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
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“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.