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Jason Sobel- Breaking Bread with the Messiah - Signs & Secrets of the Messiah
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00:00We're about to come face-to-face with an epic event from the Gospel of John.
00:06Can you imagine 10,000 people hungry for miracles, stranded in a wilderness?
00:13How could you possibly feed them with just five loaves and two fishes?
00:18But that's what Yeshua did.
00:20This is more than just meeting the needs of a crowd.
00:24This was a test of faith.
00:26Remember the mountain in the desert?
00:28This connects to the miracle in a unique way.
00:31When we dive back into the Old Testament scripture,
00:35we can discover how all this points to trust and God's daily provisions.
00:40When the Israelites moved from Egypt to the Promised Land,
00:44the trust gained didn't stop.
00:46It simply shifted.
00:48We're gonna see how.
00:50Let's witness how the mysteries of the number seven
00:53connect to faith, rest, and provision.
00:57I can't wait to delve into the divine secrets of God's promises
01:02as we find connections between old and new
01:05and further uncover clarity and meaning behind the miracle of multiplication.
01:11That's right now on Signs and Secrets of the Messiah.
01:18We're gonna see you.
01:45We'll see you next time.
01:51A few years back, I packed my bags and moved to California for what I thought was my dream
01:58ministry job. I'm sure you've had those moments like this in life. Everything was just falling
02:03into place. I felt like years of hard work was finally beginning to pay off. I was in a new
02:10town
02:10doing what I always dreamed and hoped and prayed I would be able to do. And then everything changed.
02:18I couldn't believe it. I actually got fired. The rug was pulled out right from under me and all those
02:25dreams came crashing down. I was left with so many question marks in my life. Where would I live?
02:31What would I do for a living? How would I make it through this tough season? Right around that time,
02:39I went to this healing conference. That's when Pastor Bill Johnson came over, placed his hands
02:45on me and told me, you will wear many mantles like Joseph. This lined up with what God was already
02:52stirring in my heart. At that same conference, I felt God speak to me. He said, Jason, you will go
02:59through a season of Joseph. I'm going to take you through the pits and the prisons and prepare you
03:05for the palace. And then he said to me, but all this is because there's a great move of God
03:11coming.
03:12It's not rooted in fear, but rooted in faith and love. It's rooted in miracles. I'm going to heal and
03:20transform people's lives. And I want you to pray for people because when you pray for them, you'll see
03:27people healed and transformed. This was all great to hear and felt powerful, but I was still dealing
03:35with the practical stress of the season. I mean, it's nice to think about what the future holds,
03:42but I'm worried about today and tomorrow. How am I going to feed my family? It's in those moments,
03:48moments like that, when we can cling to the promises of God and trust that he has plans for us.
03:55Those times were hard. My second son had just arrived and I was lost about how to support my
04:03family and keep a roof over our heads. He said, Jason, listen to me. You're going to speak in
04:09stadiums. I could hardly believe it. I shared this dream with some friends and family and they just
04:14laughed it off. They thought I was Meshuggah and they thought I was crazy. And I decided, you know,
04:19I'm just going to keep it to myself. At that time, it seemed like an absolute pipe dream.
04:25It really did seem impossible. Luckily, our God is the God of the impossible.
04:32Then I met this guy, Lou Engel, who runs the call. They organize these big prayer events all over the
04:40country. We hit it off and became friends. And one day he rings me on the telephone. He says,
04:45Jason, how do you think we tackle the issue of antisemitism? And I said to him, Lou, it's about
04:53Ruth and Boaz. And I shared my thought from the story of the Jewish background of Ruth and Boaz.
05:00I explained how, in my opinion, the story of Ruth and Boaz is a challenge to both Jews and Gentiles
05:06to come together. In the story, Ruth and Boaz unite and ended up literally birthing the lineage of
05:15Yeshua Jesus. He got super excited and invited me to share at the call Detroit's event. I felt this
05:23inner shalom, this inner peace, like something big was really going to happen. God was going to move.
05:29He told me, I want you to take a film crew with you to film in Detroit and watch what
05:35I'm going to do.
05:36But the thing is, I was broke. Hiring a professional crew of filmmakers was not within my budget.
