Mark 8:1-9 This is the second feeding of the multitudes that is recorded. It hinges from a great ministry time where Yeshua had been teaching the basics of Torah. He was returning the people back to the simple basics and abandoning the oral torah that had been passed down by the sages. This was not a time where He was refuting all oral torah, but only that which conflicted with the written word of God. The evidence that we see of this teaching is in the previous chapter. Yeshua came against the oral torah of the teachers, He corrected misconceptions about dietary instructions, and followed His teaching with miraculous to validate his message. Few realize that Deuteronomy 28 promises prosperity and healing to those who turn their hearts to completely follow the instructions of God. Validation was not just a miracle to impress. It was in accordance with the promise of God.

Yeshua was teaching people in the thousands and they came a long way to hear Him. Yeshua taught Torah. He also expected the listeners to understand Torah and to make decisions according to the instructions of God. Four thousand people were present at this time. They were all hungry, they had fasted for three days while that sat under the teaching of the Messiah. One difference between feeding the five thousand and the four thousand is the three days of hunger (Mk 6:34-44). The only food available was seven loaves of bread and a few fish. When we commented on feeding the five thousand, we discussed how that Yeshua fed the people in a similar manner that God miraculously fed the people during the Exodus. This is the same situation. Let’s look back at the Old Testament for a moment, think about the correlation:

Exodus 16:3–4 (NLT) “³ “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.”

This feeding was compelled by two factors. First the people were hungry and needed to eat. This was a physical need that demanded attention. Secondly, Yeshua had been teaching according to Torah and impressed again that He was the God of the Old Testament. He was the God that was able to produce food out of nothing. It was up to the ones receiving and the disciples serving to make this correlation. When they finished eating, they were left with seven baskets of crumbs and leftovers of the fish.

Mark 8:10-13; Matthew 16:1-4 Imagine the scene. Yeshua just came from performing major miracles. All told, nine thousand people were fed to boot. Then there are a handful of teachers who demand that he perform for them like a trickster. They missed their chance to meet and fellowship with the Messiah.

The offense of the Pharisees goes deeper than it seems. By demanding that Yeshua perform an attesting miracle, they were stepping into a position of authority over Him. He would not be approved to teach unless He met their criteria. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only time in the Gospels where Yeshua leaves without ministering to a single person…

Mark 8:14-21 A teaching opportunity. They left quickly without taking any bread with them. Yeshua used this as a teaching opportunity. He tells the disciples to beware of the leaven or yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. Matthew adds the Sadducees to the mix (Matt 16:6). In Luke this leaven is identified as hypocrisy (Lk 12:1). In English we have the idea of a hypocrite as one who is fake. The word meaning in the Greek is a little deeper. It gives the idea of one who is acting a role such as an actor. The word is not a nice one since it implies intended deception. It carries the idea of self-contradiction and self-deception where a person is actually in conflict with what he proposes to be true. Yet, is this the true meaning of leaven?

Yeshua gave us one aspect of the leaven which is hypocrisy. Leaven is an interesting item. Yeast permeates bread, forever changing the property of the flour to an entirely new thing. The gasses that rise out of this change causes bread to rise. Flour is no longer flour at this point. It has become bread.

When this is applied to spiritual matters, the change is fascinating. If spirituality is leavened with falsehood, then the resulting religion is laced with falsehood. It is nearly impossible to take the false teaching out of the religion at this point. The only way to clean the slate is to go back to the flour and remake the religion. Yeshua pointed out three offenders, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod. The firs two blended oral torah with the true Torah and ended up with a religion that was laced with law instead of grace and teaching. Herod is an example of the proselyte. He was a blend of Jew and Gentile. The idea of Herod is that he blended Gentile thinking with Jewish ideas. His life was one of excessive cruelty and self-serving motivations.

Yeshua came to clean the slate. He was the YHVH God of the Old Testament come in the flesh. He was amazed that the disciples had not made the correlation yet. His question as to the application of the feeding of thousands is revealing (Mark 8:21). The teaching of the disciples begins to change at this point. Yeshua begins to teach them that He is the Messiah. He will change the focus of the teaching slightly at this point. This change of focus goes beyond teaching the disciples. It also teaches us who He is according to Torah.

His purpose was salvation. His name was literally salvation. He came to set His people free from bondage that had been put on them by the religious teachers. He came to deliver people from bondage to sin and from the penalty of sin. He came to teach the instructions of God as they were originally written. He did not come to teach anything new. The ideas and teachings of Jesus are all found in the Old Testament. In short, He removed the confusion that oral torah had put in place.

