12 Baskets, 7 Baskets, 5,000, 4000, What Does It All Mean?

Today's Living Word comes from: Mr 8:8,9 “So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away,

What is the significance of the seven leftover baskets? In the feeding of the 5,000 there were twelve baskets of food leftover. That number is associated with the twelve tribes of Judah or the Old Testament church. (Take the Gospel to the Jews!)

Here there are seven baskets left. This number as we have said signifies God's dealings with the entire world. (Take the Gospel to the world!)

And so in the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000 we see the progression of the spreading of the gospel. To the Jew first and then to the Gentile. (Ro 1:16)

What about the significance of the number 4000? The number 4 is the number of the world and 1000 is the number of perfect completeness (10x10x10) Therefore the number 4000 signifies that all people groups will have this gospel placed before them. This is the church's Great Commission, and the end will not come until it is “thousanded” completed!

These numbers and this miraculous feeding with bread and fish signify that God's church will be given His Word and Sacraments to put before the entire world. And this is what the church has done from the get-go. All Christians preach the word, all Christians baptize, and all Christians observe the Lord's Supper.

And as we the church, engage in this great commission, all people will have the opportunity to personally taste and witness that the Lord is good. As Jesus said in Mt 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

I'm Duane Matz and that's Today's Living Word.