05:43But God continued to challenge me. He said, pay for a cameraman and hire a crew in Detroit, rent some
05:49hotel
05:50rooms and do this filming of leaders. It was crazy. I was like, Lord, I'm so excited. But how am
05:57I going to
05:57pay for all this? It was a stretch. But I stepped out in faith and hired the crew. I trusted
06:03God and
06:04went to the event. I spoke on stage about Ruth and Boaz, explaining God's heart to see people
06:12united as one in Messiah. While I was speaking, I see this man approaching on stage and he was a
06:20Muslim man. This guy grabs the microphone and says, I came to this country as a terrorist. He continued
06:26saying, I encountered Yeshua, Jesus, and he opened my eyes and he changed my heart. I went from hating
06:35the Jewish people to loving the Jewish people. He got down on one knee, looked at me and asked for
06:41my
06:42forgiveness for the hatred of the Arab people towards the Jewish people. And I responded by getting
06:49down on one knee and said to him, listen, I'm sorry for any hatred on behalf of the Jewish people
06:54and for all the conflict. It is time for Ishmael and Isaac to come back together, he said. When he
07:01said that the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, powerfully fell in that place, people started
07:08weeping. The atmosphere literally changed and the Holy Spirit started moving. In that room full of
07:14thousands, God miraculously changed people's hearts. In fact, the next day, a girl came up to me and said,
07:21look, I'm Lebanese. Israeli soldiers killed my grandfather. I've hated the Jewish people, but I
07:28was so touched by what happened last night. Please pray for me to love the Jewish people. And it was
07:34in
07:34that moment that bridges began being built. Hearts were shifting. And Lou said, this is one of the
07:41highlights of the call conference. What's incredible about it is that I stepped out in faith without the
07:48resources. I mean, I had no idea what was going to happen. And because God instructed me to step out
07:54in faith and bring a crew of people to film when I had nothing left, this entire moment was captured
08:01on camera. What was initially an event with a crowd of thousands was now shared online with thousands,
08:08maybe even millions more. God took this move of the Spirit and showed it to a crowd even greater than
08:14I
08:14could ever have imagined. When I stepped out in faith, God took the little that I gave them and
08:20multiplied it beyond my wildest dreams. So this story is my way of explaining the practical side of
08:29what we're discussing right now, the signs and secrets of multiplication. This is best shown through
08:35the miracle from John chapter six, where Yeshua fed a ton of people with just a little bit of food.
08:41We're taking a look at the multiplication when God takes the little that we have and does
08:47extraordinary things with it. We're going to dive deep into two big questions. Why are the five loaves
08:55and two fish such a big deal? And how does this miracle help us understand Yeshua better? Trust me,
09:03the Jewish context adds a whole nother layer to this miracle. And by the end, I hope you see this
09:10miracle in a whole new light and believe that if God could do that for them, guess what? He can
09:16do the
09:17exact same for you.
09:23We're here in the Galilee region, not far from the important biblical city of Capernaum in Hebrew,
09:32Capernaum. And I just want to talk with you a little bit about the significance of this region
09:38and the geography for Yeshua, Jesus's ministry. This is where Peter is based out of. This is where
09:48there's the big synagogue. Much of his teaching in ministry happens in Capernaum, a very significant,
09:54important city, as we said, on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was along the Via
10:02Maris, also known as the Dere Chaim, the Way of the Sea, a very important trade route going back to
10:10very ancient times that connected Mesopotamia and Syria to Egypt in the south. So it was a very
10:18significant place, Capernaum, for trade and commerce in this region in general, so that his message
10:25could go to Israel, but also to the nations as well. Then as you travel from Capernaum along the
10:33western side of the Sea of Galilee, on the right-hand side, you'd eventually come to the Mount of
10:41Beatitudes, also known in Hebrew as Har Ha'osher. And then right on that mountain is where Yeshua
10:50spoke the Sermon on the Mount. And there's actually a cave on that mountain that it's believed that
10:56that is where Yeshua went and prayed in solitude when he went away from the disciples. As you move
11:03along the western side of the Sea of Galilee, eventually you come to the important city of
11:09Migdal, also known as Magdala, an important trade and fishing town. And what's significant about that,
11:17you all have heard of Mary Magdalene. Actually, she's named half to the city that she comes from,
11:24Migdal or Magdala. And so we see that this is a significant region and understanding where things are
11:33situated and where things are located gives us greater insight into the person in ministry.
11:39of Yeshua and Jesus.
11:47Man, God really put me to the test when I went to the Coloment in Detroit. He wanted to see
11:54if I
11:54believe in him even when things look super bleak. Remember that story in John 6-6? Yeshua had this
12:02massive crowd telling him, all wanting to witness more of his miraculous stuff. So looking over the
12:10sea of people, Yeshua turns to Philip and is like, where are we going to buy enough bread to feed
12:17all
12:17these folks? John 6-5. Can you picture it? There were 5,000 men. If you count the women and
12:26kids,
12:26it was probably closer to 10,000. Oh my goodness. I mean, there was no way you could whip up
12:34a meal for
12:35that many. I can totally imagine Philip's face probably thinking, are you kidding me? Even if we
12:42had tons of money, all the money in the world, where would we get that much food? The nearby villages
12:49were tiny and they wouldn't have had nearly enough food. Now here's a cool detail. It says the grass was
12:57green, unlike what you see around me because we are in a completely different time of the year,
13:03a different season. But since this miracle happened at Passover time, the grass was green. That's an
13:11important detail. This meant that most of the season's grain had already been eaten. Due to the Jewish laws,
13:18they couldn't eat the new grain yet from the harvest. The first batch of grain was supposed
13:24to be offered up to God. Basically, they were out of luck in every way. Then Andrew, the brother of
13:32Peter, said, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what's that for so many?
