This is the Baymont podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co-host, Brent Billings. Today we look at the story of the feeding of the 4,000 and watch the Disciple's struggle to apply its meaning.

Yes, so let's see here a few podcasts ago, a few episodes ago. I maybe challenged some of our listeners, probably not all, but some of our listeners I challenged them with this idea that the feeding of the 5,000

was all about this numerology. And then in the last episode I challenged us by suggesting that Jesus had to learn things. So we've had a couple of tough, maybe like the Disciples said to Jesus in the Gospel of John, like this is a hard teaching, Rabbi.

I might have some listeners going, all right, I'm struggling here. Let's see if we can wrap up some of these ideas and maybe sell us on the fact that Jesus is really doing this thing about numerology.

So our passage today starts, Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. So maybe I don't know, want to like recap the last couple of stories, give us a little bit of context about where Jesus is, what he's been doing.

How about you tell me what the last story was in the text, Brent? What do we have before that? So we had the the woman in Tyre and Sidon, okay, or in the region, I guess that's right. Okay, so that's a really good question to actually ask because he's coming back from Funisha, he's going back from that region of Tyre and Sidon.

And he's coming and he goes on his way back, it says he has it where to he walks along the Sea of Galilee. So at the beginning of the 4,000 says Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee.

He went along the Sea of Galilee. So if you maybe you could link a map Brent of the Sea of Galilee region, maybe when we even use in the past Tyre, Sidon, you're going to have to actually get a little north to find that. So you might have to find a new map, but find a map that has Tyre inside on.

And then if you if you point that out, you can actually look at if he's going to walk, he's coming back from that far north western region. And he's coming down along the Sea of Galilee.

And from the gospel accounts, we know that he's headed into the region of the decapolis. We've talked about the decapolis before. And the one time that we've been here, we've said there was one story where Jesus was here. This is only a second time he's going to show up here.

This is going to be the first story was a story of which story Brent, the demon possessed man, the pigs, right? The demoniac and the pigs. So that was the first time. And this is the second time that Jesus has come back here. And I'm suggesting it's because why is he come back here from Phoenicia? I think he just learned a lesson in Phoenicia. And he's thinking to himself, oh my goodness, I have to teach this to my to my disciples. I got to go back to the decapolis because if this is our mission, if this is my mission, I'm going to go back to the decapolis.

This is my mission. Oh, man, we got a bunch of stuff to learn. And so from there, he hits straight into the decapolis. And this time we're told, as we pointed out with that podcast with the demoniac, this time when we come, we got 4,000 people coming out to greet him.

When before we just had one demoniac and a bunch of people asking him to get the heck out of here, Jesus, could you leave the region? Now he comes back and 4,000 people. That's a big deal. That's a relatively large group. How about you read us that portion of our passage to the demoniac?

Of our passage today. And we'll we'll dive in. Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then our address. Oh, this is Matthew 15, starting verse 29. Okay, great. Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountain side and sat down. Great crowds came to him bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others and laid them at his feet. And he healed them.

The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry or they may collapse on the way.

His disciples answered, where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd? How many loaves do you had, Jesus asked? Seven they replied, and a few small fish.

He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples.

And they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

The number of those who ate was 4,000 men besides women and children. After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

The first time we had a feeding of 5,000. Now we have a feeding of 4,000. Now a few podcasts ago I suggested that all the numbers in the feeding of the 5,000 mattered.

Maybe we should use a quick review here, Brent, of numbers. We had one represents God, God, two books or the tablets of the loaves of Moses.

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