Matthew 4: 1-11; Luke 9: 10 – 17
Food has a varying number of things to do in our bodies, including making a very hungry person become lively and keeping us alive. Just imagine also the idea of food being a source of healing to the sick and indeed a very fine source of encouragement to the discouraged.
Looking at this ordinarily, very few people will ascribe encouragement to the concept of food, but it really is when we thoroughly think about it!
Today, it is almost becoming a privilege to routinely gather around an area where people can easily get food when they are hungry and need food to eat because of the economic situation. In the case of Jesus, however, there was something different. Yes, He wanted to see the crowd following Him to grow spiritually, yet He also wanted them to grow in an all-round manner. Giving them food before teaching them wasn’t the way forward. He also had an order for how things should be done. He had fasted 40 days, He was hungry but would not allow the devil to dictate the pace of things. The devil is always looking for the food content of every matter: he wanted food, that is, bread, supplied at his instance. God had another plan.
At the venue, there was a demand for some level of order, and yes, not the kind of order initiated by the devil. There was a need for proper conduct of human affairs, hence the place of orderliness. The bearer of this order cannot be the devil but the Son of the Most High God. Wherefore the essence is that God is involved. And that settles it!
In that same place, the devil wanted to introduce another temptation. Hear him: “And the devil wanted Him to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple”. Of course, the devil is well aware that Christ can do the casting down, but the Almighty denied him the joy, the privilege of experiencing it by rebuking him in the following manner: “It is written again, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God”.
Perhaps not fully satisfied that the Master has got a routine way of answering him, the devil therefore went for the third option.
“Again the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world; and the glory of them. And saith unto Him, All these things will I give thee; if thou wilt fall down and worship me”.
Unfortunately for Satan, God did not think twice about what He should answer him. He has a ready-made answer for him : “Get thee hence , Satan for it is written; Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve”.
The point must be made that the two instances in which Jesus converted His place of public speech to a place of eating was after He had spoken to the people for three days. At one instance, He had pity on the people. Hence, they needed to sufficiently feed them before leaving them to go.
Luke 9:10-17. Jesus didn’t need a caretaker or a response person to remind Him of the essence of His coming. He was primarily involved in what went on in the life of man because He was there at creation, so He always acted as the need arose.
Meanwhile, the gesture of feeding the masses at public gatherings was the responsibility of the apostles. They were used at such public gatherings to distribute food and maintain orderliness within the crowd.
Having seen the way the Lord conducted His gatherings, it must be noted that when in similar situations and we need to feed the crowd, it’s not meant to please the devil. They are not meant to satisfy the whims of the opposition. But rather, they are carried out to tell the devil that at no time must the enemy have his way in our affairs.
