Chapter 14

The first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline ended in 516 BC. At that point the Jews had learned their lesson. The had learned something of the value of doctrine and so we have the golden age which goes from 516 BC down to 323 BC, the death of Alexander the Great. This is the great period in the history of Judah. During that time the application of doctrine, a maximum number of people being saved, a maximum number of believers understanding the Word, resulted in this golden age, the greatest period they will ever know until the Millennium. Then in 323 BC Judah came under one of the four generals in the division of Alexander’s empire. When Alexander died, eventually after a period of many wars, four of Alexander’s generals succeeded. One of these took the empire which was north of Palestine all of the way to India. He is known as Seleucus, and under him, and those who followed him, the Jews came under the third and fourth cycles of discipline.

Seleucus and those who were his heirs were very cruel people. Probably one of the worst of all was Antiochus Epiphanes and round 167 BC a family in Israel came into prominence called the Hasmonaeans. This family had as one of its members Judas Maccabaeus who was the great leader in winning the independence of the Jews from the fourth cycle of discipline. This family became the leadership family and actually gained control of the priesthood. This lasted from 167 BC down to the time of Pompey the Great in 63 BC. During that time the Jews had a measure of independence and were out from under the cycles of discipline. But in 63 BC Pompey the Great conquered Palestine and, of course, took Jerusalem. From that time on Rome administered the fourth cycle of discipline to the Jews.

During this period a very unusual thing happened to the Jews. There was a woman in the Hasmonaean family by the name of Mariamne who was married to one of the great men of that day under the Roman empire — he was not a Roman, he was an Arab — by the name of Herod. He became Herod the Great, one of the smartest men who has ever lived and brilliant in many fields. This was quite a marriage and they were very happy together, especially in the first twenty years of their marriage, and they had several children. One of them was a man by the name of Alexander and another was Aristobulus.

At the time of Herod there were three very brilliant men in the world. The first of these was Augustus who was the nephew of Julius Caesar. Augustus was a smart man but he was not a genius. Working for him was a man by the name of Agrippa who was a genius and a Roman. Augustus and Agrippa ran the Roman empire during the first of two golden ages for Rome. There was one other person who made it possible for the empire to have peace, and that was Herod the Great. Herod became a client king to the Romans. Between Parthia and the Roman empire was the client kingdom which was composed of Syria and Palestine together, and it was ruled by Herod. This same Herod married four times, he had four wives all at once. He had a very conniving sister, by the way, by the name of Salome. Herod was the richest man in the world in his day.

Just before he died he was afflicted with several problems and he developed a great suspicion. As a result he executed his wife, Mariamne. Then his sons began to give him a little back talk so he executed them. By this time his sons had families and his son Aristobulus had two children. One of them was a redhead by the name of Herodias [the feminine form of Herod]. The second one was Agrippa, and Agrippa was named for the genius under Augustus. Here is a brother and a sister and this brother and this sister have about everything to do with the first half of Matthew chapter fourteen. This woman Herodias was one of the most beautiful women of her time. Aristobulus had been executed just two days before Herod died and after Herod died Herodias and Agrippa moved to Rome. There Herodias married an uncle called Philip. Herodias and Agrippa are very important as far as Matthew chapter 14 is concerned.

When Herod died in 4 BC he had four surviving sons. One of them was Philip who lived in Rome. He was a son by another Mariamne and he spent his whole life living in Rome and about the only thing he did of consequence was to marry Herodias who had come to Rome after her father had been executed by Herod. By another woman, a Samaritan woman, he had two sons. These, of course, are half Arab and half Samaritan. The first one is Archelaus and the second is Antipas who is Herod the tetrarch of our passage. There was one other son. Herod had another wife, a Jewess by the name of Cleopatra (not the Cleopatra of Mark Anthony fame) of Jerusalem. By her he had another son, Philip.

Archelaus, Antipas and Philip went off to Rome to try to persuade Augustus to let each one of them have the entire kingdom. But Augustus decide he couldn’t trust any of them and so he divided up the kingdom. Archelaus he made an ethnarch; Antipas and Philip he made tetrarchs. By the way, they all took the name Herod, which is why in the Bible you find Herod but every time it is a different Herod. They all claimed to be their father’s heir. Archelaus was given Idumaea and Judaea. Antipas was given Galilee and Peraea. Philip was given a small kingdom whose headquarters was Caesarea Philipi.

