“Then he said, ‘Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few. And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full.’ So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, ‘Bring me another vessel.’ And he said to her, ‘There is not one vessel more.’ And the oil stopped” (2 Kings 4:3-6).
Elisha’s miraculous provision of oil for the dead prophet’s wife demonstrates that he is a prophet like Elijah (1 Kings 17:15-16) and a prophet like Moses. For God used Moses to miraculously provide water, bread, and meat for his people on their journey through the wilderness (e.g., Exod 15:25; 16:13, 15; 17:6). Miraculous provision, therefore, is a key motif that links a highly select group of prophets in the Hebrew Bible to Moses, the greatest prophet in the Hebrew Bible (Deut 34:10-12).
Although Yeshua’s miraculous feeding of five thousand men with five fishes and two loaves is fairly well-known in Israel, it is taken as a legendary tale belonging to a completely different religion. But nothing can be further from the truth. Yeshua’s miraculous provision of food is rooted deeply in the storyline of the Jewish Scriptures and tied directly to the eschatological hopes and dreams of the authors of the Hebrew Bible. By telling the story of the miraculous provision of food for thousands of people, the Gospel writers are telling us, “All our hopes have come true. Yeshua is the New Moses-like Redeemer we’ve all been waiting for!”
“Now the day was ending, and the twelve came and said to Him, ‘Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat; for here we are in a desolate place.’ But He said to them, ‘You give them something to eat!’ And they said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.’ (For there were about five thousand men.) And He said to His disciples, ‘Have them sit down to eat in groups of about fifty each.’ They did so, and had them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people. And they all ate and were satisfied; and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve baskets full” (Luke 9:12-17).
The post Feeding the multitudes appeared first on ONE FOR ISRAEL Ministry.