13:40In every way, the disciples probably felt like they didn't have any option to feed the people,
13:46but the pressure was on. These people would get hungry soon. Ever wonder why Yeshua gave them this
13:54puzzle? What's the link between this challenge and the mind-blowing miracle that followed? Well,
14:02as we said, the backdrop here is Passover. We need to understand this historical context
14:08context to see why it's so important. Remember Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt into the
14:15wilderness? Well, in John 6, everyone is once again in this wilderness spot here in the Galilee.
14:24Deuteronomy 8, 2-3 gives us some insight into God's reasoning. The verse says,
14:30you to remember all the way that Adonai, your God, has led you these 40 years in the wilderness
14:37in order to humble you, to test you, to know it was in your heart, whether you would keep his
14:45mitzvot,
14:45his commandments or not. He afflicted you and let you hunger. Then he fed you manna, which neither you
14:53nor your fathers had known, in order to make sure that you understood that man does not live by bread
15:00alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai, the Lord. He tested the Israelites in the
15:08desert to see their faith, to humble them, and to teach them that people just don't live off of bread,
15:15but every word that comes from the mouth of God. Yeshua is doing the exact same thing.
15:27Remember that the Messiah is a prophet greater than Moses. He wants to show his disciples this
15:34and bring everything full circle. Fast forward to John 6. Yeshua is about to feed this crowd in an
15:42unbelievable way, just like the Israelites were fed in the desert, but this time it was going to be a
15:50little different. God's not about making our lives hard just for the cakes. He tests us to teach us and
15:59grow us. We know this is true because when we take a look at the Hebrew words here, we find
16:05a pretty incredible
16:06secret hidden in the language. The Hebrew word for test that's used a lot in scripture is nisayon.
16:14This Hebrew word specifically describes trials or tests of faith. The Israelites went through a nisayon
16:22when they had to rely on God for the manna in the desert. The word nisayon is connected to the
16:29Hebrew
16:29word nisayon, which means to be lifted up. What does this point to? God doesn't put us through trials
16:37to push us down or diminish us. He tests us nisayon so that we can be lifted up, nisayon. When
16:45we emerge
16:46on the other side of a difficult trial, we have even greater faith. We are even more capable and we
16:53can
16:53take on even bigger challenges. Problems lead to promotion. This is the full circle moment. When
17:01Yeshua multiplies the loaves and fish, he not only met their physical needs, yes, but he did it while
17:10also meeting their spiritual needs. Not only was he speaking to the crowd, giving them words of life
17:17that nourish their souls, he showed that by trusting in him, they didn't have to worry about anything.
17:24They passed the test and were able to walk in even greater spiritual power. Yeshua was teaching his
17:32disciples that they needed to lean on him. Just like God provided for his people in the desert,
17:39Yeshua was there to provide too. In the test, something incredible is revealed. Yeshua multiplied
17:46bread, and this is an obvious connection to manna and Moses. By looking at the numbers,
17:53this shows us a secret hidden in the bread itself. The Hebrew word for bread is lechem,
18:00which has a numerical value of 90. This is super significant because 90 is the numerical value
18:07of a few other key words in Hebrew. The word for lamb has a numerical value of 90. The word
18:15for redemption
18:15has a numerical value of 90. And the word melech has a numerical value of 90. Melech means king.
18:24What do we see in the numbers when we zoom out? Yeshua is the one who provides bread like manna
18:3290,
18:32who came as the lamb 90, to bring redemption 90, and ultimately reveal himself as our king 90.
18:41In this one act of multiplying bread and testing his disciples, Yeshua is taking another opportunity
18:49to reveal the secret of his identity as the one greater than Moses. This revelation happened
18:57when a few of Yeshua's followers chose to put their trust in him. Just imagine,
19:03what can be revealed when you do the same?
19:13So the big question was, were the disciples going to trust Yeshua enough to pass the test that most of
19:21the Israelites failed in the desert? To understand this, we need to take a look at the numbers. In this
19:28miracle, there's one number that stands out, seven. You see, there are five loaves and two fish,
19:36making a total of seven. There's something you should know about the number seven in Jewish thought.
19:43Seven represents rest, trust, and provision. But the question is, how so?
