In the gospels, we read of two incredible miracles where Jesus multiplied a tiny amount of food into a meal for thousands. Many of us remember hearing about the five loaves and two fish that fed five thousand, but there was also the feeding of the four thousand. From seven loaves and a few small fish. The same result twice, with only slightly differing numbers? Do you think Jesus was trying to make a point?
I wonder what it would have been like to witness the bread and the fish being multiplied. Did it happen instantly when Jesus prayed, or was it simply that every time some was given out, more remained in the baskets, so the basket’s content stayed the same? Although I can’t prove it Biblically, I’ve always felt the second option is the most likely. So many times in Scripture, we are told the Lord will provide for us when we need it. We don’t often find him providing in advance. If he did, we might be prone to squander his blessings before we are meant to use them. I can recall so many occasions when God has shown up just in time and given me exactly what I needed for a particular season of struggle.
Yet when problems arise, I still find myself more prone to worry than to pray. Or I do pray, but my communication with the Lord is full of fear or ‘What if’ statements. At these times, my worries consume me and drown out everything else, yet I can look back on forty years of provision – forty years during which he has never failed me. I can say with the hymn-writer: ‘All I have needed thy hand hath provided’, but I still worry my current need might be the exception to the rule.
Just after the feeding of the four thousand, Jesus’ disciples found themselves in a boat, crossing a lake with the Saviour. Jesus had an important lesson to teach them, and he began it by telling them to: “be careful”, and to: ‘be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16: 6), But all the disciples had on their minds was bread. Given that yeast is a vital ingredient for bread-making, they reasoned this was Jesus’ subtle way of having a dig at them for not remembering to bring along food for their journey. We are told in Matthew 16 verse 5 that they had forgotten to take bread, although mark concedes in chapter 8 verse 14 that they did have one loaf with them in the boat. I guess twelve hungry men could tear through a small loaf in no time, so in their eyes, one was as good as none.
So instead of mulling over what Jesus might be trying to teach them by using yeast as an object lesson, they began focusing on the physical instead of the spiritual. That’s always the point at which things go wrong. We easily become so focused on the thing we lack that it becomes an obsession, and it is used by the enemy as a diversion tactic to keep us from thinking about the more important things.
When Jesus spoke about the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he was referring to their false teaching and man-made rules. He was confirming what he had said during his temptations in the wilderness about how man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4: 4.) he was urging his closest friends to keep the true words of his Father uppermost in their minds – to feast on them, as they would feast on bread, so they would be able to differentiate between the true and the false – the clever words of man, made to sound Biblical, and the true words of God. This is important teaching for us in an age where the yeast of false teaching is so easy for us to inadvertently digest, but so often, we’re so focused on the carnal that we miss the spiritual.
Our physical needs jump out at us and make themselves known. If we are hungry, our stomachs grumble and we soon find ourselves obsessing over what we are going to eat. If money is short, we carefully plan our budgets, pouring over every last penny to ensure our finances are stretched to the maximum. If we are tired, we think about taking a nap. But all the while, our spiritual needs can pass us by unnoticed.
The teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees would have sounded very proper and pious, and no doubt those who heard it would have been easily sucked in, feeling as though they had been fed from the best spiritual steak. Only the more discerning and Biblically-minded would have recognised the flaws in the teaching – how the teachers of the law in Jesus’ day were more worried about outward appearances than what was really going on inside, and how so often their rule-keeping left no room for important things like kindness and compassion.
Jesus was thinking about teaching, and the disciples were thinking about their lack of dinner. Yet they had only just witnessed their Master’s miraculous ability to provide. He’d shown them how he could make a feast out of a morsel, and I’m sure he would have gladly done it again right there on that boat.
I was really convicted by reading these scriptures today and fascinated by how the discussion about the yeast followed on directly from the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand. I wondered how many times I’ve missed out on some of Jesus’ greatest teaching moments because my mind has been consumed by earthly things.
Those pharisee’s and Sadducees Jesus was warning about had been asking him for miraculous signs. (Matthew 16: 1-4. _ Yet strangely, despite the fact that he could easily have done anything, Jesus chose not to give into their demands and prove himself. He recognised the motive behind their request. They were trying to catch him out. They were being sinical and judgemental – treating his miracles as an object of curiosity like some kind of divine magic show.
So Jesus hadn’t chosen to perform a miracle for the cynics, but rather, he performed one for those who needed it most – the four thousand hungry people who had sat patiently listening to his teaching, so hungry for every word that their spiritual need far outweighed their physical discomfort. Those four thousand men plus women and children had got it right, and both aspects of their hunger was amply catered for.
With a little prompting from Jesus, the disciples eventually understood what he was telling them. Matthew 16 8-12 reads: “Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
My prayer today is that I won’t become consumed by the physical. Yes, I will have needs, but since Jesus’ track record in my life has always been flawless, I should have the confidence to place my requests at his feet, standing on scriptures such as: “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, or their children begging bread.” (Psalm 37: 25.) Surely I don’t need to obsess over these things. But rather, I should spend more time concentrating on the spiritual food He wants to give me, lest I, like the disciples, am in danger of falling under the influence of the yeast of modern-day false teachings. If I follow only my stomach, I could so easily be led astray.