1568 Best In Less

Have you ever experienced God’s math in your life? Starting with so little and it becoming so much more.

I was introduced to God’s math by a woman with more faith than I have ever seen. In fact, her faith was so big, even me, the overly optimistic one said, “Girl, now this isn’t realistic.” She told me, “No, Pamela, it’s not. This is God’s math.” And she was right. God did the the most unrealistic, overflowing things, and he did it where there was practically nothing to begin with.

Did you know God does math? Oh, he loves numbers! He shows off in numbers. Especially the ones that make absolutely no sense. Let me show you.

Today, we’re going to look at two stories in the bible that often get confused for the same story, but they’re not the same. They are different. You’ve likely heard of Jesus feeding the crowd, but did you know he did it twice?

The first time is in Matthew 14: 13-21. A large crowd has gathered to see Jesus, and Jesus is healing their sick. Night time comes and Jesus has compassion on the crowd and wants to feed them. The disciples think he’s crazy and want to send the people away. But Jesus asks, “what do you have?” They have only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Jesus says, “bring it to me”. He gives thanks, he breaks it and he gives it to the disciples and the disciples give it to the crowd. Everyone ate and was satisfied. Afterward, they picked up 12 baskets full of leftover pieces. Those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.

The numbers here are important because we’re looking at God’s math. Did you know that’s why scripture passed down through all these translations and generations retains the numbers. God says these are my numbers and they’re important. He’s showing us his math. So, let’s pay attention. We have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish for 5,000 men. Then we have 12 baskets of leftovers. So, 5 for 5,000 with 12 leftover.

The second time is just one chapter later. We talked about this miracle earlier this week as we wondered why Jesus made them wait 3 days for healing when he could have healed them all immediately. Now we understand Jesus draws us in to do even more for us in the wait. But now, let’s focus on the math. Matthew 15: 29-38. Again, we have a large crowd gathering around Jesus and he begins healing their sick. After 3 days Jesus has compassion on the crowd and wants to feed them. Again, the disciples think he’s crazy and want to send the people away.

Now, isn’t that funny? It was just one chapter ago the disciples were actively involved in this tremendous miracle of Jesus feeding a crowd, but here they are going through the same thing wanting to just avoid it. Isn’t that us? We would rather avoid it than see Jesus work a miracle. No girl, don’t run from this. Remember what he has done for you before and watch him do it again!

Jesus asks, “what do you have?” This time, they have 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. Almost word for word, Jesus does the same thing again. He gives thanks, he breaks it, and he gives it to the disciples and the disciples give it to the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward, they picked up 7 baskets full of leftover pieces. Now there were 4,000 men who had eaten, besides women and children.

The numbers are important for God’s math. This time, we have 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish for 4,000 men. Then we have 7 baskets of leftovers. So, 7 for 4,000 with 7 leftover.

The greatest miracle in God’s math is revealed when you look at these two stories together.