Miracles and Multitudes ~ Part 4

In our last post, we began a new topic entitled Miracles and Multitudes. This post as we look at more Miracles and Multitudes.

Discourse On The Bread of Life ~ Part 1

We pick up where we left off last time, beginning again with Yochanan 6:24.

²⁴ Accordingly, when the crowd saw that neither Yeshua nor His talmidim were there, they themselves boarded the boats and made for K’far-Nachum in search of Yeshua. ²⁵ When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” ²⁶ Yeshua answered, “Yes, indeed! I tell you, you’re not looking for Me because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the bread and had all you wanted! ²⁷ Don’t work for the food which passes away but for the food that stays on into eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For this is the one on whom God the Father has put His seal.”

Beginning with verse 26 and continuing through 71 (which we will be reviewing over the next several posts), the crowd’s attitude generates Yeshua’s lengthy discourse. Miraculous signs should awaken the consciousness of God, but these people are conscious only of their own physical needs. The food which passes away and the food that stays on into eternal life are opposites and constitute the theme of Yeshua’s remarks.

²⁸ So they said to him, “What should we do in order to perform the works of God?” ²⁹ Yeshua answered, “Here’s what the work of God is: to trust in the one he sent!”

What should we do in order to perform the works of God? The people are probably not asking how to do miracles but how to please God. Nevertheless, Yeshua’s answer surprises them.

³⁰ They said to Him, “Nu (then), what miracle will you do for us, so that we may see it and trust you? What work can you perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate man in the desert – as it says in the Tanakh, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’³² Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! I tell you, it wasn’t Moshe who gave you the bread from heaven. But my Father is giving you the genuine bread from heaven;

What miracle will you do? A strange question for people who have just seen Him do one (vv. 10–14). But they seem set on diminishing its importance by presenting one equally great or greater: Our fathers ate manna in the desert; (see Exodus 16:4, 15; Numbers 11:8; Psalm 105:40). Yeshua corrects His questioners’ explanation of the Tanakh – they think he refers to Moshe, but Yeshua says its antecedent is my Father, God.

³³ for God’s bread is the one who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ They said to Him, “Sir, give us this bread from now on.” ³⁵ Yeshua answered, “I am the bread which is life! Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever trusts in Me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ I told you that you have seen but still don’t trust.

You have seen but still don’t trust. Their sin is all the more significant for this refusal to trust Yeshua.

³⁷ Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I will certainly not turn away.

Everyone the Father gives me will come to me … whoever comes to me, I will certainly not turn away. This is as forthright a statement of the paradox of predestination and free will as can be found. The Father has given certain people to Yeshua. How do I find out if I am one of them? By coming to Yeshua, I have free will and can choose to come, and I have Yeshua’s word that He will not turn me away. Some claim that the Brit Hadashah faith is exclusivist, but we see that Yeshua is available universally (see Romans 10:11–13).

³⁸ For I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of the one who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of the one who sent Me: that I should not lose any of all those He has given Me but should raise them up on the Last Day. ⁴⁰ Yes, this is the will of My Father: that all who see the Son and trust in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise them up on the Last Day.” ¹

In our next post, we will continue examining the Miracles and Multitudes series beginning in Yochanan 6:25.

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¹ Yochanan 6:25–40.