Author: Charlie Garrett

Sunday, 23 November 2025

So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Matthew 14:20

Note: You can listen to today’s commentary courtesy of our friends at the “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen)

You can also read this commentary, scrolling with music, courtesy of our friends at “Discern the Bible” on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).

“And they ate all, and they gorged, and they lifted the superabounding pieces – twelve handbaskets full” (CG).

In the previous verse, Jesus prayed over the bread and fish and gave them to the disciples. They, in turn, gave to the multitudes. Now, after the people were satisfied, it says, “And they ate all, and they gorged.”

It is an amazing sentiment. From five small loaves and two small fish, the entire multitude ate to the point of being gorged! The word, chortazó, to gorge, has only been seen one time so far –

“Blessed – those famishing and thirsting righteousness,
For they – they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6

These multitudes had rushed around the Sea of Galilee while Jesus took the boat across, anxious to hear more from Him. This was in the morning, and they had stayed until later in the day, not focusing on food, but on the powerful words of Jesus.

Certainly, they were famishing and thirsting for righteousness. And by the time they were done, they had received His miracles, His healings, His words of righteousness, and a feast on which they gorged themselves to satisfaction! With the feeding complete, Matthew next records, “and they lifted the superabounding fragments.”

John 6:12 adds, “So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.’” The disciples were told to go around and gather up anything left over from the meal. The word klasma, a piece or fragment, is introduced here. It is derived from the verb klaó of the previous verse, which referred to Jesus breaking the bread after having blessed it.

Jesus had broken these small loaves and fishes. From there, they were handed out to the people, as much as they could eat. After that, there were broken leftovers scattered throughout the multitudes, which the disciples then went and collected. Having done this, it next says the result was “twelve handbaskets full.”

Another new word is seen, kophinos, a small basket. The derivation of the word is unknown, but Ellicott, citing Juvenal, “describes the Jews of Italy as travelling with ‘their cophinus and a wisp of hay,’ by way of pillow, as their only luggage.” Thus, it was certainly a small basket used for carrying things as one traveled.

There were enough bread fragments lying around to fill twelve of these.

Life application: The account concerning the feeding of the multitudes is plain, clear, and sufficiently detailed to leave little room for speculation on what occurred. How it occurred, meaning how the bread was multiplied, is something we don’t know. It happened, and it was miraculous.

Having said that, here are a couple of the ways people have tried to dismiss the miracle, as cited from Myers’ New Testament Commentary –

“To explain away the miracle, as Paulus has done (who thinks that the hospitable example of Jesus may have induced the people to place at His disposal the provisions they had brought along with them; … is inconsistent with the accounts of all the evangelists, and especially with that of the eye-witness John.”

“Schenkel thinks he sees his way to an explanation by supposing what is scarcely possible, viz. that Jesus fed the multitude with a rich supply of the bread of life from heaven, which caused them to forget their ordinary food, though at the same time He devoutly consecrated for their use the provisions which they had brought with them, or had managed to procure for the present emergency.”

These and other excuses they reference for how the miracle can be dismissed have no basis in any reality. There is nothing in the biblical account to justify a word of what they claim. In other words, simply to dismiss the miraculous nature of what it clearly and precisely recorded, these false scholars insert nonsense into what the Bible presents, making things up out of their own demented heads.

Be careful when reading commentaries. The intent of many of them is to attempt to sound smart and educated while tearing apart what Scripture clearly presents. There are times when translations miss the mark on properly presenting what is detailed in the manuscripts, but outside of translations by several cults, these are not usually intentional perversions of reality.

Hold fast to what the Bible says. Accept that God can do the miraculous and that when He does, it is to make a point for us to understand what He is doing in the stream of time to reveal His caring affection for His people as displayed in the sending of Jesus to bring us back to Himself.

Lord God, help us to be people of faith, not attempting to outsmart You and what is recorded in Your word. Give us wisdom to accept what it says about creation, the fall of man, the process of redemption, the presentation of miracles, and all other things recorded there, taking them at face value. You are God. Your word is truth. May we accept this, reveling in what is recorded there. Amen.

Saturday, 22 November 2025

Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. Matthew 14:19

Note: You can listen to today’s commentary courtesy of our friends at the “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen).

You can also read this commentary, scrolling with music, courtesy of our friends at “Discern the Bible” on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).

“And having commanded the crowds to recline upon the grass, having taken the five loaves and the two fish, having up-looked to the heaven, He blessed, and having broken, He gave to the disciples the loaves, and the disciples to the crowds” (CG).

