a secluded place and rest a while." (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) Taking them with Him, Yeshua withdrew to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias), to a secluded place near the city called Bethsaida. When the people saw them going, they ran together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. The people followed Him because they saw the signs which Yeshua was performing on those who were sick. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then Yeshua went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples; and He began to teach them many things about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing. Now the day was ending, and the twelve came and said to Him, "This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and find lodging and buy food for themselves." But Yeshua answered them, "They do not need to go away." "You give them something to eat!" Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. Therefore Yeshua said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?" This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little." Yeshua said, "How many loaves do you have? Go look!" So the disciples searched to see out how many loaves of bread were available by searching back at the boat and in the crowd. One of Yeshua's disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, reported to Him, "There is a lad here who has a mere five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?" And Yeshua said, "Bring them here to Me." Now there was much grass in the place. So He commanded His disciples to have the people all sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He kept giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds who were seated, likewise He divided up the two fish and distributed of the fish as much as they wanted. They all ate and were satisfied. When they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost." So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets full of fragments from the five barley loaves, and also of the fish. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children (Consolidated narrative; derived from all four versions of the Gospels; Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-13). Everything in God's Word means something: The skillful work of the Holy Spirit as the Sovereign Lord of all human history (providence), allows Him to craft in reality, in time and circumstance, specific and divinely predetermined arrangements of events, characters, personal names, place names, dialogue and numbers within the actual historical process of human existence. Humankind has free will but this freedom is severely limited. Man's temporal freedom cannot overrule the eternal will of Almighty God. For instance, all lawlessness is temporary due to the fact that it must terminate in the future when God's patience finally runs out and His divine will is fully asserted. All lawlessness must inevitably end in judgment. This is so because the Eternal One is truthful, righteous and good. Therefore, He must ultimately and definitively act in accord with His divine virtue and power. He must ultimately and permanently put an end to all that is evil. A very great irony: It is a very great irony that the very same people who rail the loudest against God for not forcibly making this earth a more habitable and peaceful place right now, do not understand that such an act would bring to an end human freedom as we know it and most assuredly would instantly and grievously bring down upon this self-determined and proud humanity God's fiery wrath and tormenting judgment. It is these very same lawless, misguided, selfish, haughty, wicked, and delusional people who should sincerely and enthusiastically be thanking God (not cursing Him) for delaying the time of their final, complete and terrifying judgment. Man has free will but God gets what He wants anyway: The old Greek argument against the omnipotence of God is worth deconstrucing. "Can God make a rock which He cannot move?" Yes God can. Yes He has. The rock is man's temporal freedom. God will terminally move the rock of man's temporal freedom at the exact time the Spirit of the Father has appointed. In the near future, humanity's lawless behavior will be permanently overruled by the Spirit and brought to a sudden, fearful and terrible end by His eternal judgment. Thankfully at present we live in a time of grace, where the kindness of God has delayed His judgment. Mercifully, this postponement of the time of divine wrath and judgment is so you and I might accept His generous offer of salvation. The Holy Spirit intervenes in human history. He restrains evil. He promotes only what is good. He writes the work of salvation into the history of man. If you are willing He will place His eternal life into your heart. Now is the time of salvation. Put your trust in Him. Put your faith in His Messiah. You will be pardoned for your lawless acts. You will receive the Gift of the heavenly Father. In so doing you will receive the Unbreakable Seal of eternal life. You will receive the permanent indwelling of the unfailing Heart of God, the Holy Spirit. Don't delay. Providence and Torah Pictures Incorporated: The business of the Kingdom of God is a lot like the Motion Picture Industry. I reference the film industry to illustrate the far more important universal commerce of our heavenly Father. For thousands of years God has been CEO of Torah Pictures, Inc. The heavenly Father’s Kingdom of Heaven production company has set the standard for storytelling. No one makes better teaching to live by than what comes out of the absolutely good, righteous, true and ultra creative mind of God. Torah Pictures has produced and directed the most thrilling, suspenseful, action-packed, adventurous, mysterious, romantic, and inspiring motion pictures that will ever be made for man. Unlike the competition, the heavenly Father’s Kingdom of Heaven productions are only made out of reality. God only makes pictures that are eternal, immortal and incorruptible. He never has been or will be in the business of producing products that are built on fantasies. His living Torah pictures are not finite, mortal, corruptible, or capable of passing away (becoming obsolete). Torah Pictures, Inc. is what God uses to sustain and uphold all of life. Mysteriously, God’s Word is what holds the whole universe together. God’s Word is the source and sustainer of all life for all of creation both physical and spiritual. This is so because God is our Creator. He is the Lord of all Science and Medicine. He is the Great Physician. God is our Great Shepherd. He is the Lord of all spiritual reality; all rulers, powers and authorities. God is all-powerful. He