WHY FEED 5000 ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE

THE PURPOSE OF FEEDING 5000 PEOPLE ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE

 

 

 "God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles" (Heb. 2:4).

     The three Greek terms here are quite generally used in the New Testament to describe miracles. Dunamis points to the source of the miracle: it is an act or display of divine "power." Teras describes the immediate effect it is intended to produce: it is a prodigy or "wonder." Simeion indicates the purpose of the miracle: it is a "sign" pointing to something beyond it.
     Christ in the gospels was giving the Jews a foretaste of the conditions in His Kingdom with His rule. In a later passage of crucial importance the writer of Hebrews again refers to the miraculous acts of divine power that had characterized the Acts period, this time using the Greek term dunamis and reminding the Jewish readers of that generation that they had "tasted . . . the powers of the age to come" (Heb. 6:5, ASV). Here the miracles of the Gospels and Acts, although "tasted" by that generation, are clearly placed in the category of: things that belong to a future "age." Now this "age to come" cannot be the Church age because that had already begun on Pentecost and was even then running its course. Nor can the reference be to heaven or the eternal state, for then there will be no diseased to be healed or demons to be cast out. The true meaning is "the age of the Messianic reign," the Millennial 1000 year reign, which is to follow the Church age and will be ushered in at the Second Advent of Christ. The great miracles of the Gospels and Acts, then, are powers that really belong to the Millennial Kingdom. This suggests that their occasional and partial enjoyment by the generation living during the time of  Acts, as also in the period of the Gospels, was intended to authenticate an offer of the Kingdom to Israel, a genuine offer although conditioned on the repentance of the nation. And it explains why, following the crises of Jewish rejection reached in Acts 28 and the destruction of Jerusalem, the age of great public miracles, came to an end.

     The church has a work that is spiritual and not social. Food pantries and church soup kitchens are not the work of the church but taking the Gospel to the masses so they might enjoy the Kingdom of God that is soon coming to this earth and will enter through repentance - Matt. 28:18-20. "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." He is the Teacher and the Lord of that Kingdom (John 13:13 NASB).
We have seen enough of men's rule. He said He was coming again to take that rule that lasts forever Daniel 7:27  And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. They tasted the fruits in the Gospels and Acts and we await His return to take control of the abuse of men.