3 Lent

3 Lent - Sunday

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Exodus 20:1-7       Commandments
Psalm 19:7-14       God's Word
1 Corinthians 1:22-25     God's Wisdom
John 2:13-22       Cleansing the Temple

Background:

God proposed a covenant with Israel, and he came down on the top of Mt. Sinai (Mt. Horeb) to meet with Moses and give Moses the Ten Commandments which were the basis of the Covenant of Law.

Exodus:

God declared that he is the Lord their God who had led them out of slavery in Egypt. God's people are to have no other god except God. We are not to make any image of anything in heaven, on earth, or in the sea, to worship and serve. God will not tolerate any rival. God will punish his enemies to the third and fourth generation of their descendants, but will have steadfast love for those who love God and keep his commandments.

We are expressly forbidden to use God's name in any way other than reverently.

Psalm:

The Law of God is without fault, and it will revive our souls. God's testimony is completely reliable, providing wisdom to those who realize that they are spiritually ignorant. God's commandments are right and good and true; in them we will rejoice! God's Word is truth, enlightening our souls. The fear (awe and respect for the power and authority) of the Lord is faultless and eternal. God's commands are reliable and the way to do what is right. God's Word is better that gold, and sweeter than honey.

Those who are willing to serve the Lord will take warning from his Word; by obedience they will be greatly rewarded. How can we examine ourselves impartially? But the Lord is able to cleanse us of all sin, even that which we cannot see for ourselves. The Lord can also restrain us and free us from sinning presumptuously. By God's grace (unmerited favor; a free gift) we will be sinless and innocent at God's judgment.

May all that I think and and all that I express aloud be acceptable and pleasing to God, my Lord, my refuge, and my redeemer.

1 Corinthians:

Jews, who considered themselves the “chosen” people of God, demanded “proof” that Jesus was their promised Messiah, the eternal Savior and King. Greeks (non-Jews; Gentiles) wanted God's plan of salvation to make worldly sense.

Christ (Messiah) crucified doesn't fulfill the Jews' expectation, and defies worldly wisdom. But God's wisdom is eternal and changeless, unlike worldly wisdom. Only those who respond to the Gospel call of Jesus Christ can know divine, eternal truth; can have true, eternal life, and can have personal daily fellowship with God the Father, our Creator, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

John:

At the festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. He entered the temple and found vendors selling large and small animals for sacrifices, and moneychangers exchanging Roman coins for Jewish. Jesus used cords to make a whip and began driving the animals and merchants out of the temple. He also dumped out the coins and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. Jesus told them to get out and take their things with them. He said that they had turned Jesus' Father's house into a business.

The Jewish authorities asked Jesus what authority he had to do this, and Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews replied that it had taken forty-six years to built the temple. How then did Jesus think he could rebuild it in three days. But Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. After Jesus' resurrection his disciples remembered Jesus' saying and they believed the scripture and Jesus' word.

Commentary:

God is God, whether we acknowledge him as our God or not. But God is under no obligation to be all that a loving and almighty God implies unless we are willing to trust and obey him as our God.

God has revealed himself to us in his Word and in Jesus Christ, and has initiated a Covenant (“Testament”) with us through Jesus Christ (Mathew 26:26-28 RSV note “g;” Hebrews 8:8-13; 12:24) by which we are saved from sin (disobedience of God's Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) and eternal destruction which is the penalty for sin (Romans 6:23). The condition of the Covenant is faith (obedient trust) in God's Word, in the Bible and fulfilled, embodied and exemplified in Jesus Christ (John 1:1-5, 14).

Jesus is God's only provision for our forgiveness and salvation (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the only way to have fellowship with God, our Creator, to know divine eternal truth, and to have true eternal life (John 14:6; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).

The history of God's dealing with Israel recorded in the Bible is intended also to be a metaphor of life in this world and as a lesson and warning to us. Jesus is our spiritual “Moses” who frees us from slavery to sin and death in the Egypt of this worldly kingdom.