Antipas immediately decided that Augustus wasn’t going to live forever (in ten years, in fact, Augustus would die). So Antipas was a very smart character and he decided to look around and found out whoever was going to be the next ruler of the Roman empire and to make friends with him and to get more than his share. With that in mind he began to notice that Tiberias was going to be the heir of Augustus and he began to cultivate a friendship with Tiberias. It wasn’t difficult to figure this out. Both of the sons of Augustus died. Augustus had a daughter by the name of Julia, after Julius Caesar, his uncle, and he made Agrippa divorce a wife with whom he was in love and marry Julia. And then Agrippa died. Augustus’s grandsons died and there wasn’t anyone left in the whole Julius Caesar line except Tiberias. Tiberias despised Augustus. One of the things that Antipas did was to build on the Sea of Galilee a city and called it Tiberias. Not to be outdone, Philip (who, by the way, was the best of the children of Herod) took Bethsaida on the other side, rebuilt it and renamed it Julia, after the daughter of Augustus.

At about that time Julia got herself into a jamb in Rome and her father banished her (she had been running around with people who were not aristocrats). Also at that time Antipas began to realise it was a good thing to go to Rome and butter up Augustus and, later on, Tiberias. So Antipas was going to Rome one day and he usually stayed in the palace of his half-brother who was Herod Philip (not Philip the tetrarch). Philip was married to this beautiful redhead by the name of Herodias and when she and Antipas met they fell in love and had an affair right then and there. Herodias decided that Philip was never going to rule anything and life was going to be dull in Rome. She would rather be married to a king and Antipas looked like he was going to make it, he was smart. But she has a problem and Antipas has a problem. Antipas is married to the daughter of the king of Petra, the Arab kingdom nearby. So Herodias and Philip mad a mutual decision to get rid of their spouses.

Philip went home to get rid of his wife but she found out about it and ran home to father before he could. So father is now seething and is gathering an Arab army to go into Galilee and destroy Philip. In the meantime Antipas, now free, goes back and picks up Herodias and takes off. This was in the year 27 AD. So here is the famous combination of Antipas and Herodias, the two who are found in Matthew chapter fourteen. Herodias is at this time a little over thirty and a very beautiful woman, and Antipas is Herod the tetrarch of our passage.

In 27 AD several things happened that were to really stir up Palestine. For one thing, a man by the name of John the Baptist began his ministry. Secondly, the procurator of Palestine was appointed and his name was Pontius Pilate. The Romans had three kinds of provinces: a senatorial province which had a proconsul; they had one which was administered by the imperator — in other words, a delegated province — and the man who commanded that was called a legate; then there was a third class province which, in this case, was Galilee and Peraea. Antipas is the king and he has a Roman procurator — Pontius Pilate.

Verses 1-12, the case of Herod’s conscience — Herod is Antipas the fox, son of Herod the Great. Antipas and Herodias are now in Galilee which they rule.

Verse 1— “At that time,” 27 AD, “Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus.” This refers to the many things which Jesus has been doing in the first few chapters.

Verse 2 — “And said to his servants.” He was upset about hearing about Jesus because what he heard reminded him of someone he had just executed. “This is John the Baptist.” He thinks John is still alive, in other words. He himself saw the head of John the Baptist on a platter, and yet he is frightened; “he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.”

Verse 3 — “For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife.”

Verse 4 — “For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.” This didn’t bother Antipas but it did bother Herodias.

Verse 5 — “And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.” So Herod put John in prison but he was afraid to put him to death. He didn’t want to have any trouble from the crowd at this time and so he was keeping John alive in the fortress, in the dungeon.

Verse 6 — “But when Herod’s birthday was observed.” This is Herod Antipas, the fox; “the daughter of Herodias [Salome] danced before them.” Herodias had a daughter by Philip, and she called her Salome after Herod’s sister Salome; “and pleased Herod.” The reason she pleased Herod was, first of all, he had had a few drinks too many as was his custom, and so he made a very stupid remark that ordinarily he would not have made.

Verse 7 — “He promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.” He was just feeling great and so he said he would give her anything that she wanted.

Verse 8 — “And she, being before instructed of her mother [Herodias], said, Give me here John the Baptist’s head in a charger [a serving platter].”

Verse 9 — “And the king was sorry: nevertheless for his oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.”

Verse 10 — “And he sent and beheaded John in the prison.”

Verse 11 — “And his head was brought in a charger [serving platter], and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.”

Herodias was a very loyal wife to Antipas but occasionally she tried to have her way. There are two cases in history when she tried to have her way and this is the first. As a result of having her way in this matter John the Baptist was killed. She lived together with Herod for forty years and during that time she stayed out of his way because he was very brilliant, although not a genius. She just enjoyed being the queen and enjoyed the life around her but something finally happened that she couldn’t stand. She hated John the Baptist and therefore she plotted to get rid of him and she succeeded.

