Daily Devotional For Sunday, November 23, 2025
Good morning and it’s time to jump into the word of God and spend some time with Him. Thank you for making this a priority in your life and in your relationship to the Lord. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew and today we come to a very familiar story in Matthew 14:13-21:
“As soon as Jesus heard the news, He left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where He was headed and followed on foot from many towns. (14) Jesus saw the huge crowd as He stepped from the boat, and He had compassion on them and healed their sick. (15) That evening the disciples came to Him and said, ‘This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.’ (16) But Jesus said, ‘That isn’t necessary—you feed them.’ (17) ‘But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!’ they answered. (18) ‘Bring them here,’ He said. (19) Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, He gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. (20) They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. (21) About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!” (NLT).
There are several experiences in our lives that stand out and impact us in such a way we never forget them. In the same vein, there are stories in the Bible that carry the same impact. This is one of them. In Matthew 14:12, John the Baptizer’s disciples came and told Jesus that John had been killed by Herod Antipas. Being God, Jesus already knew this but it still had an impact on Him. Verse 13 tells that Jesus went to a remote area to be alone. Where they landed and traveled was in an area that was outside of Galilee and also outside of Herod’s jurisdiction. We know this from the word used to describe where Jesus and His disciples went – “remote” is the Greek New Testament word [ἔρημος, eremos], which is a reference to the wilderness of desert.
If you have ever lost a loved one, you can understand Jesus’ emotions. When we lose someone we love we many times just want some alone time to deal with our grief and loss. Upon Jesus’ arrival, there would be no rest for the weary or the grieving. Thousands were waiting and the Bible says Jesus had compassion on them. “CompassIon” is the Greek New Testament word [σπλαγχνίζομαι, splagchnizomao]. This word refers to feeling intense emotions in the viscera, or bowels, stomach or intestines.” Pastor and author John MacArthur puts it this way:
“The Hebrews (Jews), like many other ancient peoples, expressed attitudes and emotions in terms of physiological symptoms, not in abstractions. As most of us know from personal experience, many intense emotions—anxiety, fear, pity, remorse, and so on—can directly, and often immediately, affect the stomach and the digestive tract. Upset stomach, colitis, diarrhea and ulcers are a few of the common ailments frequently related to emotional trauma. It is not strange, then, that ancient people associated strong emotions with that region of the body. The heart, on the other hand, was associated more with the mind and thinking” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 109).
We all can understand Jesus here. If you are a parent and you lose one of your own parents to death, your grief is intense but life has to go on for you. You have little children begging to be fed, loved on and taken care of in spite of your own grief. The first thing that Matthew tells us that Jesus did was heal the sick who were there. In verse 15, the disciples have no compassion for the people. They want Jesus to send them away because in all likelihood the disciples are “hangry.” Matthew 14:15 says it was “late,” probably around 3:00 PM and with just a few hours before the sun would set.
To their shock, Jesus told His disciples to feed them. The disciples, being men of economics, replied that in this huge crowd of thousands, no one had brought food except a little boy, who had 5 loaves and 2 fish. They had 3 concerns: first, they personally had no food. Second, they did not have enough money to buy enough food. Third, with close to sundown, there was not enough time. Fourth, even if they had enough time, they did not have enough manpower to do this. From a purely human viewpoint, they could not see any way around this. To them, this was an impossible scenario. This was a common meal for a boy of that day. The loaves of bread would be 5 small rye pieces of bread and the fish would have been salted sardines. When I read this I think of Isaiah 11:6b, “A little child will lead them all” (NLT).
In John 6:9, Andrew poses a logical question, “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” (NLT). The answer is obvious – only one little boy could feed himself, but not over 5,000 men, not counting the rest of the women and children as well. In verse 19, Jesus did not answer His disciples’ question but directed them to tell the people to sit down on the grass. Mark’s Gospel tells that Jesus had the people sit down in groups, which would make it easier to make the food distribution more efficient. It is possible it was to emulate what Moses did in Exodus 18:21. The men would have been separated from the women and the children.
After giving thanks, Jesus broke the bread and fish and began distributing it. What the disciples were not aware of here, is that Jesus was teaching them a valuable lesson in being a servant. They were the ones taking the food to the people indiscriminately. God the Father who multiplied the bread and fish was affirming to everyone that Jesus was the Messiah. Remember, this group of people are in a wilderness section east of Galilee. This would have brought memories back to how God fed the people with mann and quail in the wilderness (Exodus 16). It would have reminded the people how God had multiplied oil and meal for Elijah and the widow at Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:7-16 and for Elisah in 2 Kings 4:1-7. All of this was fulfilling the prophecy of how the Messiah would feed the people in the wilderness in Isaiah 25:6.
We learn in verse 20 everyone gorged until they were “fat and happy.” Not only that, the “hangry” and uncompassionate disciples got a basket each for themselves. There was no waste at this banquet in the wilderness. It is clear there were 5,000 men, not counting women and children. The number Jesus fed could have been as much as 10-30,000 people. And there were “doggie-bags” for the disciples. Side bar here – the reason we are told the number of the men only is that in Jesus’ day men ate separately in public from women and children.
Assignment: What impossible situation do you face right now? A failing marriage? Rebellious teens or college students? Unemployment? A medical diagnosis? Financial hardship? In each of these, the defining word is “impossible.” From our horizontal perspective, these will look impossible, but from a vertical one, they are not. No fake Messiah could do what Jesus did. What is your impossible situation? Instead of trying to fix it, “faith” it.
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Father, I am so sorry that I do not trust You in faith to meet everyone of my needs. I know that some of my problems are my own doing. So, please give me wisdom from You to trust Your Word and obey You will. I love you Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Pastor Kelly Stanley