In the previous verse, Jesus instructed the disciples to bring the loaves and fish to Him. The narrative continues, saying, “And having commanded the crowds to recline upon the grass.”

The people were probably walking around, standing in groups, some deciding it was time to leave and preparing for that, etc. In order to bring a sense of order to the event, the masses were instructed to sit. Mark adds –

“Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties.” Mark 6:39, 40

Luke says, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty” (Luke 9:14). This would allow for an easier counting of the people and a more harmonious time among the groups. One large group would lead to a state of chaos as people shouted back and forth about whatever was on their minds. With the people arranged, Matthew continues, “having taken the five loaves and the two fish.”

The contents of the verse are given in rapid succession. Several clauses begin with participles and have no conjunction to join them. In the previous verse, Jesus had said in response to the disciples’ statement concerning the desolate nature of the place, “You carry to Me here – them.” He was preparing to reveal that, despite the desolateness of the area, there is an abundance to be found in Him. He prepares to reveal this by taking the loaves and fish, and “having up-looked to the heaven, He blessed.”

The standard prayer over bread is, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has brought forth bread from the earth.” This is probably at least a part of what was said by Jesus as He blessed the food. Once that was done, “and having broken, He gave to the disciples the loaves.”

This final clause of Jesus’ actions includes a conjunction at the beginning of it as a means of summing up the narrative. A new word is seen here, klaó, to break. In the New Testament, it is always used in connection with the breaking of bread. The bread would have been without yeast, making it harder cakes instead of loaves. Thus, the bread would be broken instead of torn or cut.

With this accomplished, the words finish with, “and the disciples to the crowds.” This would have been a moment none of them would ever forget, even if they failed to understand the matter fully (see Matthew 16:8-12). They presented Jesus with the paltry bit of food available among them, and now they were passing out pieces of that food to thousands of people hungrily sitting along the slopes, waiting to be fed.

Life application: It may be hard to get our minds around the event being described by Matthew, but it is not unprecedented for so much food to appear as it did. In the wanderings of Israel, enough manna was provided each day to feed several million people. This continued on for forty years.

One may dismiss that as some type of allegory or hyperbole, but Jesus spoke of the matter as a fact in John 6. The people of Israel spoke to Jesus as if the account was reliable. Jesus’ words confirmed that.

It is as common as raindrops in a thunderstorm for people to dismiss the early creation account and the miracles found throughout Scripture, as if they didn’t happen as stated. However, that is what faith is about. It is believing what we do not see, accepting such things as true and reliable despite the standard way things work in the world around us.

If there is a God, He is capable of doing things in a certain way, and then He is reliable to give us an accurate rendering of what He has done.

Our salvation may not be conditioned upon accepting whether God actually created in six days or not, but our rewards will be. If we dismiss the word, it is a demonstration of a lack of faith in the credibility of God, who gave us the word. Hearing and believing the gospel is what saves.

So ask yourself, which is more incredible, that God could create all things in six days as well as feed Israel with manna in the wilderness for forty years, or that a man being executed on a cross, was then interred, and then He came out of the tomb on the third day, alive forevermore?

If you believed the gospel, as incredible as it sounds, why should you struggle over the lesser things that God proclaims as fact? Have faith and be reckoned not just as God’s redeemed, but of those who fully trust God in everything associated with His word.

Lord God, Your word makes many claims that we cannot verify. However, we can accept them by faith, believing that even the incredible and miraculous are possible when it comes from You. May our faith be strong and sure in what Your word states until the day we are brought into Your presence to revel in who You are forever and ever. Amen.

Friday, 21 November 2025

He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Matthew 14:18

Note: You can listen to today’s commentary courtesy of our friends at the “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen).

You can also read this commentary, scrolling with music, courtesy of our friends at “Discern the Bible” on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).

“And He said, ‘You carry to Me here – them.’” (CG).

In the previous verse, the disciples said to Jesus that they only had five loaves and two fish. Matthew next records, “And He said, ‘You carry to Me here – them.’” These words are only found in Matthew. Elsewhere, it notes that these were carried by a young boy and were comprised of five loaves of barley along with the two small fish.

Notice how Jesus rephrases their words –

¹⁷ And they, they say to Him, “Not we have here [hóde], if not five loaves and two fish.”

¹⁸ And He said, “You carry to Me here [hóde] – them.”

Their stress is on the word here. The rest of their sentence fills in details that they consider to be diminutive and unsatisfactory for any grand purpose. Jesus, on the other hand, indicates they are of prime importance. In essence, “You say you have nothing here capable of tending to these people. In contrast, I say, ‘Bring that insufficiency here to Me. I will show you how sufficient it really is.’”