Remember that Herodias has a brother, Agrippa. They did not get along. Agrippa had a very difficult time. He would like to be a king but he was just hanging around in Rome and nothing seemed to develop for him. He eventually got married and had three children. The first of these was called Agrippa the Second. He is the Agrippa of Acts chapters 25 and 26. Agrippa also had two daughters, the first was called Bernice and the second is Drusilla. These were the two most beautiful women of their day. Bernice at fourteen was married to a king who was an uncle. She got out of that very quickly and came back and lived with her brother Agrippa in incest. Eventually she left him again because Vespasian came to conquer the Jews with his son Titus, and Bernice became the mistress of Vespasian, and later on Titus. She went back to Rome with Titus and almost became his empress. But being a queen from the orient the Romans still remembered Cleopatra. So the Romans wouldn’t permit it and she lived as his mistress and eventually came back to Agrippa and lived with him. Bernice and Agrippa were the ones who heard Paul preach. Now Drusilla, the younger sister, was also extremely beautiful and she was married to an Arab king north of Palestine, and Felix became the procurator. He was a successor down the line from Pontius Pilate. Felix saw Drusilla at a party once and decided he wanted her and he finally talked her into leaving this king up there, and she came down and married him.

So these four, the two living in incest and these two married, were the ones who heard Paul preach day after day in Acts chapters 25 and 26. The line of Herod had a fantastic opportunity to be saved. Everyone in that line had the opportunity. John the Baptist preached to Antipas and Herodias, Jesus Christ faced Antipas and Herodias, they had every opportunity to be saved. And that isn’t all. In this line Paul preached to all four of these people, they heard the gospel time after time. It is interesting that Felix and Drusilla had a son, and when Felix died Drusilla and the son went to live in Pompeii and they were killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Herodias and Antipas lived together for many years and during that time her brother went from bad to worse. Agrippa the First had all kinds of trouble. In Rome he became friendly with the son of Germanicus whose name is Caligula who, by the way, would be, after Tiberias, the next emperor of Rome. Agrippa courted Caligula. He went from bad to worse and couldn’t seem to find himself and outside of having these three children he just couldn’t seem to get established. And he wound up being the tutor of the son of Tiberias. But he spent more time in the Roman court getting acquainted with Caligula because he didn’t think the son of Tiberias would make it, and as a matter of fact he didn’t. Caligula was to become the next emperor. But during the course of all of this he made a very bad mistake. One day he and Caligula were riding in a chariot and he said to Caligula: “You ought to be the next emperor instead of that miserable son of Tiberias whom I am instructing.” And the charioteer reported this to the emperor Tiberias who promptly dumped him into prison. And there he stayed for six months and when Tiberias died they got rid of his son, Caligula became the emperor, and the first thing he did was to weigh the chains of his dear friend Agrippa, and he gave Agrippa whatever they weighed in iron in chains of gold. And Caligula said to Agrippa: You are going to be a king.

(It should be noted here that at one time Agrippa had come to visit his sister Herodias. He stayed for about a year and one night at a party Antipas got drunk and Agrippa got drunk and they had an exchange of words in which Antipas said to Agrippa: “You are a no-good so and so. You’ve been living off me for a year.” And after these harsh words Agrippa left his sister and her husband to become the tutor, and had a bitter resentment toward Antipas who was both his brother-in-law and his uncle)

When Tiberias died, at the same time, up in the north on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, Philip, who for years had been a faithful tetrarch, had died, and the tetrarchy was open. Caligula made Agrippa the tetrarch right across the Sea of Galilee from Antipas. Herodias was absolutely in a rage. For forty years here husband (who was sixty) had been the tetrarch of Galilee. He has done a good job, he has been faithful to the Roman empire, he was faithful to Augustus, he was faithful to Tiberias, and now Caligula becomes the emperor and puts Agrippa into the job and she can’t stand Agrippa. And this is what bothered Herodias more than anything had for a long time, since John the Baptist denounced her in the court. Her policy has been to love her husband and keep her hands off of his business. But as she looks across the Sea of Galilee and thinks that 30 miles away her brother, her stinking brother Agrippa, who has never done anything for anyone but who is going to be the most brilliant of all of Herod’s line, is given that tremendous piece of land when it should have gone to her husband. She can’t stand it and she starts to work on her husband, the only time that she has done so since the days of John the Baptist. And she persuades her husband to go to Rome and to bring the matter before Caligula and to ask Caligula to get rid of Agrippa, the brother who is no good, and to give him the tetrarchy on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. So they go to Rome but have to go down to the Bay of Naples where Caligula has his summer home and have an audience with him.

