CHAPTER 8

(A.D. 32)

JESUS FEEDS FOUR THOUSAND

¹In those days the multitude being very great (numbering thousands) and having nothing to eat (outside of Christ, the world has nothing to eat), Jesus called His Disciples unto Him, and said unto them,

²I have compassion on the multitude (portrays the Love of God; it would be the same as saying, My heart goes out to them), because they have now been with Me three days, and have nothing to eat (they wanted so much to be in His Presence that they slept where they could, and ate what little they had, if anything, with that long since having run out):

³And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers (many) of them came from far.

⁴And His Disciples answered Him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? (The insensibility of the natural heart appears in this Verse. The Disciples apparently learned nothing from the previous feeding of the multitude [Chpt. 6].)

⁵And He asked them, How many loaves have you? And they said, Seven (before they had five loaves, which is Gods number of Grace, while now they have seven, which is Gods Perfect number of completion).

⁶And He commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and He took the seven loaves (in the Disciples hands they were nothing, in His Hands they are everything!; the action is not in the loaves, but rather in Him), and gave thanks, and break, and gave to His Disciples to set before them(proclaims the actual time of the multiplication; the giving was a continual act, until all were filled); and they did set them before the people.

⁷And they had a few small fishes (did not give the number): and He blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.

⁸So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat(bread) that was left seven baskets.

⁹And they who had eaten were about four thousand (probably didnt include women and children, which would have increased it by several thousands): and He sent them away (but only after they were healed and filled).

THE DEMAND FOR A SIGN

¹⁰And straightway (immediately)He entered into a ship with His Disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha (on the western shore of Galilee).

¹¹And the Pharisees came forth (Matthew said the Sadducees were present as well [Mat. 16:1]), and began to question with Him (they were standing before the Creator of the Ages, Who had the answer to all things, but yet, they are so spiritually stupid, that they will ply Him only with silly questions), seeking of Him a sign from Heaven, tempting Him (and thesewere the religious leaders of Israel!).

¹²And He sighed deeply in His Spirit (meaning, He groaned in His Spirit), and said, Why does this generation seek after a sign? (It is useless to give evidence to unbelief.) verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation (no more signs than what had already been given, which were astounding to say the least, regarding healings and miracles, etc.).

¹³And He left them (spiritually speaking, He left them to their doom), and entering into the ship again departed to the other side (the northeastern shore).

THE LEAVEN

¹⁴Now the Disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf (the short trip would take several hours).

¹⁵And He charged them (in the Greek Text, means that He kept on speaking to them, making certain they understood that of which He was speaking), saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (false doctrine), and of the leaven of Herod (the claim by some Jews that this despot was the Messiah, which they did for financial prosperity).

¹⁶And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread (they had not the slightest idea of what He was speaking).

¹⁷And when Jesus knew it, He said unto them (the Holy Spirit revealed to Him their confusion), Why reason you, because you have no bread? (In other words, Im not talking about physical bread.) perceive you not yet, neither understand? have you your heart yet hardened? (They were looking too much in the physical, and not at all in the spiritual.)

¹⁸Having eyes, see you not? (Pertains to spiritual eyes they were not using.) and having ears, hear y ou not? (They were not hearing correctly, they were not hearing spiritually.) and do you not remember? (We should remember what the Lord has done for us in the past, and learn a lesson.)

¹⁹When I broke the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took you up? They say unto Him, Twelve.

²⁰And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took you up? And they said, Seven.

²¹And He said unto them, How is it that you do not understand? (The question would have been better translated, do you yet not understand?; there is a hint in the Greek Text that, in fact, they finally did begin to understand; actually, Matthew tells us this was the case [Mat. 16:12].)

JESUS HEALS A BLIND MAN

²²And He comes to Bethsaida (probably refers to Bethsaida Julias situated on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee): and they bring a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him.

²³And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town (Jesus had already placed a curse on this city because of their refusal to repent; consequently, He would not perform another miracle in its confines [Mat. 11:21]); and when He had spit on his eyes (pertains to the second time such was done [7:33]; He probably put spittle on His Finger and touched the mans eyes), and put His Hands upon him, He asked him if he saw ought (has in the Greek Text that He kept on asking him).

