November 5, 2021 Bible Study — Seek The Bread Of Heaven, Not That Of Earth

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 6-7.

Yet again I noticed something I have never heard anyone comment on.  In this account of the feeding of the five thousand, Andrew presents the boy with five loaves and two fish in response to Jesus asking where they could buy food to feed the crowd.  So, the context suggests that this boy had those five loaves and two fish there in order to sell them to someone in the crowd.  I have no thoughts at this time on what meaning there is to that.  I was just struck by the fact that I had never noticed it before and that I have never heard, or read, anyone comment upon it.

Interestingly, some of those who were fed followed Jesus across the lake and demanded a sign of Him in order to believe in Him.  They asked Him to do something comparable to Moses giving their ancestors manna.  This suggests that while the crowd acknowledged that Jesus provided them with bread, they did not see it as miraculous that He did so.  Again, I am not sure what meaning there is to that. It is just something I noticed.  However, that exchange does contain something of import, something which should influence our understanding of Jesus’ teachings about asking God for what we want.  Jesus tells the crowd, and us, not to work for food which spoils, but instead to work for the food of eternal life.  We should not work for material pleasures, instead we should work for that which has eternal value.  We should not ask God for things which will satisfy our earthly wants, but for things which will give us eternal pleasure.  We should ask God to give us opportunities to introduce others to Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.