Agrippa knew what was going on. He had been watching his uncle very carefully across the Sea of Galilee and he noticed that Antipas had an armoury, and inside was enough armour and weapons to equip seventy thousand soldiers. And so without going to Rome himself Agrippa writes a letter and sends it by his faithful servant. And right in the middle of when Caligula is talking to Antipas, and Antipas is giving all the reasons why he should be taking over all of the lands on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and why he ought to take over the whole area and become the client king of Rome, the servant of Agrippa arrives bearing the letter to Caligula. Caligula, because he loves Agrippa so much, stops everything right in the middle of the audience and opens up this letter from Agrippa. As he reads it he looks up and he says to Antipas: “Do you have an armoury with enough weapons and equipment to handle seventy thousand men?” And without thinking Antipas said: “Yes.”

` Now the implication was that because he had this armoury he was getting ready to line up with the Parthians on the other side of the Euphrates river, Rome’s great enemy. Agrippa had suggested that this was why he had this armoury. So Caligula turns to Antipas and said: “You have just admitted that you are getting ready to line up with the Parthians. You are not only not going to get the tetrarchy on the other side of the Sea of Galilee but you are through as of now.” And right then and there he stripped Antipas of everything. He lost his fortune, his kingdom, and he was banished into Spain where he died. Herodias went with him and they died a long way from Palestine, they never went back. Twice in the history of their relationship Herodias had interfered, and it is interesting that God punished Herod and Herodias by exactly the same way in which they had destroyed John the Baptist. And just when it looked as though they were getting the entire kingdom they lost everything and they died in poverty. So this is the sequel of what we have in our passage, the first of several sequels.

At the same time Caligula did something else. He gave the land on both sides of the Sea of Galilee to Agrippa, and under Claudius eventually he is also given the southern portion as well, and Agrippa the First winds up with almost the same amount of territory that Herod the Great, his grandfather had owned. This is the same person who is called Herod in Acts chapter twelve who was responsible for killing James and some of the Christians in Jerusalem. And the reason he sought to kill James and some of the Christians in Jerusalem is because he was trying to please the Jews. The Jews were down on the Church in Jerusalem. And the first persecution and the greatest persecution that came to the Church in those early days, recorded in Acts 12, came from Agrippa, called Herod. He is the one who as the result of the prayers of other believers died when he was making a great speech honouring the emperor Claudius.

Verse 11 — when Salome brought the head of John the Baptist to her mother she sealed the doom of the family. Instead of ever ruling this part of the family would be removed from Palestine forever and would die in poverty.

Verse 12 — “And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.”

Verse 13 — “When Jesus heard of it he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.” When it says that Jesus departed by ship to a desert place it meant that He crossed the Sea of Galilee to the desert place, Bathsaida. Where is this desert place located? Jesus has been ministering in Capernaum in Galilee, but this is the tetrarchy of Antipas. Antipas has just killed John the Baptist. Jesus leaves the area of Antipas and He moves to the area of Philip. Philip was as wonderful as his brother Antipas was horrible. So for the moment, because of what Antipas has done, Jesus removes Himself because He has sealed the doom of this area and He now goes to minister across the Sea of Galilee to the area on the other side. Antipas was still given one more chance to be saved, and under the grace of God if he had taken it he would not have died penniless and miserable, he would have lived to enjoy the great kingdom he desired. And this is how it happened:

Luke 23:4 — “Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man” — referring to Jesus.

Verse 5 — “And they were the more fierce, saying, he stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.” Beginning from Galilee immediately struck a chord with Pontius Pilate the procurator. Herod Antipas was down in Jerusalem for the Passover for he observed all the Jewish feasts. He is the tetrarch of Galilee and since he is in town Pontius Pilate turns Jesus over the Herod the tetrarch and this was his great chance. Antipas and Herodias had come down to observe the Passover which speaks of Jesus Christ on the cross. They had been faced years ago with John the Baptist and now they face the one who was the theme of the messages of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ; they face the only saviour.

Verse 6 — “When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilaean.

Verse 7 — “And as soon as he heard that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time.”