The first, Old Covenant of Law, was intended to prefigure the New Covenant of Grace through faith which we have in Jesus Christ. Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant; Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (Hebrews 12:24). The Old Covenant was to show us what God requires but which we cannot fulfill except by God's grace (unmerited favor; a free gift) through Jesus Christ (Romans 8:1-9).

God has given us his Word to be a blessing to us. God's Word is good, possible, and our very best interest (Romans 12:2). God's Word is truth and enlightenment. God has given us his Word as a warning so that we can avoid the spiritual consequences of disobedience.

God's Word will revive our souls if we trust and obey him. We are all born physically alive but spiritually dead. Our souls are the part of us which is eternal and survives beyond physical death. This lifetime is our only opportunity to be spiritually “reborn” to eternal life. Spiritual rebirth is only by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit which only Jesus gives (John 1;31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17).

Those who are truly “reborn” are the spiritual temple of the Lord individually and collectively (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). It is not those who call themselves “Christian,” or who call Jesus “Lord,” who are saved, but those who do God's will; who obey God's Word Matthew 7:21-27; 25:31-46; Luke 6:46).

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

3 Lent - Monday

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Psalm 27:1-9 (10-18) My Light and Salvation

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid” (Psalm 27:1)?

When my enemies assail me and slander me, they will stumble and fall. If an army should attack me I will not fear. I will not lose confidence even though war arise against me.

The one thing I desire most and have asked of the Lord is to dwell in his house all the rest of my life, beholding his beauty, and learning in his temple.

In the day of trouble, the Lord will shelter and conceal me within his tent. He will set me firmly on a high rock. Thus my head will be high above my enemies.

So I will offer sacrifices to the Lord in his tent. I will rejoice and sing to the Lord.

Hear me Lord when I cry out to you; be gracious and answer me! Lord, you have told us to seek your face, so I seek you with all my heart. Do not hide your face from me. You have been my help, and I am your servant; don't turn me away in anger. Do not cast me away nor forsake me. You are God my savior.

Commentary:

I believe that the meaning and purpose of life is to seek and come to personal knowledge of and fellowship with the Lord (Acts 17:26-27). The Lord has promised that when we seek him with our whole hearts he will allow himself to be found by us (Deuteronomy 4:29).

The Lord won't reveal himself to us unless and until we firmly believe in him. He has designed this Creation to allow us to choose whether to believe in him and trust and obey him or not. He is not going to provide “proof” to those who need to have “proof” in order to believe, or to those who don't want to believe. But those who believe will have abundant “proof.”

There is no real security in this world in any other person or thing except the Lord. We are all in bondage to sin (disobedience of God's Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) and death (eternal death is the penalty for sin; Romans 6:23). God loves us and doesn't want us to perish eternally (Romans 5:8; John 3:16-17). Jesus is God's one and only provision for our forgiveness and salvation from eternal destruction (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).

Jesus came into the world to be the only sacrifice acceptable to God for our forgiveness and salvation. He partook of our physical nature to demonstrate by his resurrection that there is existence after physical death, in order to free us from the fear and bondage of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Jesus' miracles of physical healing, feeding and resurrection are intended to reveal that he can also heal, feed and raise us spiritually to eternal life. We can be spiritually “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17).

By the indwelling Holy Spirit we have personal knowledge of and fellowship with God our Creator and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 14:23). By the indwelling Holy Spirit we have the assurance that we are in Christ and have eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). By the indwelling Holy Spirit we experience the joy and beauty of the presence of the Lord within us, and the Lord will teach us divine, eternal truth (John 14:17; 26).

The Lord is not willing to hear and answer our prayers unless we are willing to trust and obey his Word (see Conditions for Answered Prayer, sidebar, top right). Just adding Jesus' name to the end of our prayers doesn't obligate God to hear and answer them. When we begin to trust and obey God's Word he will show us that he hears and answers our prayers. We will know that he hears us and we will experience his power and willingness to answer our prayers (1 John 5:14-15).