²⁴And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking (the Greek Text actually says, I see men; for I behold them as trees, walking; the word, walking, refers to the men and not to the trees; there seemed to be a mist of sorts over his eyes, which disfigured things).

²⁵After that He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly (the only incident in the four Gospels, of Jesus dealing with someone the second time in this fashion; why did Jesus have to lay His Hands on him a second time?; the next Verse possibly tells us).

²⁶And He sent him away to his house (implies that he was not a native of Bethsaida Julias), saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town (refers to the fact, as stated, that Jesus had placed a curse on this town for their refusal to repent [Mat. 11:21]; due to this, Christ seemed unwilling to give Bethsaida any more evidence of the visitation of God; this could well be the reason why Jesus had to lay His Hands on the man a second time; the curse had been pronounced and the die cast, consequently, it was as if the door was shut).

PETERS CONFESSION

²⁷And Jesus went out, and His Disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi (places Him about forty miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and about forty miles south of Damascus): and by the way He asked His Disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? (Constitutes Who He really was, and the drawing out of the Disciples, as to Who they thought He was. The Greek Text says, He kept on asking, meaning that the question so startled them that at first they did not answer.)

²⁸And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elijah; and others, One of the Prophets (their answers were strange, but yet reflected the thinking of much of Israel at that particular time).

²⁹And He said unto them, But whom say you that I am? (Concerns the greatest question that could ever be asked. It is a question that all must ultimately answer.) And Peter answered and said unto Him, You are the Christ (Peter actually said, You are the Messiah, because thats what the Word Christ actually means; it was the Great Confession).

³⁰And He charged them (commanded them) that they should tell no man of Him (relates the fact that it was now obvious that Israel had rejected Him, and consequently, there was no further point in projecting the issue).

JESUS FORETELLS HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION

³¹And He began to teach them (proclaims an explanation as to what was to happen, despite the fact that He was the Messiah), that the Son of Man must suffer many things (proclaimed the fact, that they believed otherwise!), and be rejected of the Elders, and of the Chief Priests, and Scribes (rejected means that the religious leaders of Israel put Jesus to the test; however, He did not meet their specifications; He was not the kind of a Messiah the Jews wanted; they wanted a military leader who would liberate them from the yoke of Rome, not a Saviour who would free them from their bondage of sin), and be killed (the Crucifixion), and after three days rise again (the Resurrection was never in doubt, due to the victorious success of the Cross in atoning for all sin).

³²And He spoke that saying openly (means that He kept saying it). And Peter took Him (probably put His hands on the shoulders of Christ), and began to rebuke Him (means that He spoke with force, denying what Jesus had said).

³³But when He had turned about and looked on His Disciples, He rebuked Peter (He did not at all take lightly what Peter had said; and now, He made sure that His Disciples understood His reaction), saying, Get thee behind Me, Satan (presents Jesus speaking directly to Satan, and not Peter; however, the Words of our Lord, brands Peters words as Satanic; the words, behind Me, in effect, say, get out of My Face!): for you (now speaks to Peter) savor not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men (unredeemed man doesnt want what God wants).

³⁴And when He had called the people unto Him with His Disciples also, He said unto them (speaks of an interval of some period of time between His rebuke of Peter and this present statement), Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself (deny his own strength, ability, talent, power, and carnal intellect), and take up his cross (not suffering as many suppose, but rather the benefits of the Cross), and follow Me (implying that Jesus cannot be followed, unless its by the way of the Cross).

³⁵For whosoever will save his life shall lose it (if one refuses to place his life in Christ); but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospels, the same shall save it (to place ones life entirely in Christ, which can only be done by way of the Cross, and in doing so, saves ones life, and does so forever).

³⁶For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (The simple equation of profit and loss, which states that ones soul, is worth more than the whole world.)

³⁷Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (The soul is eternal, therefore, worth more than anything.)

³⁸Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My Words (the present conduct of the individual now determines Christs future conduct with reference to that person) in this adulterous and sinful generation (pertains to the character of Israel at the time of Christ, and as well, to every generation which has followed); of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed (means that such attitude will be reciprocated in like kind), when He comes in the Glory of His Father with the Holy Angels (the Second Coming).