Verse 8 —“And when Herod saw Jesus. Here is the great opportunity. This is the time when he could have been saved. This was his last chance to be born again, and little does he know it as he is standing there but everything, his kingdom, his future for eternity, his future for time, is on the line. This is the grace of God, he gets one more chance. He muffed it in the case of John the Baptist but the grace of God reaches out to the worst type of character and the grace of God is reaching out at this moment to Antipas. But Antipas isn’t interested in eternal salvation, Antipas is interested in what he was interested in when he ran off with Herodias; all he wants is a little fun. He hears that Jesus is a magician, and he hears that Jesus can perform miracles, and instead of being concerned for his eternal salvation all he wants is entertainment; “he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season.” He hadn’t seen Him for a long time because Jesus had been operating on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and had spent relatively little time in Galilee after the tenth chapter of Matthew; “because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him.” That is all he wanted, a miracle. And yet the greatest miracle could have been performed if he had at that moment listened to the message of Jesus and received Him as his personal saviour. And it would have changed the whole course of the history of Palestine, and it would have changed for Herod the tetrarch the whole course of his life. For very shortly after this he is going to lose his kingdom as he and Herodias go to Rome to try to persuade Caligula to give him everything.

Verse 9 — “Then he questioned with him in many words.” What did he ask Him? Perform a miracle? And Jesus remembers how he treated John the Baptist, and so “he answered him nothing.”

Verse 10 — in this courtroom are the chief priests and the scribes. They stood “and vehemently accused him.”

Verse 11 — “And Herod,” who always tried to show favour with the Jews, “with his men of war.” When Herod left his tetrarchy he always took soldiers when he went south to Jerusalem; “set him at nought,” they ridiculed Him; “and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.” And here is the tragedy of Antipas. God in His matchless grace offered him every chance to be saved, even though he had done the most dastardly things, even though he was a very cruel man, even though he committed many crimes, even though he did all of these things God was willing to save him. Above all this man had ambition and he wanted to have the same kingdom that his father Herod the Great had possessed. He wanted all of it, and he missed it by the rejection of Christ. And that isn’t all. Not only did he miss getting the kingdom of his father Herod the Great but he missed something infinitely more valuable, he missed the kingdom of God. He had every chance from the time of John the Baptist to this moment and he muffed it. And from this point on he goes down. He goes to Rome, he tries to persuade Caligula to let him have the whole works, and he spent the rest of his life in exile, starving to death with his wife Herodias. Both of them died miserably in poverty when both of them could have ruled a great kingdom and could have lived forever in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Missed opportunity.
Now, the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is King — in and out of focus. The issue in the rest of this chapter is, Can those who are His disciples keep their eyes on the Lord? It is the principle of occupation with the person of Christ as over against getting your eyes on other things. And in the remainder of the chapter we have two tests. They are different tests but they have one purpose in mind. Can the believer keep his eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ?

Verse 13 — the circumstances for the first test. “When Jesus heard of it [the death of John the Baptist], he departed thence into a ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.” In the first twelve verses of this chapter we see what happens when people have the opportunity to believe and do not. The first obvious thing is that they ruin their lives. Not only are they ruined for eternity but their lives are ruined and spoiled in time. In the remainder of the chapter we see what happens to believers when they do not keep their eyes on the Lord. They miss some of the great blessings of this life.

It says that Jesus departed and again the whole picture is the Sea of Galilee. We have on one side the kingdom of Antipas, the kingdom of Galilee and Peraea. On the other side of the Sea of Galilee we have the kingdom of his step brother, Philip. Philip ruled his kingdom very well. He was probably the best of all of the children of Herod the Great. On the other hand we have the kingdom of Antipas and it suffered many difficulties because of Antipas and his wife Herodias. Now Jesus crosses the sea to Julia [Bethsaida] first of all, at that point because of what Antipas had done, and because of the attitude of the people in the kingdom of Antipas he went over to give people another chance. And the people who were most interested left the kingdom of Antipas and they followed Him on foot, which means they had to travel the long way around the land way which goes around the northern part of the Sea of Galilee. So He departed and moved in the area of Philip because this was by far the most stabilised area in Palestine at the time.

“into a desert place apart.” This desert place is well known, it is not far from Bethsaida, in fact it is just a few miles away.

Verse 14 — the Lord Jesus Christ presents His credentials. “And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.” This compassion is based on two very interesting things. First of all, the people who came to this desert place (no one lived in this area) comprised people who had all kinds of sicknesses. And when Jesus saw all of these people straggling in, some crawling, some being carried, and when He saw the tremendous effort they had made in order to get there, He immediately had compassion on them and He began to heal them.

