Healing the People; Four Thousand Fed; Seeking a Sign

Notes

Feeding the Four Thousand.

Notes

Seeking a Sign.

Notes

1. The disciples should have recalled at this time how, on a former occasion, Jesus, by blessing a few loaves and fishes, fed the five thousand. But they did not. "Again the disciples revealed their unbelief. At Bethsaida they had seen how, with Christ's blessing, their little store availed for the feeding of the multitude; yet they did not now bring forward their all, trusting His power to multiply it for the hungry crowds. Moreover, those whom He fed at Bethsaida were Jews; these were Gentiles and heathen. Jewish prejudice was still strong in the hearts of the disciples, and they answered Jesus, 'Whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?'"—"Desire of Ages," page 405.

2. Magdala was on the west side of the sea, in Galilee itself. In this country Jesus had performed His most remarkable miracles, and He was well known. He again meets the cold unbelief of the scribes and Pharisees, in marked contrast to His welcome among the heathen people about Gadara and in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And He remained only a short time in this place.

3. "As the preaching of Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so Christ's preaching was a sign to His generation. But what a contrast in the reception of the word! The people of the great heathen city trembled as they heard the warning from God. Kings and nobles humbled themselves; the high and the lowly together cried to the God of heaven, and His mercy was granted unto them." "Every miracle that Christ performed was a sign of His divinity. He was doing the very work that had been foretold of the Messiah; but to the Pharisees these works of mercy were a positive offense."—"Desire of Ages," page 406.

A most profitable lesson is furnished the last generation in the answer Christ gave the unbelieving Pharisees. That generation lived in the blazing light of truth taught by the divine Son of God Himself, and thus enjoyed what kings and prophets of former generations had longed to see and hear, but had not. Through hardness of heart, these glorious truths were rejected. So now, through the third angel's message, light is shining from God's word in almost dazzling brightness. When men turn from truth, there is nothing more that heaven can do for them. "When the message of truth is presented in our day, there are many who, like the Jews, cry, Show us a sign. Work us a miracle." ⟦—citation?⟧ To such is applicable what Jesus said to the Pharisees in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Luke 16:31.