Mark 8:21-26 Context is key to understanding the Bible. Yeshua had just went through several validations that He is the Messiah, that He is the YHVH God in the flesh. We will continue with this context in mind.

We looked at the healing of a deaf/mute man in the previous passage where Yeshua healed him by touching him (Mark 7:32-37). This healing is done in a similar manner. Yeshua previously spit on the man’s tongue. In this story He spits in the man’s eyes, then lays hands on his him as He prays for healing. The blind man was partially healed at first. Then Yeshua laid hands on his eyes and his healing was totally restored.

On the recent mission trip that I went on this scenario was repeated several times. When we prayed for the blind or bad sight, we would often get a partial healing where things looked better or sight was partially restored. Then we would lay hands on the eyes and see a much better healing take place. There is something about physical touch when you pray for healing. As far as spitting in the eyes… I will let that one alone and leave it up to the Messiah to work in His perfect manner.

The reason Yeshua healed the men mentioned in these two passages has to do with three things. First, it has to do with compassion, mercy or grace. God took on flesh and was able to reverse the effects of a fallen world for a short time. He was able to remove bondages from His people. Secondly, it was verification that Yeshua is the Messiah that was promised. Thirdly, it is as an example to us so that we can understand how to pray in His name. When you pray for the sick for healing, do not be afraid to lay your hands on them. Watch what happens and write in with the results.

Yeshua commanded him to go home and not to even enter the village. He was not to be a public spectacle, but rather quietly healed. This was also an act of mercy. The man was able to go to his home and share God’s blessing with them.

Mark 8:27-38 Yeshua asks two questions in this passage. Who do the people day that I am? And who do you say that I am? The disciples answered the first question in an intriguing manner. The people associated Jesus with the great prophets of old. It is as if they made excuses for His power by saying that one of the prophets had come back to life. The miraculous signs that validated that Yeshua was the promised Messiah was lost on the people. Peter answered the second question by making the simple statement that Jesus is the Messiah.

This is a declaration that anyone who says Jesus “Christ” is affirming. The word “Christ” is transliterated from the Greek word “Christos”. It is not translated. We often treat this name as a first name-last name type of situation without realizing its significance. The next time you are reading through the scriptures and run across the word “Christ”, replace it with “Messiah” and watch the passage take on new meaning. Yeshua is the promised Messiah that came to deliver man from sin. The word means “anointed one” in the literal sense. Yeshua was anointed by God and was quite literally covered by God as God in the flesh.

Peter made the association between the signs that Yeshua had recently performed and understood the ramifications of these signs. Yeshua strictly warned them to keep the revelation quiet. Yeshua accepted Peter’s statement and taught on it. This is vitally important. If Yeshua were just a prophet, as some churches are teaching today, then this would have disqualified Him from being a prophet. Yeshua accepted Peter’s conclusion and taught upon it. Yeshua was more than just a man, He was the promised Messiah.

Jesus then taught that there was a twist in being the Messiah that the scholars had missed. He must suffer, die, and rise from the dead. This truth was drawn from the scriptures.

Psalm 118:21–22 (CJB)

²¹ I am thanking you because you answered me; you became my salvation. ²² The very rock that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone!

First, read through the entire Psalm 118 to get context. Let’s look at the verses for a moment. The word “salvation” is the Hebrew word “Yeshua” which if we translated it as a name would be Jesus.

Isaiah 53: This is the largest prophecy concerning the Suffering Servant. It was fulfilled in minute detail during the life of Yeshua and at His crucifixion, death and resurrection. He was rejected (Isa 53:3). Pierced through and scourged (Isa 53:5). Slaughtered as a lamb (Isa 53:7-8). Died with criminals and had the tomb of a rich man (Isa 53:9). God utterly rejects him (Isa 53:10). Then he is brought back to life to justify all mankind since he bore the sin of many (Isa 53:11-12). I skimmed over this hitting the high points, read it for context.

The Jewish people were guilty of what many Christians are guilty of today. They were blinded by their doctrines. The oral tradition passed down an expectation for what the Messiah would look like and what his purpose was to be. If they were open-minded, they may have seen that the Messiah was standing in their midst. They were not looking for a suffering Messiah that would suffer death. Peter demonstrates this for us when he rebukes Yeshua for revealing the truth to them.

