Judges 7-8 | Luke 5:1-16

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:8-9

Imagine being a disciple of Jesus and journeying with Him on the countryside. It was getting late in the day and there was a huge crowd following us. We wanted to send the crowd away to get their own food, but instead, Jesus asked us to give them something to eat. A fellow disciple discovered some kid’s lunch with five loaves of bread and two fish, which would barely make a dent in a crowd of 5,000 men, not counting the women and children there. Yet, with the little there was, we witnessed a miracle by Jesus. The five loaves of bread and two fish were not only enough to feed the crowd, there were also twelve baskets full of leftovers. We were excited to see what Jesus would do next. Instead of staying in the countryside and witnessing a few more miracles, we were ushered into a boat by Jesus to go to the other side. Actually, Jesus made us get into the boat.

Matthew 14:22 tells us, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd.” The Greek word “made” is anankazō, which means “to force, compel, to constrain, urge.” What could we speculate? If Jesus made His disciples get into the boat, we could see how much the disciples did not want to leave that place.

What lesson could we learn? As a follower of Jesus, we need to put our full trust, complete faith and absolute obedience in Jesus. Why? Because God’s way does not always seem like the obvious way. What we want to do may not always line up with God’s intended purpose. Although God’s way is not our way, we must obey Him. We have to put our trust in Him as we recognize that this life is not about us. If we want to follow Jesus, we must have Jesus be the Lord of our life and allow Him to lead us, guide us and direct us.

Returning to our story, Jesus knew what the crowd wanted to do as John 6:15 reveals, “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.” Hence, Jesus made the disciples do something that did not make sense to them because He knew the crowd had it all wrong; Jesus had a different path to take that will one day lead Him to the cross.

What is Jesus making us do that we do not understand right now, but we need to trust and obey Him?

PRAYER

Dear Jesus, You are omniscient and I am not. When You make me do something, help me to be obedient to You even when I do not understand why. Thank You, Lord.