Daily Bread Mark 8
Daily Bread Mark 8
Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
Observation:
After Jesus feeds the thousands, he takes the disciples aside and tries to teach them something. In this case he is teaching about the teaching of the Pharisees and how it can be like yeast. Meaning a little bit of bad teaching can spoil the whole dough.
But the disciples misinterpret this as having to do with a lack of bread, not a lack of good theology. Jesus reminds them of the thousands of people that were just fed on a few loaves of bread and it has nothing to do with having enough. Ie. They are not getting it yet, and they are still worried about having enough even when they just had seen two incredible miracles feeding nine thousand people on a few loaves.
Application:
Oftentimes our focus today can be on having enough, versus taking what we have and offering it to God to see what He can do with it. Often we are overwhelmed by the needs around us, because we see it on our terms not on God’s terms.
Although we shouldn’t go into things blindly or stupidly, I think the bigger mistake we make is that we never take risks at all, because we rely only on the resources we think we can bring to the table. This prevents us from seeing the miracles that God can do, when we merely offer what we have and let God do the rest.
As you look at the needs of the people in your world, I am sure you see a lot of hungry people out there. You probably as the disciples might say, “How are we going to feed all these people.” God never calls us to solve all the problems in the world, he merely asks us to be faithful to offer what we have to a situation and leave the multiplication up to him. I think if we operated on this mindset we would save ourselves a lot of stress.
Prayer:
God you know what people need already. Help us to see people’s needs around us and offer our loaves and fish to you, knowing you can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. In fact as in the story you will even provide leftovers. How great you are God! Amen.
Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
Observation:
After Jesus feeds the thousands, he takes the disciples aside and tries to teach them something. In this case he is teaching about the teaching of the Pharisees and how it can be like yeast. Meaning a little bit of bad teaching can spoil the whole dough.
But the disciples misinterpret this as having to do with a lack of bread, not a lack of good theology. Jesus reminds them of the thousands of people that were just fed on a few loaves of bread and it has nothing to do with having enough. Ie. They are not getting it yet, and they are still worried about having enough even when they just had seen two incredible miracles feeding nine thousand people on a few loaves.
Application:
Oftentimes our focus today can be on having enough, versus taking what we have and offering it to God to see what He can do with it. Often we are overwhelmed by the needs around us, because we see it on our terms not on God’s terms.
Although we shouldn’t go into things blindly or stupidly, I think the bigger mistake we make is that we never take risks at all, because we rely only on the resources we think we can bring to the table. This prevents us from seeing the miracles that God can do, when we merely offer what we have and let God do the rest.
As you look at the needs of the people in your world, I am sure you see a lot of hungry people out there. You probably as the disciples might say, “How are we going to feed all these people.” God never calls us to solve all the problems in the world, he merely asks us to be faithful to offer what we have to a situation and leave the multiplication up to him. I think if we operated on this mindset we would save ourselves a lot of stress.
Prayer:
God you know what people need already. Help us to see people’s needs around us and offer our loaves and fish to you, knowing you can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. In fact as in the story you will even provide leftovers. How great you are God! Amen.
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