Did you know, the first miraculous feeding of the multitude didn’t take place in the New Testament but in the Old Testament? Jesus said, that everything He did, His Father taught Him (John 8:28, 38). This was also the case with the miraculous feeding of the multitude.
The feeding of the multitude in the New Testament
Jesus fed 5000 men the first time and 4000 men the second time. Yes, Jesus fed the multitude twice, in a miraculous way:
The first time, they only had 5 loaves and two fishes. Jesus blessed the food, broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to distribute it to the large crowd. He also divided the two fishes among them all. More than 5000 men were fed and filled. After they were all filled, they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes (Mark 6:37-44)
The second time, they only had seven loaves and a view small fishes. Jesus blessed the food, broke the loaves, and gave it to His disciples to distribute it to the large crowd. He did the same with the small fishes. About 4000 men were fed, and they were all filled. After they were filled, they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. (Mark 8:1-10)
The feeding of the multitude in the Old Testament
Jesus had already seen His Father do this before. Because in the Old Testament, the miraculous feeding of the multitude is described in 2 Kings 4:42-44:
There came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.
God was Jesus His example. Everything that Jesus did, He had already seen His Father do.
‘The salt of the earth’