19:51Well, think about the story of Israel. From Sunday to Thursday, God gave the Israelites manna in the
19:59desert. But there was a catch. This manna would go bad if they kept it until the next morning. God
20:07was
20:07teaching them a lesson, to trust him for their daily needs. Then on Friday, they had to gather a double
20:14portion to cover, not only for Friday, but for Saturday also. They were collecting enough manna
20:20on the sixth day to provide for their needs on the seventh day. But why was this? It's all about
20:27rest
20:27and trust. On Shabbat, they weren't supposed to do any work. By trusting God to provide for the seventh
20:35day, they could fully rest. Fast forward 40 years, and the Israelites are in the promised land. No more
20:43manna. But God promised rains for their crops and food for their livestock. He wanted them not to
20:50worship false idols. And as long as they stayed focused on him, then the rain would come.
20:57The land of Israel wasn't like Egypt. Egypt had this rich soil that would produce all kinds of crops
21:04because the Nile River overflow would irrigate the soil and make farming possible. As we talked about in
21:12our exploration of the miracle at the wedding, Egyptians relied on the river to provide for them.
21:19In fact, the ancient Egyptians worshiped an idol called Happy that they believed brought the Nile
21:26flooding to provide the crops. They idolized the Nile and could count on it to give them good soil
21:33when it flooded like clockwork. In Israel, there was no Nile River. This means that if there wasn't enough
21:42rain, then the crops couldn't grow and too much rain would wipe out the existing food supply. Without a river,
21:50the Israelites had to place their faith in God and follow his mitzvot commandments. If they did,
21:57their storehouses would be full. Otherwise, there would be famine and the people would starve.
22:04The testing didn't stop there. When they arrived in the promised land, God introduced them to the
22:11sabbatical year known as the Shemitah. The rule was simple. Work for six years, rest on the seventh.
22:20During this rest year, they couldn't work the fields, meaning they had to trust God's provision.
22:26He said, if you're faithful to follow my commandments and choose to trust me, I will provide. As you trusted
22:35me to provide mana in the wilderness, will you trust me and work the ground for six years and rest
22:42for the
22:42seven. That seventh year was about the same three things, rest, trust and provision. But trusting God for a
22:54whole year's worth of provisions requires a strong faith. You have to remember this is before savings
23:01accounts or even refrigerators. If an entire people group stopped cultivating their fields, then there really
23:09wasn't another food source. It was a big risk to take. Now let's focus a bit more on the number
23:16seven.
23:18This number is all about trust, about believing God's promises, even when things seem unlikely or
23:26impossible. God told the Israelites they would take the land from giants. Think about that for a moment.
23:33How are they going to do that? By trusting him. How could they stop sowing in the seventh year and
23:40still
23:40have enough food? By trusting God. When the Israelites first arrived in the land, it was occupied by seven
23:49different Canaanite tribes. God asked them to march around Jericho for seven days. On the seventh day,
23:57they had to circle the city seven times. The seven priests were holding seven shofars, ram's horns.
24:04After the seventh time around, the city walls collapsed, Joshua 6. This whole ordeal must have
24:13seen incredibly unlikely, if not impossible or even crazy. The people of Israel are probably thinking,
24:21so we just have to walk around the city seven times and the walls are going to miraculously fall down.
24:28But they trusted God and he delivered. God's message was simple. Trust me and I will give you rest from
24:37your enemies. Through their trust and rest, they started to claim the promised land.
24:49So what about you? Will you trust God? You won't truly rest until you give yourself over to the one
24:57who
24:58cares about you so much. Trusting him brings spiritual and emotional rest because you give up your fears and
25:06anxieties to him. You no longer have to bear them yourself. Believing in him moves you from the six
25:15days of working to the seventh day of rest. Just as the slaves in ancient times worked for six years,
25:23we work six days a week and rest on the seventh day. If you don't transition from the six to
25:31the seven,
25:32you're basically still a slave trapped by fear, anxiety in the world. But you can decide,
25:40I'm not going to be a slave. I'm moving from the six to the seven. It all comes down to
25:47trusting God.
25:48The number seven connects deeply to the miracle of multiplication and the seven loaves and fish
25:56that Yeshua used to feed the crowd. It was a symbol of Yeshua calling the people to trust him and
26:04to rest
26:04in the provision that is found in him. But the connection to the number seven doesn't end there.
26:11In our next episode, we're going to see how the number seven connects to the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah
26:18and even the story of Joseph. All of this not only shows us God's desire to provide for us but
26:27reveals
26:27new clarity and meaning behind the miracle of multiplication. That's what we're journeying
26:33into next time on Signs and Secrets of the Messiah.
26:39We'll see you next time on Jan M.
26:39I
26:39I
26:47I
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