Immediately we have a problem here. The compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ is much deeper than appears on the surface. If you and I had been standing there and watching these people straggle in, staggering, hurt, worn out, practically crawling up these mountain paths after having walked many many miles, we would probably feel very sorry for these people. But that isn’t the compassion that Jesus had. It was a much deeper thing than that. His compassion was based upon the fact that these were people who without salvation were going to spend eternity in the lake of fire, and while their suffering was intense it was absolutely nothing compared to the fantastic suffering of the eternal lake of fire. His compassion is based upon eternal suffering rather than temporal suffering. Because of that Jesus healed them, not simply to make them well because once you make people well what have you accomplished? Assume that after that they have maybe ten or fifteen years or even in some cases fifty years of good health. Then they will die. What happens after death is what counts. Without believing in Jesus Christ and without receiving Him as personal saviour they have had it. Even if a person feels healthy and wonderful for fifty years, what is that compared to spending eternity in the lake of fire? So all of these people, apart from personal salvation, are headed for an eternity of suffering. And so His compassion is based not upon the suffering of time but based upon their status in eternity apart from personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So He healed them, not to alleviate human suffering (though this is involved) but he healed them in order that they might listen to His message and be eternally saved. The alleviation of suffering was secondary; the message of the gospel was primary. Healing was a credit card establishing the person of Christ as the unique person of the universe, the God-Man, the only saviour. Every time that Jesus healed and very time a miracle was performed during the apostolic age the purpose was to focus attention on Jesus Christ.

Now with Jesus are His disciples and there is no record of any of the disciples ever being healed by the Lord Jesus. The disciples stand there on one foot and then on the other until they get tired, and then they sit down. And all they see all day long is the same old monotonous thing: people being healed. All of this indicates a principle. Jesus has two things in mind here. In the multitudes are unbelievers and the unbelievers need Christ. But also there are eleven born again disciples and the disciples need occupation with Christ. The people who have been healed need above all to hear the gospel; the believers need occupation with Christ.

Here is a great lesson for the believers and actually the message does not follow through and tell what happened to all these people. The amazing thing is that we have in verse 14 the fact that He healed them and that is all there is to it, and from then on it is the disciples. The issue is: Disciples, are you occupied with Christ or not? The big issue is not all of these people, it is: Can a believer who has been listening to doctrine for months, for years, keep his eyes on the Lord under testing or not? And the issue for the rest of this passage is occupation with the person of Christ.

The disciples had been watching Jesus heal people all day. In watching they are supposed to be learning something. When you look at a person like Jesus Christ and all day long He heals every person who comes before Him, what do you think of? Well, you think He is God, and He is. And you realise that He is omnipotent and you begin to think, then, in terms of the essence box. These disciples should have been doing some thinking. Jesus’ omnipotence goes into action and He heals these people so that His veracity can go into action and He can give them truth. In this case the truth is the gospel, and the gospel is the means of salvation. In fact the scene that day was loaded with doctrine and the disciples ought to be thinking. And the first thing they should have been thinking was that it is wonderful to be the disciple of the Lord because there isn’t anything He can’t do, He can do everything. He can handle any problem that I have whether it is a big problem or a little problem.

Verse 15 — we are introduced to the impossible situation. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” In other words, Jesus said on that occasion that man doesn’t live by food, he lives by doctrine. The disciples had become hungry and instead of having their eyes on the Lord they had their eyes on food.

“And when it was evening,” Jesus had been performing miracles all day, “his disciples came to him, saying [present linear aktionsart: they kept on saying], This is a desert place.” The disciples had their mind on their condition. Obviously, if Jesus Christ is God it isn’t going to be any problem to provide food, and all they had to do was to remember the children of Israel in the desert; “and the time is now past.” There isn’t a thing that can be done, the nearest town is far away, it is too late, “send them away, that.” “That” introduces a purpose clause; “they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” So the disciples have come to Jesus and when they come they indicate immediately that He the King is out of focus. They have not focused in on the Lord Jesus Christ; they have their eyes on circumstances. And having their eyes on circumstances the best thing they can do is recognise that a problem exists, and that is as far as you can go when you have your eyes on circumstances. But because they had their eyes on circumstances instead of on the Lord who has been performing miracles all day they didn’t realise that the Lord can solve any problem, whether it is loss of health or lack of food. They should have concluded that the one who performs one kind of miracle can perform any miracle.

Verse 16 — the challenge to apply what they know. “But Jesus said unto them.” The word “said” is aorist tense, He just said it once (they kept on saying; He said it once). “They need not depart; give ye them to eat” — you give them to eat now. Jesus is challenging them to become occupied with Him, to get Him in focus. He is challenging them to use the faith-rest technique, for the faith-rest technique used continuously under pressure leads to occupation with the person of Christ — 1 Peter 1:7,8. So occupation with Christ is a result of the continual use of the faith-rest technique in time of pressure and in time of testing. So this is a challenge to them to apply doctrine, the doctrine they have observed all day — essence box, omnipotence, and so on. Secondly, it is a challenge to them to believe His Word, and it isn’t in writing here, they are standing and listening to it, and He tells them once, just once: “Don’t send them away; give them food.”