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

3 Lent - Tuesday

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Numbers 21:4-9 Fiery Serpents

From Hormah (west of the Dead Sea) the people went south toward the Red Sea in order to go around Edom because the Edomites would not let them pass through their land. The people complained to Moses and God because they thought they lacked food and water, and they detested the manna which God had provided for them to eat. They asked why God had brought them from Egypt into the wilderness, if he was going to let them starve. So God sent poisonous snakes among the people and many died. Then the people confessed that they had sinned in speaking against Moses and God and asked Moses to intercede for them to God to take away the snakes. Moses did so, and God told him to make a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole. Then when anyone is bitten they shall look at it and will not die.

Commentary:

I heard someone once say that the bronze serpent may have been mounted horizontally on a pole with a socket in the middle of its length. The result was cross-like, although crucifixion was not known in Israel until the Roman empire. (Crucifixion is unmistakably described prophetically in Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted as it was being fulfilled; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

The Bible is a “picture-book” (even without the help of Rembrandt)! The history of God's dealing with Israel is deliberately intended to be a series of parables, metaphors, for life in this world, and God has “illustrated” what he planned to do beforehand, so that we could recognize it when it occurred. For example, Moses and David each “prefigure” Christ, who is the ultimate shepherd-king, who leads us out of bondage to sin and death in the spiritual “Egypt” of this world, through the spiritual “wilderness,” through the “river” of physical death and into the eternal Promised Land of God's kingdom in heaven.

The poisonous serpent is Satan, the tempter of mankind in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1) who continues to tempt us to sin (disobey God's Word) today. We are all guilty (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). The penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). We are all “bitten” by the poisonous serpent of sin. The only remedy is to look in faith (obedient trust) to the cross of Jesus Christ (see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

3 Lent - Wednesday

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3 Lent – Wednesday B

Ephesians 2:4-10 Saved by Grace through Faith

Even while we were spiritually dead because of sin, in unfailing love and mercy for us God made us spiritually alive with Jesus. God gave us spiritual resurrection with Christ and gave us a place in heaven with Jesus, so that in the coming ages he will show us immeasurable grace (unmerited favor) and kindness toward us through Jesus. “For by grace you have been saved through faith (obedient trust); and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God- not because of works (our doing good deeds), lest any [person] should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Commentary:

We have all sinned and fall short of God's righteousness (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) and the penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). God loves us and doesn't want any of us to perish eternally (John 3:16-17). While we were unrepentant sinners, God sent his only begotten Son into the world to die as the one and only sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of our sin (Romans 5:8)

There is our forgiveness and salvation from eternal condemnation and destruction by God only in Jesus Christ and nothing else (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the only way to know divine eternal truth, to be restored to fellowship with God our Creator which was broken by sin, and the only way to have true eternal life in a new creation restored to paradise (John 14:6; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar top right).

We are all born into this world physically alive but spiritually dead. This lifetime is our opportunity to seek God and come to know and have fellowship with him (Acts 17:26-27) and this is only possible through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ, by the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit.

This lifetime is our opportunity to be spiritually “reborn” (John 3:3, 5-8) to eternal life. Only Jesus “baptizes” with (“anoints;” gives the gift of) the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34), only his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The infilling with the Holy Spirit is our spiritual “rebirth.” The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).

Jesus' own resurrection from physical death to eternal life, and his miracles of raising the dead demonstrates that there is existence beyond physical death. Every truly “born-again” Christian disciple personally knows and testifies that Jesus is eternally alive. We know by the indwelling Holy Spirit that we will be raised from physical death to eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

“Born-again” Christian disciples are the “good works” God has done in us through Jesus Christ. We cannot “earn” salvation by doing “good works” but our salvation will be demonstrated by “good works” we will do by the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit within us.

