Yeshua’s Extensive Tour throughout Galil ~ Part 23

Our last post looked at The Faith of a Woman from Kena’an. This post explores Yeshua Heals a Deaf-Mute and the Feeding of the Four Thousand.

Yeshua Heals a Deaf-Mute

Yeshua leaves Tzor and Tzidon and returns to Galil. Wherever Yeshua went, He brought physical and spiritual restoration.

³¹ Then, He left the district of Tzor and went through Tzidon to Lake Kinneret and on to the region of the Ten Towns. (Decapolis)

Yeshua preached far and wide to Galilean and Judean Jews and the remnant people of Isra’el, who by this time had resettled in the Hellenistic regions of Tzor, Tzidon, and the Ten Cities.

³² They brought Him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and asked Yeshua to lay His hand on him. ³³ Taking him off alone, away from the crowd, Yeshua put His fingers into the man’s ears, spat, and touched his tongue; ³⁴ then, looking up to heaven, He gave a deep groan and said to him, “Hippatach!” (that is, “Be opened!”). ³⁵ His ears were opened, his tongue was freed, and he began speaking clearly. ³⁶ Yeshua ordered the people to tell no one, but the more He insisted, the more zealously they spread the news. ³⁷ People were overcome with amazement. “Everything He does, He does well!” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear, and the dumb speak!” ^{[1] 30} Large crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others. They laid them at His feet, and He healed them. ³¹ The people were amazed as they saw mute people speaking, crippled people cured, lame people walking, and blind people seeing, and they said a b’rakhah (blessing) to the God of Isra’el. ^[2]

The Feeding of the Four Thousand

This passage presents the second mass feeding in Mattityahu’s Gospel. This account mirrors Mattityahu 14:13–21. Mattityahu does not provide a location, but the parallel account in Mark 8:1–10 appears to be set in the Decapolis, a Gentile region (Mark 7:31).

 ³² Yeshua called His talmidim to Him and said, “I feel sorry for these people because they have been with me three days, and now they have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry because they might collapse on the way home.” ³³ The talmidim said to Him, “Where will we find enough loaves of bread in this remote place to satisfy so big a crowd?” ³⁴ Yeshua asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven and a few fish.” ³⁵ After telling the crowd to sit down on the ground, ³⁶ He took the seven loaves and the fish, made a b’rakhah, broke the loaves, and gave them to the talmidim, who gave them to the people. ³⁷ Everyone ate his fill, and they took seven large baskets full of the leftover pieces. ³⁸ Those eating numbered four thousand men, plus women and children. ³⁹ After sending the crowd away, He got in the boat and went off to the region of Magadan. ^[3]

In our next post, we will continue to examine Yeshua’s Extensive Ministry Throughout the Galil when the P’rushim Ask for a Sign.

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^[1] Mark 7:31–37.
^[2] Mattityahu 15:30–31.
^[3] Mattityahu 15:32–39.