English: OBS Study Questions - English

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30. Jesus Feeds Five Thousand People

What the Story Says

  1. Why did Jesus tell his disciples to go to a quiet place to rest?

    His disciples had been preaching and teaching about Jesus in many different villages, and they were tired (#30-01).

  2. What did the people do in order to see Jesus?

    The people ran along the shore of the lake in order to get to the other side when the boat carrying Jesus and his disciples arrive there (#30-02).

  3. How many people were in the crowd that waited for Jesus?

    There were 5000 men in the crowd, but there were also many woman and children. We do not know the total number of people who were there (#30-03).

  4. How did Jesus respond to the crowds that waited for him?

    Jesus had compassion on the people, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (#30-03).

  5. How much food did the disciples have with them?

    The disciples only had five loaves of bread and two small fish (#30-05).

  6. What did Jesus do with the loaves and the fish?

    Jesus thanked God for the loaves and fish, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples to give to the people (#30-07), (#30-08).

  7. What happened when the crowd ate the five loaves of bread and the two small fish?

    The bread and the fish never ran out. The crowd ate as much as they wanted and they were satisfied (#30-08).

  8. How much food was left over after the crowd ate what they wanted?

    The disciples picked up twelve baskets full of food that was left over (#30-09).

What the Story Means to Us

  1. Should disciples rest even when there is a lot of work to do?

    Rest is a good thing. When God created the earth, he commanded people to rest on the seventh day of the week. When the disciples finished preaching and teaching, Jesus took them away to rest. People need to rest occasionally in order to do their work well.

  2. How did Jesus respond to the crowd when they interrupted him and the disciples as they were going to a place to rest?

    Even though Jesus wanted the disciples to rest, he was not angry with the crowds that followed them. Instead, he felt compassion on the people. Even though he and his disciples needed to rest, they taught and healed the people in the crowd.

  3. Why did Jesus tell the disciples to give the crowd something to eat?

    Jesus knew that they did not have enough food to feed the crowd. He told the disciples to feed them so that the disciples would understand that it was impossible to do that. Then, when Jesus caused the bread and the fish to increase and feed them all, the disciples would understand that he had done what was impossible. They would know that God had worked through him in a mighty way.

  4. Who caused the food to increase?

    Jesus was the one who caused the food to increase and satisfy all the people. The disciples passed out the food to the people, but Jesus was the one who continually gave them the food. When everyone had finished eating, the disciples knew that Jesus was the one who had done this miracle.

  5. Why do you think the disciples collected the leftover food?

    Jesus wanted the disciples to see how much he had multiplied the food. The leftover food was more than the five loaves of bread and two fish that they had at the beginning. Those would fit into a single basket. But now there were twelve full baskets. Each of the twelve disciples had a full basket of leftover food.

Summary

Jesus’ disciples were tired from preaching and teaching about Jesus. Jesus knew they needed rest, so he took them in a boat to a quiet place. However, thousands of people wanted to see Jesus, to the ran ahead to that place. But Jesus was not angry with them. Instead, he felt compassion for them. They did not have anyone to teach then and to care for them. So he did that. Even though there was not enough for the people to eat, Jesus multiplied the small amount of food they had and gave it to his disciples to give to the people. The food fed all of the people as much as they wanted to eat. The disciples had more food left over than they had before they fed the people. Jesus took the small amount of food that they had and enabled them to meet the needs of the entire crowd with it. Only God can do that.