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

3 Lent - Thursday

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John 3:14-21 God's Saving Love

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man (Jesus) be lifted up, that whoever believes in (trusts and obeys) him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only (begotten) Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).

Anyone who believes in Jesus will not come under condemnation, but whoever doesn't believe in Jesus is under eternal condemnation already because he has not believed in the name of God's only Son (Acts 4:12). This world is under God's condemnation because the light (of righteousness, spiritual enlightenment, and eternal life) has come into the world (in Jesus Christ), but worldly people love darkness (of unrighteousness) because their deeds are evil. All evil-doers hate the light because they don't want their evilness exposed. But those who are righteous will come to the light so that it will be seen that their deeds have been done according to God's Word.

Commentary:

The Bible is the inspired Word of God. It is the history of God's dealing with Israel, but it is also intended by God to be a series of “parables,” metaphors, “images” about life in this world. The serpent is Satan, who tempts each of us to sin (disobey God's Word) as he has since the very beginning of Creation (Genesis 3:1). Moses is the forerunner of Jesus Christ, God's one and only “anointed” eternal Savior (“Messiah” and “Christ” each mean “anointed” in Hebrew and Greek, respectively).

We have all sinned and fall short of God's standard of righteousness (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1: 8-10), and the penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). Jesus is God's only provision for our forgiveness and salvation (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the only way to know divine, eternal truth, the only way to be restored to fellowship with God our Creator, which was broken by sin, and the only way to have eternal life (John 14:6; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).

God deliberately intended Israel's experience with fiery serpents in the wilderness to be an image of salvation to come in Jesus Christ (Numbers 21:4-9; see entry for 3 Lent, Tuesday, above). God instructed Moses to make an image of a serpent in bronze and mount it horizontally (like a cross) on a pole by a socket in its middle, so that it would be lifted up above the heads of the people. Then when anyone was bitten by a fiery serpent they could look and see the bronze serpent on the pole and they would not die.

Jesus is the fulfillment of that image (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32-34), in that he is the only remedy for the deadly “bite” of sin. We have all been “sin-bitten” and the only way to survive eternally is to look to the cross of Jesus Christ in faith (obedient trust).

God also gave us an “image” foretelling the sacrifice of the only Son, Jesus Christ by God, his father, in the testing of Abraham (Abram) with his “son of the promise,” Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19).

God has deliberately designed this world to allow us the possibility for sin; to provide the freedom to choose for ourselves whether to trust and obey God's Word or not. God has designed Jesus into this Creation from the very beginning (John 1:1-5, 14). Jesus is the fulfillment, embodiment, and example of God's Word, lived in human flesh in this world. Jesus is the standard of judgment by which everyone who has ever lived will be judged. Those who have accepted Jesus as Lord, who have trusted and obeyed Jesus will have been spiritually “reborn” (John 3:3, 5-8) during this lifetime, and will enter God's eternal kingdom restored to perfect paradise in heaven. Those who have rejected Jesus, who have refused or failed to trust and obey Jesus, will be condemned to eternal destruction in hell with all evil.

Jesus has promised to return, on the Day of Judgment at the end of time (the end of our individual lifetimes). “Born-again” Christian disciples look forward to that day with great joy, but for those who have rejected Jesus it will be a day of great terror (Luke 21:26-28).

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

3 Lent - Friday

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Galatians 4:21-5:1a Spiritual Freedom
Isaiah 55:1-7 Seek the Lord

Listen, all who are spiritually thirsty; come to the source of spiritual water. Come, obtain without money and without charge. Why do we spend money and labor for what does not nourish and satisfy us spiritually?

Let us listen and apply what the Lord says: consume what is spiritually good and satisfying. Let us attune our hearing to his Word; let us come to him and hear, so that our souls will live. He will extend to us the everlasting covenant he made with David (the great shepherd-king of Israel). He raised David up to be a leader and commander and he became a witness (example) to the people. So we will call foreign nations and they will come eagerly to us because God the Holy One of Israel has glorified us.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous [person] his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).