Life application: In the previous commentary, it was noted that “there is nothing to prohibit God from producing abundance out of that which appears to be lacking. We may not understand the mechanics of how He caused a bit of bread and a couple of fish to reproduce in such an astonishing manner, but that does not mean He violated the principles of logic or nature in order to accomplish this feat.”

Someone may balk at this thought and say that such is not the case, citing Lomonosov’s law of conservation of mass, which states that for any system that is closed to all incoming and outgoing transfers of matter, the mass of the system must remain constant over time.

The thought might be, “If there were only the seven little bite-sized pieces of food, how could so much come from it?” It had to come from somewhere, and if it didn’t exist before, God must have created it right then and there. But that would then supposedly contradict the idea of the six days of creation, where all mass was formed at the beginning.

But how limited is that thinking! Who would expect that a small amount of material could produce a nuclear explosion? If the rules of the universe allowed scientists to mentally develop such an idea even before testing it, there may be some process that Jesus used to produce His miracle that we do not yet understand.

At the time of the feeding of the multitude, Jesus was asking His disciples to have faith that He was capable of bringing food, in abundance, out of a seemingly insignificant amount. That faith is requested of us even to this day. We hear of the miracle and are asked to believe it, accepting that what is recorded there (in all four gospels, by the way), actually took place.

Are such things possible? Jesus is said to have made wine from water. Doesn’t that happen all the time at vineyards? If Jesus was able to speed up the process through some mechanism that we don’t understand, does that mean that the process is not true?

Jesus spoke of such things openly. Let us have faith that even in our own lack of faith, we can still believe the Lord of creation can do the things we are not capable of –

“And the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’
⁶ So the Lord said, ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.’” Luke 17:5, 6

Lord God, even if we don’t have faith to speak to a mulberry tree, commanding it to uproot itself and move, we can have enough faith to believe that You can do it. Help us to consider that You are the Creator and nothing is impossible for You. May we accept this as an axiom and trust that what Your word says is true and reliable. To Your glory, we pray. Amen.

Thursday, 20 November 2025

And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” Matthew 14:17

Note: You can listen to today’s commentary courtesy of our friends at the “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen).

You can also read this commentary, scrolling with music, courtesy of our friends at “Discern the Bible” on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).

“And they, they say to Him, ‘Not we have here, if not five loaves and two fish’” (CG).

In the previous verse, Jesus told the disciples that the great crowd did not need to go away. Instead, He instructed the disciples to give them something to eat. In response to that, we read, “And they, they say to Him, ‘Not we have here.’”

The way they began their statement tells us the disciples’ words indicate a complete lack, thus highlighting the nonstarter idea of feeding such a vast multitude. With that stated, they qualify their lack, saying, “if not five loaves and two fish.”

In other words, “We don’t have anything, well… except these five loaves and two fish.” It is a way of diminishing the very thought that they possessed enough to feed the multitudes. They have highlighted the impossibility of meeting Jesus’ demand. But they had overlooked the truth later stated by Jesus in Luke 18:27, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

As for the numbers, five is the number of grace. Two is the number of division and difference. When there are two, there will be a contrast and yet a confirmation of a whole. For example, there are two testaments, they contrast between law and grace, and yet they confirm the whole counsel of the word of God. There is day and night. They contrast, and yet they confirm the totality of a day. Etc.

Bread in Scripture signifies that which physically sustains man. In fact, the word bread is used synonymously with food in general. There is also the connection to manna, which sustained Israel in the wilderness for forty years, it being the “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4, etc.).

Fish signify multiplication and increase, and thus abundance.

Jesus will take these few bits of food and use them in accord with these numbers and meanings to perform a miracle that continues to astound God’s people to this day.

Life application: When Jesus said that nothing is impossible with God, He was speaking in the sense of ability to perform. There are certain things God cannot do. For example, God cannot be something He is not. He is love. Therefore, He will always be loving. His judgment and the execution of His judgment are not vindictive or hateful. Rather, it is just and righteous.

He cannot violate one of His attributes because they define His very nature. God also cannot do something that is illogical. He cannot make a two which is a three. Such things are contrary to logic, and therefore what He does will be in accord with what is logical.

Having said that, there is nothing to prohibit God from producing abundance out of that which appears to be lacking. We may not understand the mechanics of how He caused a bit of bread and a couple of fish to reproduce in such an astonishing manner, but that does not mean He violated the principles of logic or nature in order to accomplish this feat.

