MAY 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 

MAY 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 

“How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Thank You Lord that “our sin” took top priority in Your concerns. The more I study and see the mighty works of God accomplished in the life of this sinner and read of the mighty miracles God orchestrated among entire nations of sinners, I am overwhelmed with how much “effort” that the Father God, His Only Begotten Son, and the Powerful Spirit of God has expended on the correction of man’s greatest problem, PERSONAL sin. 

And to think that man volunteers to sin so easily and to recognize that man has brought the curse of sin upon himself, it makes Grace that much more Merciful! 

God who is uncreated and does not need us for His Self-existence,

 has chosen to address the “sin problem” for us and has gone to extreme lengths to provide “atonement” for our sins and a path by which we can attain His Forgiveness, and we fail to recognize that

 God has had a plan all along,

 

from the first words God spoke after creation 

to the last words He will speak before time itself comes to an end — 

all His efforts have been to address sin in our lives! 

Praise God, 

for without Him 

there would be 

no life, 

no forgiveness, 

and no 

HOPE FOR A FUTURE!!!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus asked this simple Question but just like all Questions Jesus asked, 

the Question is for our learning benefit 

and not to provide information or knowledge to Jesus. 

If we find ourselves lost on a journey we will stop and ask directions 

but we know with all certainty that Jesus is NOT LOST 

so the Questions that He asks are actually to give directions to us. 

Jesus Teaches us by asking Questions that make us reflect 

on our “common knowledge” 

and He encourages us with the Questions to “reason within ourselves”by using

 the intellect that God has bestowed on everyone, 

and thereby Jesus Teaches that if we will but stop and look at the world around us

 and use our God-given faculties to consider the 

Truth of God 

that He reveals to us with our day-to-day experiences, that 

we will come to an “understanding” that will lead us 

into the knowledge of God and the beginning of wisdom. 

This Lesson Jesus is Teaching on “bread” is one such Lesson 

where Jesus uses something everyone 

of every generation and culture can relate to — 

“bread”.

 We can easily tie many Teachings of God together using “bread” 

like this passage which is specifically built around “bread”, 

and as Jesus mentions “leaven” 

our thoughts should turn to the

 Passover when God demonstrated His Power 

to “free” His people from our “slavery” 

and also to the greatest thing that enslaves every generation,

 “sin”, 

so the Passover is significant because of the command of God 

to eat “unleavened bread” as the death angel passed over 

all who had applied the blood 

and those that had complied with God’s commands 

were saved from the plague of death 

God released in order to free His people from slavery! 

Then, more “bread” as King David ate the “Showbread” 

as he went about doing the work of God. 

Jesus in this passage is recognized as the “Son of David” 

and Jesus is also using “bread” to accomplish His Work for the Kingdom, 

and soon the culmination of the entire ministry of Jesus

 will be summed up as Jesus takes a loaf of “bread” and 

“breaks bread” 

and declares 

“this is my body which was broken for you” (Matthew 26:26) 

and Jesus specifically stated: 

“For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” 

(Matthew 18:11) 

So we can easily see that bread has been used by God

 and that God has been 

“planning” our salvation 

from the first words God spoke, 

“Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3)

 

which was to address the darkness and emptiness of the world, 

which we all know is a picture of sin. 

The entire Bible is God executing His Plan for His chosen people 

to free us from our selfishness which expresses itself as “sin” 

as we reject God, 

yet God parts the sea and provides for our safety 

even in the worst storms and then to seal-the-deal,

 God because of His Love for this sinful world, 

“gave His only begotten Son 

that whosoever believes in [Jesus] 

shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) 

If we will but listen to the Master Teacher we can learn the

 Truth of God 

and apply even the simplest things,

 such as the eating of bread, 

to remind us of the Great Love of God 

and turn from our sin 

and as the multitudes did when Jesus healed them, 

we will marvel at His Grace, 

we will worship at His feet, 

and we will glorify the God of Israel. 

Don’t you think that 

GOD’S PLAN 

is a 

GOOD PLAN?   

MAY 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 

MAY 24  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#17 

“How many loaves do you have?”  (Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, Redeemer, my Rock and my Salvation, Praise Your Holy Name.  Lord Jesus when I look back at where the journey that seeking You has taken me, I am in awe of the “Way” that You have Provided for my needs, all my needs, both the “physical” and the “Spiritual”.

 Lord, I may never understand but my understanding should and shall not interfere with my Praise for the ONE that is Worthy, the ONLY ONE that is worthy — in You alone is “Truth”, and You alone can give “Life”. 