Galatians Background:

The Galatian Congregation (in central Asia Minor; present day Turkey) was being divided by false teaching by “Judaizers” who insisted that Gentile Christians must obey the Law of Moses (circumcision, for example; see also False Teachings, sidebar, top right).

Galatians:

People who desire to be subject to the Law of Moses don't understand it. Paul used the allegory of Sarah (Moses' wife and Hagar (Moses' concubine), to illustrate the differences in the Old Covenant of Law, and the New Covenant of Grace (unmerited favor; a free gift) through Faith (obedient trust in Jesus Christ. Abraham had two sons, Isaac by Abraham's wife, Sarah (Sarai) the free woman by God's promise, and Ishmael by her slave, Hagar (Abraham's concubine). Hagar is the result of the Covenant at Mount Sinai (where Moses received the Law; the Ten Commandments) and represents earthly Jerusalem which is in bondage to the law; her children are destined for slavery. But Sarah represents the freedom of the heavenly Jerusalem (the Church) and she is our mother (through faith). Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1 which was fulfilled by Sarah and Hagar. Sarah was the barren one and the people of the Church are her offspring.

We, like Isaac, are the children of the promise. Hagar's son, Ishmael, persecuted Isaac until Abraham reluctantly sent Hagar and Ishmael away. Paul quoted Genesis 21:10, that the slave and her offspring is to be cast out, and her offspring will not inherit with the free woman's son. Paul's point is that Christians are the offspring of the free woman; not the slave.

Christ has set us free, so we must not return to the yoke of slavery (to the Law).

Commentary:

Jesus is the only source of the spiritual “water” of eternal life, the “baptism” (“gift;” “anointing”) of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39), which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17).

God's covenant with David was that David's descendant would reign eternally on David's throne (2 Samuel 7:4-17). Jesus is the “Son of David,” God's “anointed” (Christ and Messiah each mean “anointed” Greek and Hebrew, respectively) eternal king and heir to the throne of David (Matthew 1:1, 20).

David had been a shepherd of his father's sheep, but God lifted him from obscurity to become the greatest earthly king of Israel. David became an example and illustration of the Messiah who was coming.

Jesus came to us humbly, born in a manger in a stable. When Jesus entered Jerusalem the week of his crucifixion, he didn't come in glory and power like an earthly king. Instead, he came humbly, on a young donkey. The people hailed him as the Son of David (Matthew 21:9). But by the end of the week they were demanding Jesus' crucifixion (Matthew 27:22-23, 25).

People from all nations will come to the Church, because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

I believe that the meaning and purpose of life in this world is to seek and come to know and have fellowship with God our Creator (Acts 17:26-27). This is only possible through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). This lifetime is our only opportunity to be spiritually “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34).

This is the time and opportunity to seek the Lord. God promises that he will allow himself to be found by those who earnestly seek him (Deuteronomy 4:29). Jesus has promised to manifest himself to his disciples (John 14:21), and only Jesus can reveal God the Father to us (Matthew 11:27).

If we will return to the Lord and become obedient to his Word we will find abundant mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a gift to be received by faith. We can't buy it, earn it by doing “good deeds,” or take it by force or deception

Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant between God and his people. Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:8-10; 12:24) which he established on the night of his betrayal and arrest (Matthew 26:26-29 RSV note “g”).

As David is the forerunner of Christ, so also is Moses. Jesus is the “New Moses,” who leads us out of slavery to sin and death in the “Egypt” of this worldly kingdom (Hebrews 2:14-15), through the “wilderness” of this lifetime, through the “river” of physical death and into the eternal “Promised Land” in heaven.

Jesus sets us free from slavery to the Law, provided that we are obedient to the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:1-11). The Holy Spirit does not enslave us, but gives us freedom, adoption into God's family, and true, eternal life.

