[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]
Today: Proverbs 8:22-31; Luke 9:10-27; Numbers 33 & 34
Proverbs 8
Wisdom is personified in Proverbs 8. The “me” is wisdom talking. Ultimately Proverbs 8 is about Jesus, who is the “wisdom of God.” (1 Cor. 1:30) Wisdom was with God from the very beginning of eternity, before God created the earth. John also says that Jesus (the Word) was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1) What a beautiful picture of Jesus in Proverbs 8, the “master workman,” God’s “delight,” who rejoices in the world, and delights in US, the “sons of mankind.” Oh, how He loves you and me!
Luke 9 – Feeding of the Five Thousand
This amazing miracle, when Jesus feeds the five thousand, is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels. It must have been considered very significant.
This story shows us how Jesus put His commission of the disciples into practical action. He had already sent them out “to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.” (v.2) And now, after the disciples tell Jesus to “dismiss the crowd” so that they might go to nearby villages for food and lodging, Jesus tells them, “You give them something to eat!” (v.13)
They only had five loaves of bread and two fish, hardly enough to feed a few people, much less five thousand!
But Jesus had a divine plan. He organized the people into groups of fifty, blessed the food and fed everyone from those five loaves and two fish until they were full. And there were twelve full baskets of food leftover. Jesus took what little they had and multiplied it. He didn’t just give everyone a little bit. He fed everyone ABUNDANTLY!
This is a beautiful physical example of how the Holy Spirit works in the spiritual realm today. Jesus commissions everyone of us to “feed my sheep,” to spread the love and message of Christ with others.
We feel inadequate. We don’t have the skills, the courage, or the platform to do very much. But if we only bring to Jesus what little we do have, He will multiply it abundantly.
Maybe this is why this particular miracle was considered so important, because it is a picture of OUR relationship to the world. It is personal.
Immediately after this, in a private moment with the disciples, Jesus elaborates on His commission to us:
“If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, this is the one who will save it. For what good does it do a person if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” Luke 9:23-26
We are called to be Jesus’ light and love to this dark, lost world. Jesus is calling us to be bold and fearless just as He was. He is calling us to have eternal vision, to understand how insignificant our own physical lives are here compared to our eternal destiny. All the riches and power in the world are nothing compared to the riches and power of Jesus Christ.
