Pastor John, here's a question about Bible reading and interpretation. It seems that the miracles of Jesus can be so situational that it can be hard to know what the takeaways are from the stories as we read them in the Gospels. How do you process the miracles of Jesus in your own personal devotions?

I was reading, I think day before yesterday, in my trek through the Bible with McShane's Bible reading plan, Matthew 16, and Jesus says to the disciples, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." So clearly he's using a metaphor. I say clearly, it wasn't so clear to the disciples. They start squabbling with each other about, "Oh, we didn't bring any bread, we didn't bring any bread, and Jesus is concerned or upset with us that we don't have any bread with us." And Jesus hears them, and he says to them, "Hey, don't you remember the 5,000 and the 12 loaves left over, and the 7,000 and the seven loaves left over?

How is it that you don't understand that I did not speak about bread?" Now, when I read that in my devotions, I just stopped and said, "What is Jesus saying?" That if they had really understood his miracle, those two miracles where he fed thousands with a little bit of bread, if they had understood that, they would have perceived the meaning of his metaphor.

And what might take away, I haven't thought through to the bottom of this yet, but Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven the Pharisees." They totally misunderstood him, missed the metaphorical meaning, and went straight to the literal meaning. And Jesus says, "That was stupid, because if you'd understood my miracles, you wouldn't have made that mistake." Which means that there are mistakes we make in the language of Scripture, in understanding the language of Scripture, because you don't grasp the power of Jesus, or certain things about the miraculous working of Jesus.

And so the principle that I came away with was, "Oh God, let me know you. Let me know Jesus in all his works. Let me discern what the point of the feeding of the five thousand was, so that when he says something oblique or metaphorical over here, I won't make the same mistake that the disciples did of just totally missing that he's talking about the teaching of the Pharisees and not bread.

That has held my attention for the last two days, trying to figure out what the hermeneutical implications of missing out on the power of Jesus in one of his miracles. And clearly, they didn't get his miracle, and that had a bad interpretational effect on how they understood his other language.

One of the takeaways is, slow down. Slow down in your reading. And when you finish a miracle, opening the eyes of the blind, or causing the lame man to stand up, or causing people to be fed, five thousand people be fed, slow down, pause, and stop and say, "Jesus, show me what this is saying about you." Fall down and worship him, and let it have its humbling effect, let it have its strengthening effect.

I have a friend, and I have a Christ, who not only feeds five thousand, but gives twelve loaves, or twelve baskets, to the twelve men who were distributing it. That's just huge. In other words, I will take care of all your needs. I think, frankly, that's the essence of what they missed.

The point of the feeding of the five thousand for the disciples was the twelve baskets of bowls left over, which means if you go ahead and give away what you don't have, and think you don't have, you're going to get everything you need. So now when we come later, and he says, "Watch out for the leavening of the Pharisees," their first thought's not going to be, "Oh, shoot, we don't have any bread." Their first thought's going to be something about, "Okay, what is it about the Pharisees that are going to undermine our faith?" Then they'll start to see.

So, the takeaway is, slow down and meditate. Nothing that I have said here demands any scholarly training. You don't need to know Greek here, you don't need to go to seminary here, you just need to slow down and pray, and think, and worship over the miracles of Jesus. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.

If you have a question for Pastor John, please send it to us via email. Send those to askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Please include your first name and your hometown. You can find thousands of other free resources from John Piper online at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening. (Thanks for watching)