The church interpretation of the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark 6:33-44 has always been about the miracle that only Jesus could take five loaves of bread and two fish and make it feed all those people. Unfortunately, this methodology of telling people the meaning of Scripture as black and white does not permit us to learn the deeper meaning. Let us develop the interpretation of this story based on verse thirty-four.
Jesus said that the people were sheep without a shepherd. This Semitic phrase means “a congregation without a leader,” “a nation without a national leader,” or “an army without a general.” The narrative tells us that 5,000 men were fed. That number may not immediately ring a bell for you. It is a significant number because it is the size of a Roman Legion at full strength. Since Jesus was a man of peace, why would He talk in terms of war?
We are in a war that so many people refuse to recognize. Every day is a battle against the forces of evil and Satan. Evil inclination is the evil force that surrounds everything in the LORD’s Universe. It tries to penetrate every one of us. It is the Good inclination of the Universe that prevents most of us from turning to evil. It is a war that has been raging since Adam and Eve disobeyed the LORD in the Garden of Eden. Satan wants us to be in Hell with him. He disdains the fact that Good inclination and the power of the Shekinah helps people to enter Heaven.
It is a war to stay positive in our world. Today’s culture and society in the United States lead to the inclusion of Evil inclination as a part of daily life. Those of us who belong to the LORD and try so desperately to follow His ways are being attacked continuously spiritually. Sometimes we do not even see nor sense Evil inclination tugging on us to join Satan.
We need a spiritual leader who will help us in every way possible to lead us away from Satan and his sinister clutch. The 5,000 men in Mark’s description of the feeding story tell us that those of us who follow the ways of the LORD can become an army. Our army will fight the forces of Evil inclination and will defeat Satan. The spiritual leader of our military is Jesus! Through the words of Jesus in the Gospels, we can learn how to work together as a single force that will stop Satan from infecting our souls. As the LORD’s army, we can help other people from falling into the trap of evil.
Evil inclination knows what will motivate humans to join Satan. It is excellent at making sinful actions seem good. We must resist the ways of Satan and stand firm together. Jesus, as our leader, instructs us on how to fight Satan’s offers. The 5,000 men is a universal number for all humans. It is symbolic of telling us to view this passage in a spiritual sense. All people are invited to join Jesus’s army and fight the evil that exists in the world.
Jesus’s narratives always have multiple purposes. Perhaps you should think about this miracle story as one that has many layers of understanding. Most of the narratives of the Bible have numerous meanings. Using PaRDeS, a way to understand Scripture developed during the Middle Ages and used today, this narrative’s spiritual understanding is a part of the secret work contained in the Bible. The narrative’s meaning is about the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread, and two fish is the literal understanding of the story. The knowledge of the spiritual aspect is the secret work of the story.
If you are not a member of Jesus’s army against Satan, you need to ask yourself why are you not? The Bible tells us that Heaven is a paradise. A way to ensure entry into the paradise of Heaven is to join Jesus’s spiritual army. Do it now! There is no time to wait.
May the LORD bless you in your learning and studying of His Word.