Verse 17 — “And they say unto him,” they kept on saying. “We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.” They are all in panic over this thing, because there are may be ten thousand people out there and they only have five loaves and two fishes. They look at the situation as being hopeless and the reason they do is that they are not viewing the situation from the divine viewpoint, no doctrine in the frontal lobe, no doctrine applied, no operation faith-rest technique, no occupation with the person of Christ. And, obviously, from the human viewpoint five loaves and two fishes is not enough to feed five thousand men plus women and children. The battle is the Lord’s.

So let’s make an analogy to you as a believer. You have a personality (whether it is pleasing or not is inconsequential) you have some talents, human abilities. You are a person who is born again and maybe you look at yourself and you say: I can’t do this and I can’t do that, etc. But it isn’t who and what we are. The disciples had what might be called assets, and the assets include five loaves of bread and two fishes. On the other side of the fence we have five thousand men plus women and children. To the disciples it looked a hopeless situation. And it is a hopeless situation as far as we are concerned. We have certain human abilities, whatever they happen to be, but they are nothing. But in the hands of the Lord they become usable when they are linked with divine power, when they are hooked up with Bible doctrine, then they become usable. That is the principle that is involved here. These disciples do not have the assets to feed the multitudes but it is the power of God, the same power which has been demonstrated all day, and instead of understanding what is going on and applying it to the situation, even though they themselves have been watching for hours the great power of God, they have failed to meet the situation.

Verse 18 — the Lord uses the assets on hand. “He said, Bring them hither to me,” the five loaves and the two fishes. In the meantime, if you are going to feed a crowd you have to organise a crowd …

Verse 19 — “And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up toward heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.” In other words, He kept breaking off the bread and handing it out. And the twelve disciples went out and served all of these people.

Jesus multiplied the five loaves and the two fish. The principle behind this: multiplication comes from giving. What did the disciples do? They gave, they gave, they gave … and as long as they were giving there was more to come. The kept on giving. And the food did not stop until they stopped giving, and they didn’t stop giving until everyone was satisfied. There is the principle of grace involved here. When you are giving, giving, giving, — for example, the Word — it never stops coming. When you are operating under the principle of grace there is no end to the assets, but as soon as you switch over to legalism everything dries up. Of course the principle is that the believer can only operate under the principle of grace.

Verses 20,21, the results.

Verse 20 — “And they did all eat, and were filled.” The food is quite simple: bread and fish. A remarkable thing about the food is that it appealed to everyone; “and they were all filled.” The word for “filled” means satisfied. And the disciples had to gather up the remnants. It is interesting that the remnants of the banquet for ten thousand came to twelve full baskets. There were twelve disciples and each one had a basket completely filled.

Verse 21 — “And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.” Notice that is says at the end of verse 20, “twelve baskets full,” one basket for each disciple. And, of course, the full basket in a picture of the grace of God. By way of application, when you give out the Word and keep on giving it more comes to you, you always have a full frontal lobe. The word “full” at the end of verse 20 means abounding, not just full but overflowing. The word “beside” in this verse means plus in our language, “plus women and children.”

Twelve full baskets left over and now what are the disciples going to do? They are going to take their twelve full baskets and climb aboard a boat and go back across the Sea of Galilee. And with their full baskets beside them they are going to get their second test. First test: they get to watch Jesus perform miracles all day. Now Jesus puts them on a boat and sends them back across the sea, and out in the middle of the sea there is a storm. And what do they have to remind them this time of the Lord, and to keep Him in focus? Each one has a basket overloaded with food and all he has to do out in the storm is just look at that basket and relax.

Verse 22 — “And straightway [immediately] Jesus constrained his disciples.” He compelled His disciples; “to get into a ship, and to go before [precede] him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.”

Verse 23 — “And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when evening was come, he was there alone.” We have in these two verses a beautiful analogy of the Church Age. In the sending away of the disciples, the disciples are in the boat and they are without the Lord. And this is a picture of the Church Age when Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The disciples in the boat are like believers in the Church Age, they can no longer see Jesus personally so they must see Him … how? Each one had a basket full of food; that is how they see Him. And that is the way we are today; we cannot personally see Jesus Christ because He is at the right hand of the Father, He is in heaven. But each one of us has a basket full of food — doctrine. And the principle is that occupation with Christ depends on knowing doctrine. Occupation with Christ is not some emotional activity, not some system of self-hypnosis, etc. Occupation with Christ comes through doctrine.

