Wednesday 4th June
Read Luke 9:12-13
“Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, ‘Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.’
13 He replied, ‘You give them something to eat.’
They answered, ‘We have only five loaves of bread and two fish – unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.’” (NIVUK)
Scripture is linked together beautifully. When Luke narrates that the feeding of the crowd occurs in a ‘remote place’ we are meant to see echoes of God feeding His people in the wilderness. We are then in turn to meditate on all the parallels between God’s provision in the wilderness then, and His provision for this crowd in the wilderness in Jesus’ time.
The manna provision was part of the exodus of God’s people, out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into God’s promised rest. The disciples have just returned from proclaiming the kingdom of God, proclaiming the arrival of the expected rest, to villages and towns throughout the promised land. Those with ears to hear and eyes to see will understand that the rest and provision God promised His people is arriving in full in the ministry of Jesus.
It is no coincidence that the next narrative Luke presents is the transfiguration itself where Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus “about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:31) (NIVUK). Whilst our translation renders the discussion topic as his ‘departure’, Luke literally wrote ‘exodus’. What seems like simply an amazing miracle is carefully woven into the very fabric of God’s promised salvation. This miracle builds to Jesus’ exodus in Jerusalem – leading us to God – beautifully captured in the hymn below.
