In the story of the Bible, people, through their own foolish choices or through the choices of others,

end up in the wilderness. The wilderness is a tragedy, but God uses it as an opportunity to prepare

them for a future garden land. These wilderness moments become seasons where God invites his people into a moment of hardship,

scarcity, where the only thing they can trust on is the word and the presence and generosity of God.

God shows up with daily bread and water in the wilderness.

But even so, the harsh reality of the wilderness is too great of a burden to bear.

While the wilderness is an opportunity to live in union with God, instead it becomes a realm

of failure and death.

But this is not the last word.

God brings a new gift into the wilderness, his own presence, the person of Jesus.

He succeeds in the wilderness where his ancestors failed.

In the previous two episodes, we looked at the baptism of Jesus in the wilderness, and then we

looked at the testing of Jesus. Today, we look at what happens next.

He walks out of the wilderness, and the first

thing that you're told is he goes around announcing in the towns of Galilee, the kingdom of God has

arrived. Game on. Jesus is the good shepherd, leading his people through the wilderness.

When he saw the people, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and

dispirited.

They were harassed and they had no life energy, like sheep without a shepherd.

In today's episode, we'll look at Jesus feeding thousands in the wilderness.

Matthew portrays Jesus as a new Moses shepherd of Israel as a flock in the wilderness,

and he's going to provide bread for the lost sheep of Israel who come to him in the wilderness.

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