So focus depends on doctrine and the disciples are still carrying these baskets. While they are down on the sea it starts out to be smooth and it gets rough. This is a picture of our life on this earth. Sometimes it is smooth and sometimes it is rough, but whether it is smooth or rough each one has a basket, each one has the Bible, the Word, doctrine.

In heaven Jesus Christ is doing something for us. Hebrews 7:25 tells us, “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” And so in verse 23 we have the other side of the picture. In the Church Age believers on the earth represent Christ; in heaven Christ represents us. It says He went up into the mountain [picture of heaven] to pray — aorist active infinitive. The infinitive denotes purpose and the point is that Jesus Christ prays for us.

Verse 24 — “But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves.” This illustrates the principle of testing for us as believers; “for the wind was contrary.”

Verse 25 — “And in the fourth watch,” between 3 and 6 am, “Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.” So now they see Him approaching, and this again is a miracle.

Verse 26 — “And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were upset, saying [kept on saying], It is a spirit.” The Greek word translated “spirit” here is fantisma, which can be translated phantom or ghost, but not spirit; “and they cried out for fear [literally: they screamed from — a)po, the preposition of ultimate source] — “fear.” The ultimate source of their scream was fear and once again the King is out of focus.

Verse 27 — Jesus identifies Himself. “But immediately Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer.” But that isn’t what He said at all. He said: Keep on having confidence. “It is I; stop being afraid.”

Verse 28 — “And Peter answered him and said, Lord.” Now someone is on the right track. “Lord” is the Greek word kurioj, and it means deity. He recognises Jesus as God; “if it be thou” — first class condition: if and it is. It could be translated: “Since it is you, bid me come unto thee on the water.”

Peter was the only one who took the Lord seriously when He said, Keep on having confidence.

Verse 29 — “And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water.” He didn’t sink. Peter had confidence, albeit short term! And there are eleven disciples back in the boat, clutching their baskets, and not one of them demonstrated even a little confidence. Peter had confidence, and this is why he became a great man. Peter always started out well and then fell flat on his face but the nice thing about Peter is that he never stopped, he never gave up. And by the time he wrote his epistles he was a great believer, one of the greatest. The point is: don’t let your mistakes keep you down. Don’t stand around and be a cry-baby. Peter did something that the other disciples did not do, he climbed over the gunwales of the boat and he started walking on the water. So he did have confidence. And he would have gone on walking on the water except for one thing: he took his eyes off the Lord. As long as he kept his eyes on the Lord he kept on top of the water and when he took his eyes off the Lord, down he went. That is the way it is with us. We have confidence until we take our eyes off the Lord and we get them onto the waves of life — people, self, things, circumstances — and down we go.

Verse 30 — “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, Lord, save me.”

Verse 31 — And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said to him, O thou of little faith.” Notice: He actually said, O thou of ‘a’ little faith, not “thou of little faith. He had a little faith [little faith-rest] and his faith-rest kept him on top until he got his eyes off the Lord. Peter had a little faith-rest at this point; the rest of the disciples in the boat were minus faith-rest, they didn’t get out at all.

“why did you doubt?” When did he start to doubt? He was actually walking on the water and he didn’t doubt until the miracle hit. And it is an interesting thing: when you are sitting in the boat, what keeps you from sinking? The planks on which you sit. When you get out of the boat, what keeps you from sinking? Doctrine.

Verse 32 — By the time the Lord and Peter were back in the boat the storm was over. The storm is to test believers.

Verse 33 — “And then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth [doctrinally] thou art the Son of God.” The amazing thing is that they didn’t say it yesterday after the many hours of healing, after they had spent the whole evening waiting on people and feeding them. But that “phantom” thing got to them!

Verse 34 — “And when they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret”

Verse 35 — “And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all the country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased;

Verse 36 — “And kept on beseeching him that they only might touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.”

Principle: They begged him to touch the garment. It isn’t necessary; He could have healed them, but they specified the manner in which they wanted to be healed. The people of Gennesaret did a very strange thing. Instead of just coming and saying, Heal me, they said let us touch your garments. Had they just said, Heal me, He would have healed them. But when you dictate to the Lord how you want it done someone gets left out, and only those who touched the hem of His garment were healed.

Instead of asking for the Lord to heal [essence box applied] they thought of healing in terms of having to touch something. So they brought in hocus pocus, and when they did they limited the people who were healed. And there is a limitation on the power of God today because of a lot of hocus pocus in churches, and by failure to recognise that the power is in the Word, not in a lot of gimmicks.

And so we wind up this chapter with a limited manifestation of God’s power because they told Him how to do it.