Study up on what God’s attributes are. Consider His ways. Ponder Him from what is logical, orderly, beautiful, and loving. As you read the Bible, see how what you know apart from Scripture about the nature of God is actually reflected in God as He is presented in Scripture.

As you consider Him and His nature while comparing that knowledge to how He is presented in the Bible, you will discover that the Bible accurately portrays Him. It is a reliable testimony to God’s workings in creation and in the redemptive process detailed there.

Glorious God, You are perfect in all Your ways. Thank You for Your hand of care for us, as it is recorded in Your word. We are assured of who You are and what You have done as we read its pages. Thank You for this reliable witness and testimony to us, O God. Amen.

Wednesday, 19 November 2025

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” Matthew 14:16

Note: You can listen to today’s commentary courtesy of our friends at the “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen).

You can also read this commentary, scrolling with music, courtesy of our friends at “Discern the Bible” on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).

“And Jesus, He said to them, ‘They have no need to depart. You, you give, them to eat’” (CG).

In the previous verse, the disciples came to Jesus, noting the remoteness of the area and the late hour, imploring Him to send the people away so they could buy food. In response to that, it now says, “And Jesus, He said to them, ‘They have no need to depart.’”

Although each gospel narrative stands on its own, it is still interesting to see the fuller conversation. Mark’s gospel omits the words “They have no need to depart,” but it adds in the words, “And they said to Him, ‘Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?’” Luke likewise leaves out this first clause and omits the additional words of Mark. John’s narrative says –

“Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’ ⁶ But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
⁷ Philip answered Him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.’” John 6:5-7

Each account is from the writer’s own perspective, and yet, they can be harmoniously woven together. In Matthew, Jesus continues, saying emphatically, “You, you give, them to eat.”

One can see the emphasis from Jesus returned to the disciples based on their words, emphatically highlighted by the remoteness of the area –

*“Desolate, it is, this place, and the hour, it passed already. You dismiss the crowds that, having departed into the villages, they should buy themselves food.”

*“They have no need to depart. You, you give, them to eat”

Jesus is providing instruction in who He is and what He is capable of, and He is doing it in a manner that has astonished the minds of His people for two millennia. These are His disciples, and they have been called to accomplish an impossible task. Despite this, the mass feeding will take place, exactly as Jesus directs.

Life application: The miracle of feeding this multitude is something that the Bible asks us to believe at face value. We are not to look for some behind-the-scenes finagling on the part of the disciples or Jesus. In other words, there wasn’t a convoy of trucks just on the other side of the hill, secretly ready to deliver food to feed the multitudes.

Rather, God provided the food for the people just as He did with the manna in the wilderness for forty years. It was a true miracle that is to be accepted as such. God continues to perform the miraculous in ways we may not perceive or understand, even to this day. These are done in order to suit His purposes.

Unfortunately, too often, people claim the miraculous when what occurred had nothing to do with God’s providing a miracle. There are key issues we should look for to determine if something is truly miraculous.

One is to ask if the matter brought glory to God. That is the first and key point. However, such cannot be a miracle that supposedly glorifies God but which doesn’t glorify Jesus. There are innumerable claims of the miraculous in Catholicism, which supposedly highlight Mary or some other figure. Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and other religions claim miracles all the time. Do a general search on YouTube and you’ll see this.

Likewise, claims of the miraculous come from Mormonism and other false cults that fall under the umbrella of “Christian” denominations. If biblical Christianity is true, these miracles cannot be real, God-directed miracles. Paul speaks of false gospels, false prophets, false brethren, and the working of Satan, which includes power, signs, and lying wonders.

Therefore, not everything that appears miraculous is. In fact, the large preponderance of so-called miracles in the world is nothing but chance events, false claims, or active workings of Satan. As you read the Bible, evaluate the miracles in it and consider why they are recorded.

They will always be there to glorify God and to validate His workings in and among His people or for their instruction. Have discernment, and don’t trust anything simply because it is presented by someone who claims to be Christian. You will find that almost every supposed claim of divine intervention, be it dreams, tongues, appearances, or other supposed miraculous events, is simply hogwash.

The Bible is written. It testifies to Jesus and His workings. Do you really need more to edify your walk before the Lord? Have faith in what God has done. If He does more in your life, be grateful that His hand was upon you for whatever need you had, be it healing, financial help, or a moment of encouragement that you alone share with Him and that builds you up as His child.

Lord God, help us to have discernment and not to get caught up in things that are not helpful to our relationship with You. There are way too many distractions in this life that are neither edifying nor healthy. Keep us from such things, O God. Amen.