Paul suffered great persecution for faithfully, fully and accurately proclaiming God's Word. The Judaizers were trying to enslave Gentile Christians. Paul warns that those who desire to be judged by their keeping of the Law will lose the salvation by grace which is only through faith in Jesus, and they will be eternally condemned by the Law (Galatians 5:2-6).

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

3 Lent - Saturday

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John 6:1-15 Feeding the Five Thousand

Jesus and his disciples went by boat to a deserted place near Bethsaida on the north shore of the sea of Galilee, according to Luke's account (Luke 9:10). Because of the physical healing miracles Jesus was doing, a large crowd followed him. Jesus went into the hills and sat down with his disciples in a grassy area. Seeing the crowd coming, he asked Philip how they could obtain food to feed the crowd. Jesus asked Philip in order to test him, because Jesus knew what he was going to do. Philip said that two hundred denarii (two hundred days' wages) wouldn't buy enough bread to give them each a little. The disciple, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said that there was a boy among them with five barley loaves and two fish, but that wouldn't begin to meet the need.

Jesus had the crowd of about five thousand sit down, and taking the boy's bread and fish, and after giving thanks to God, had his disciples distribute the food to the crowd, as much as they wanted. All ate until they were satisfied, and then Jesus had his disciples gather up the left-overs, so that nothing would be wasted. They gathered up twelve baskets full of food. When the people realized the miracle which had occurred, they were convinced that Jesus was the prophet who was expected to come.

Jesus realized that they were about to take him by force to make him their king, so he withdrew into the hills alone.

Commentary:

A large crowd gathered around Jesus because they had heard of his physical healing miracles. After this physical feeding miracle, the crowd wanted to take Jesus by force to be their king. They thought he could provide free food and health care, and that was their only interest in him (according to John 6:24-27).

The crowd of five thousand missed the spiritual healing, feeding, and true eternal life that only Jesus can provide, because all they cared about were physical things. They thought they could manipulate him to do their will. Many “nominal” Christians today think they can manipulate the Lord to serve them, by church membership and religious ritual, instead of seeking to know and do his will.

Jesus' miracles of physical healing, feeding and raising the dead were intended to show that Jesus can give us spiritual healing, feeding and eternal life. Jesus' own resurrection demonstrates that there is existence beyond physical death.

God's Word declares that we will all die physically only once, and then we will face God's judgment (not reincarnation; not “nothingness;” Hebrews 9:27). We will all be raised from physical death to either eternal life with the Lord in God's eternal kingdom in heaven, or to eternal death and destruction in hell with all evil, eternally separated from the love and providence of the Lord (John 5:28-29). Imagine eternity without God's love and providence.

Jesus is the righteous judge, and the standard by which all will be judged. Those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and have trusted and obeyed Jesus will have been spiritually “reborn” (John 3:3, 5-8) during this lifetime; those who have rejected Jesus and have refused or failed to trust and obey Jesus will be eternally condemned (Matthew 25:31-46; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).

If you knew that Jesus could give you free physical food, health care and eternal life would you refuse to accept it? In this material world, physical, material things seem so real; so solid. Spiritual things seem so “imaginary;” so intangible. But God's Word declares that all the material things in this world will pass away, and only spiritual things are eternal, including our souls.

Jesus says to seek first God's eternal kingdom and righteousness, and God will provide for our physical needs as well (Matthew 6:33). This doesn't mean we should quit our jobs and sit around waiting for God to provide all our physical necessities, but unless we make God's will our first priority, we will never get around to it, because material things can never satisfy us or provide security.

It isn't true that we cannot know for certain whether eternity and God's Word are true until we die. The only people who don't know where they're going to spend eternity are those who are eternally “lost” and perishing. Every truly “born-again” Christian disciple can testify that Jesus is eternally alive, because we have a daily personal relationship with him through his indwelling Holy Spirit. We have experienced the supernatural power of God within us and through us.

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?