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The True Sign
This chapter is based on Matthew 15:29-39; 16:1-12; Mark 7:31-37;
8:1-21.
In Decapolis, where Jesus had healed the demon-possessed men
of Gergesa, the people had insisted that Jesus leave. But they had
listened to the messengers He left behind. As He came into that
region again, a crowd gathered, and a deaf, stammering man was
brought to Him. Taking him aside, Jesus put His fingers in his
ears and touched his tongue. He sighed when He thought of the
ears that would not be open to the truth, the tongues that refused
to acknowledge the Redeemer. At the command, “Be opened,” the
man’s speech was restored.
Jesus went up on a mountain, and there the crowds flocked to
Him, bringing their sick and lame. He healed them all; and the
people, though they were heathen, glorified the God of Israel. For
three days they swarmed around the Savior, sleeping at night in the
open air, and through the day pressing close to hear the words of
Christ and see His works.
At the end of three days, their food was gone. Jesus would not
send them away hungry, and He called on His disciples to give them
food. At Bethsaida they had seen how their small supply of food
became enough to feed the large crowd, yet they did not bring all
they had to Him now, trusting His power to multiply it for the hungry
crowds. Again the disciples revealed their unbelief. The people He
fed at Bethsaida were Jews; these were Gentiles and heathen. Jewish
prejudice was still strong in the disciples’ hearts. “Where could we
get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”
But obedient to His word, they brought Him what they had—
seven loaves and two fish. He fed the multitude, and they had seven
large baskets of fragments remaining. Four thousand men, besides
women and children, were refreshed in this way.
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