Yeshua’s responded to Peter telling him to get behind Him identifying him with “Satan”. Satan is identified as being concerned more with man’s interest instead of God’s interests. This is worth thinking about and considering. We are not given the actual rebuke that Peter presented to Yeshua. We can extrapolate from the text that his rebuke stood against the teaching that Yeshua gave. However, we have no idea how this applied or was presented.

Mark 8:34-38 The Greek word used for life and soul is “psyche”. The English translators translated the word as “life” when in reality it should have been “soul”. Life in the Greek language is “Zoe”. With that taken in mind, let’s return to this passage. Yeshua was not saying that a person who wished to save his life would lose it… He was saying that if you want to save or correct the way that you think, you must be willing to lose your thinking.

Time to tweak our thinking now. Earlier I mentioned that the doctrines of the Jewish people were the problem that they were facing. They were blinded by their doctrines. Yeshua is saying the same thing. If we are going to see our thinking “saved” or drawn into proper understanding of the scriptures, we must be ready to change our thinking according to the scriptures. I could tell you of many teachings that are going around in the Christian church that fall under this category. So, we must not be hard on the Jewish people. We like what we are used to hearing.

If we want to be popular with other believers and gain the trust of the entire “world” or “church”, then we should keep parroting off the teachings that are being spread around. This was exactly what Yeshua was saying. If you want to go on believing the false teachings of Oral Torah regarding the Messiah, then you are in danger of losing your “thinking” or “soul”.

Yeshua then amps up the warning one more notch. The Greek word for “ashamed” carries the idea of disillusionment or turning one’s back on the testimony of the Lord. Let’s put this into shoe leather now. God warned that you shall not add to or take away from the message of the word of God. Many will point to the last book of the Bible with this in mind (Rev 22:18-19). Let’s look all the way back to Leviticus and see what God said about His instructions. If God’s people follow His instructions, they will be blessed (Lev 26:1-13). If however, they fail to follow the instructions, then they will reap consequences for abandoning Torah for other teachings (Lev 26:14-46). They are warned several times not to add to or take away from God’s instructions (Deut 4:1-2; 12:32). This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many verses that warn against adding to God’s word.

Yeshua was saying that if you are not willing to change your mind to bring it into compliance with the truth found in the scriptures, then you are in danger of forfeiting your spiritual life for falsehood. The danger goes further than just rejecting the idea that Yeshua is the Messiah. The danger is that by adding human ideas to the word, it will change God’s word so much that it will bring on the judgment of God. The danger according to the Greek is that if we are not willing to accept the truth of God, then He will not be willing to accept us either!

The focus of this teaching goes back to Yeshua being the Messiah. It carries the meaning of the entire section (Mark 8:27-38). Yeshua is the Messiah, the scriptures speak of Him. The Jewish sages had set doctrines that blinded their people from the truth. Those who did not want to change their minds in order to come to a full understanding of the scriptures were in danger of losing their very souls to falsehood.

A little preaching: I often run into people who do not accept what I teach because it goes against the teachings and traditions of the Christian church. People do not want to abandon familiar doctrines and ideas because it will make them unpopular with their peers. They do not want to consider the ideas of Messianic Christianity because it is threatening. It draws into question many practices that have been accepted by the Christian church.

We have stepped into the same role as the New Testament era teachers. They depended upon the oral torah of their teachers and taught from it. Today, many Christians will parrot off the teachings of their great pastors or of the great theologians that have written the commentaries. These teachings are never drawn into question because Pastor, Doctor, Bishop, or Reverend so-and-so said it was Gospel. It breaks my heart. Some of my own children have fallen into this trap. So much more is available to us if we are willing to take God’s word at heart. It is time to break away from tradition and return to the scripture. With this thought, let’s look at the warning of God in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 6:16–20 (CJB)

¹⁶ Here is what Adonai says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask about the ancient paths, ‘Which one is the good way?’ Take it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not take it.’ ¹⁷ I appointed sentinels to direct them: ‘Listen for the sound of the shofar.’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ ¹⁸ So hear, you nations; know, you assembly, what there is against them. ¹⁹ Hear, oh earth! I am going to bring disaster on this people; it is the consequence of their own way of thinking; for they pay no attention to my words; and as for my Torah, they reject it. ²⁰ What do I care about incense from Sh’va or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are unacceptable, your sacrifices don’t please me.”