No greater “Love” has ever been given, 

no greater “Gift” will ever be given 

than the “Gift of God” of the “Sacrificial Lamb” — 

His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ — “Sacrificed of God” 

that man could be reconciled to his Creator 

in spite of all our sins and iniquities!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never asks a Question without a 

Divine Intent to Teach us about the Father!  

Any time Jesus asks any Question we should really pay attention 

because the Master Teacher is using the Question 

to bring our focus on some 

“Spiritual Truth” 

by using our common everyday experiences to give us 

“understanding” of the supernatural life God gives so abundantly 

to all those that believe Jesus is the Savior 

and that as a believer in the Son of God 

that we are going to live for the rest of our “eternal” existence 

with Father God!!  

JQ#17 taken by itself is a simple six word sentence

 with the longest word being six letters 

(keep in mind the whole earth was created in just six days) 

and the subject is a physical item that is experienced by every soul 

that has ever lived or will ever live on the earth ——— 

“bread”! 

When we look at the context surrounding this Question and see that the woman that came to Jesus requesting that her daughter who was

 “severely demon-possessed” (Matthew 15:22)

 be healed was first addressed by a statement t

hat on the surface seems out of place for

 Jesus the “Healer”,

 as He initially stated to the woman: 

“It is not good to take the children’s bread 

and throw it to the little dogs.” (Matthew 15:26). 

However, if Jesus is starting another 

“Teaching of Deep Spiritual Truths” 

then He will do so by using a

 “shared experience” 

that everyone can relate to and an “experience” 

that we already have a base understanding of. 

In this case Jesus has used the consumption of 

“bread” 

as the common experience and we see how

 He puts the consuming of “bread” in juxtaposition to “great faith”. 

Before you accuse the writer of grasping at straws let us look at the progression

 of this lesson of consumption of bread as a 

“Great Spiritual Truth” 

as Jesus puts the 

“Bread Lesson” 

down on the bottom shelf so everyone can get to it 

as we read from Matthew 15:21 through Matthew 16:12 the 

“Master’s Lesson” on “Bread”. 

In Matthew 15:21-28 Jesus heals a severely demon-possessed girl 

and uses the seemingly out of place phrase about throwing 

“children’s bread”

 to the “dogs” and the mother responded 

“even …dogs eat the crumbs that fall 

from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:26-27) 

and Jesus then responds to the woman’s comments of eating 

“crumbs” [of bread] “from [the] masters’ table” 

with this great commendation to the woman:

 “O woman, great is your faith! 

Let it be to you as you desire.” (Matthew 15:28) 

and then we see the results of her 

“great faith” 

as we read 

“and her daughter was healed that very hour.” (Matthew 15:28). 

Then Matthew records  that the 

“multitudes” 

brought to Jesus those in need of “physical healing” and Matthew notes 

“and [Jesus] healed them.” (Matthew 15:29) 

with the results of all those mighty works that the [multitudes] 

“glorified the God of Israel”. (Matthew 15:31)  

The significance of “bread” in the works of God 

starts to surface when we consider the first comment Jesus 

made as the woman had first petitioned Jesus by declaring

 “O Lord, Son of David!” 

and Jesus responded 

“I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

 (Matthew 15:22-24). 

This “bread” Lesson then begins with a Jesus introducing 

the problem of “lostness” and we see the introduction 

of “[bread] crumbs…from the masters’ table” 

and Jesus then saying to the woman who realized the significance of 

“bread” in relation to her “faith” 

was rewarded by Jesus in the form of commending her on her 

“great faith”

 and then 

Jesus heals her “demon-possessed” daughter 

which was a “spiritual” ailment. 

Then Jesus immediately heals “physical” infirmities 

from the “multitudes” and then when Jesus mentions 

“compassion” for the multitudes 

we somehow end up talking about 

“loaves” of bread… [JQ#17] ?? 

Then the topic moves from “physical” infirmities to 

“spiritual infirmities” 

as Jesus, in response to another attack by the legalist of His day, introduces the

 “spiritual” concept of “leaven” 

of the false teaching of 

“the Pharisees and the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6) 

and ends with this summary of the Teachings on 

“Bread” 

with this verse, 

“Then [the disciples] understood that [Jesus] 

did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, 

but the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 

(Matthew 16:12) 

Are you still surprised by the simple

 

“bread”

Question JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  

(Matthew 15:34)

 

or 

do you not consider that Jesus is asking you 

to take inventory of all the “false doctrines” 

that you personally consume as your “daily bread”?!?!? 

—just a thought.