knows all things. He is the Lord of both proximate and temporal reality. He is the sole possessor of absolute knowledge and absolute truth. The Greatest Story ever lived: Almost two thousand years ago at the Jerusalem Temple, a little twelve year old boy announced at HaBikkurim (the festival of Firstfruits) that He was at the Temple to do His Father’s business. According to that little Jewish boy the heavenly Father had made it His life’s work to deliver lost humanity from the bondage of sin and death. The life story of the little boy is a story of God’s love for all humanity. When that boy grew up He went back to the Temple and like the prophets before Him, the Messiah boldly declared that the Temple was being run by a den of thieves and robbers. As the prophets had predicted Messiah threw out the religious thieves out of the Temple courts that day. Then He invited the religious mafia of His day to repent, believe His LIving Torah and follow Him in a new life of prayer and humble service to God. Today, we too are invited to leave the House of the thieves and robbers and enter with Messiah into the house of the heavenly Father, His House of Prayer. Messiah’s life both in His sacrificial first coming as the suffering Messiah Ben Joseph and His (soon to occur) second coming as the conquering Messiah Ben David, is the heavenly Father’s greatest story ever told. The Best Picture ever produced: When you produce a film in Hollywood you must write your own story or purchase the right to use someone else’s; produce a script; craft a screenplay; make a storyboard; assign a director to orchestrate the overall work of the project cast and crew; enlist a team of technical and administrative experts to support the film; select, secure and set up the locations where the scenes will be shot; hire actors and extras to act out the scenes; coach the actors and extras to ensure all the sound and visual elements of the motion picture are acted out and filmed correctly; shoot the scenes; insert special effects; add background and music; edit the film and assign a permanent title; produce a final cut; get the film rated; and present the film to a test audience for critical review and possible revision before release; determine the exact time the picture will be introduced and released to the public; advertise and distribute the film; complete the motion picture project and account for profit and loss; receive public recognition for artistic achievement; and throw an awesome, fantastic party in honor of all the cast and crew who helped you produce the “Best Picture” ever. Messiah's prophetic storyboard: The miraculous historical screen play of the little boy's five loaves and two fish that Messiah divides and multiplies to feed five thousand men is a divinely constructed event. Brilliantly this living story, like an artistically written, expertly produced, and well directed motion picture, Messiah's teaching was masterfully scripted into human history by God Himself that you and I might hear, understand and accept His salvation that is received through believing in the Messiah. In the days ahead I will attempt to storyboard the prophetic meanings of the details that the genius of the Holy Spirit has placed into this Torah portion of Messiah's teaching on forgiveness and the messianic kingdom. Our supreme need to value aright the Spirit of Grace and understand His royal virtue of "littleness," of humility, as it pertains to the life of Messiah, Israel and the Gentile world, is the central lesson of Rabbi Yeshua's messianic teaching on the five loaves and the two fishes. In the days ahead I will explain how and why Messiah's Torah, oftentimes, is presented both in an obvious and a veiled manner. I will carefully explore His skillful use of symbols, prophetic elements, and selected fragments from the Tanach that Rabbi Yeshua uses in the narrative of the loaves and fishes to make up His teaching on the Kingdom of God. First, I will divide Messiah's Torah up into useful bite size pieces. Second, I will distribute these insights to you the reader along with a brief explanation of what each piece prophetically means. Then third, I will organize into a coherent whole all the pieces of knowledge we will have gleaned up to that point into a single basket of integrated messianic meanings and applications. The narrative fragments we will be studying are listed in chronological order and are organized into a storyboard of seventeen episodes, these are: EPISODE 1. Herod Antipas' beheading of the Prophet John. EPISODE 2. Report of the Twelve regarding their ministry to their fellow Jews. EPISODE 3. Boat trip to a secluded place on mountainside next to Bethsaida. EPISODE 4. Crowd traveled on foot to Bethsaida to await the arrival of Messiah. EPISODE 5. Good Shepherd feels compassion for the flock of Israel. EPISODE 6. Messiah teaches crowd from mountainside about the Kingdom of God. EPISODE 7. End of day the disciples propose to send crowd away to find food and lodging. EPISODE 8. Messiah tells disciples the crowd does not need to go away and orders the Twelve to feed them. EPISODE 9. The Passover is near so Messiah tests Philip by asking him what would it cost to purchase bread for all the people. EPISODE 10. Philip's response is that two hundred denarii is not a sufficient amount to purchase enough bread to adequately feed all the people. EPISODE 11. Messiah orders the disciples to search throughout the crowd to discover how many loaves of bread they can find. EPISODE 12. Andrew reports to Rabbi Yeshua that the Twelve were only able to discover five little barley loaves and two fishes that were the possession of a little boy. EPISODE 13. The order is given for Andrew to bring/give to Messiah the five loaves and two fishes of the little boy. EPISODE 14. The people are organized to sit on the grass on the Mountain-side in groups of 100 and groups of 50. EPISODE 15. Messiah takes the little boy's offering, looks up to heaven, gives thanks to the Father, miraculously multiplies the offering numerous times and as He does He has the fragments distributed through the disciples so that the supply of food was sufficient to feed everyone in the crowd to the full. EPISODE 16. Messiah orders that the leftover fragments of the loaves and fishes be gathered up so that none of it could be wasted. EPISODE 17. When all the leftover pieces of bread and fishes are gathered up there is enough fragments to fill twelve baskets. It is reported that there was about 5,000 men in attendence who were eye-witnesses of the miracle (besides women and children). All 5,000 men were fed by the loaves and fishes that Messiah received from the offering of the little boy.
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