“What’s the significance of the five loaves and two fishes the Lord used to feed the multitudes (Matt. 14:15-21)?”

The significance lies not in the actual number, but in the fact that loaves of bread were smaller in Bible days, with three loaves being about the right amount for one man’s meal (Luke 11:5,6). This means that the boy who shared the five loaves and two fishes (John 6:9) had packed just enough to feed himself, with a little left over to share with another. But it also means that he was willing to share his provisions even when it became evident that sharing them among so many would likely mean that he himself would go hungry.

This is a prophetic picture of the Tribulation saint who will be willing to help others who are hungry after the beast issues his mark and God’s people cannot buy food without it (Rev. 13:16-18), but who may fear that in so doing there may not be enough for himself. Faithful Hebrews in that day will trust God when He said that “there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth” (Prov. 11:24,25), a proverb that perhaps motivated the boy in our text. When the lad gave all that he had to the Lord, and the apostles distributed the loaves and fishes (John 6:9-11) “unto every man according as he had need,” it typified what Tribulation saints will have to do to help one another (Acts 4:32-37), and it proved that you are never too young to serve the Lord and His people!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart…the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee…The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:14-17).

The majority of the book of Zephaniah rumbles with judgment and doom, but it culminates with joy and deliverance. The prophecy builds to a crescendo at the end, as within the kingdom of heaven on the earth there will be cause for great joy. The reason for their joy is that “the King of Israel, even the Lord” is in Israel’s midst. Christ’s personal presence among Israel in the kingdom on earth, reigning over them as her King, will be the cause for their greatest joy. Because of this, Israel is told to sing, shout, be glad and rejoice with all her heart.

Paul tells the Church, the Body of Christ to “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). The Lord is the reason for our joy and gladness. We too sing because of the Lord. Colossians 3:16 tells us to be “singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” We sing to the Lord out of our joy because of Him and all He has done for us.

Within the kingdom on earth, Israel is told also that the Lord will rejoice over them. “He will rest in His love,” speaks of a still, silent joy by the Lord for Israel, but then He will break the silence with singing in His joy over His people!

The Lord loves us, the Body of Christ, just as much as He loves Israel. Out of His infinite love for you and me, He rejoices over us also with a joy so strong that it would cause Him to sing over us. It reminds us how the love of Christ “passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:19). The Lord loves us so deeply that He willingly gave His life on the Cross for our sins. When we place our faith in Christ and that He died for us and rose again, we are saved, and we rejoice in the Lord always who fully purchased our salvation. But our Savior also rejoices over us that we belong to Him eternally. The voice of God that created all things, stilled the storm, and will raise the dead at the Rapture; that voice sings over His deep joy for His redeemed. One day in glory we will hear the God who sings.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

A doxology is an expression of praise to God that is sometimes sung as a short hymn. Perhaps the most famous doxology is the Latin hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, which is Latin for “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14). When I was a boy, I sang this doxology as part of a Christmas music program at my public school. To help us remember how to pronounce the title, my music teacher said, “If someone were throwing egg shells at you, you would naturally cry out, ‘Egg Shells Cease!’” Now that’s the sign of a good teacher. She helped me remember how to pronounce a Latin phrase fifty years later!

After confessing to being the chief of sinners (I Tim. 1:15) and discussing the “mercy” and “longsuffering” that the Lord exhibited in saving him (v. 16), the Apostle Paul naturally broke out in a doxology all his own!

“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (I Timothy 1:17).

In the context, “the King” here must be the “Him” of the previous verse, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is described as “eternal” (cf. Micah 5:2) and “immortal,” a word which means to be incapable of dying. Of course! “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more!” (Rom. 6:9). The Lord wasn’t “invisible” when He was here on earth, but now in Heaven He is invisible in the same sense as God the Father, who said, “there shall no man see Me, and live” (Ex. 33:20). But that doesn’t mean our blessed Savior will be invisible to us when we get to Heaven, for in that day we will have “put on immortality” (I Cor. 15:53,54), and you will be able to gaze into the Savior’s face to your heart’s content. He is also “only wise” (cf. Jude 1:25), but not in the sense that the Father is not also “only wise” (Rom. 16:27), but only in the sense that He is the only wise God among the other “gods” mentioned in Scripture (I Cor. 8:5).

When Paul draws this doxology to a close by insisting that to Him “be honour and glory for ever and ever,” this brings us full circle back to the reason the apostle began praising God in the first place, for “worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive… honour, and glory” (Rev. 5:12). All of the Lord’s other attributes are wonderful, but this is the crown jewel of this and every other doxology.

If you are looking forward to joining the choir who are singing that doxology, don’t overlook that they are singing it to “a Lamb as it had been slain” (v. 6). This indicates that the Lord still bears the open wounds He invited Thomas to touch (John 20:27), wounds He will bear for all eternity so we never forget the price He paid for our redemption. It is wonderful to sing of gazing into the face of the Lord, but it takes our breath away to remember that His face will still be “marred more than any man” (Isa. 52:14). As Isaac Watts wrote, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Speaking of his salvation, the Apostle Paul said,

“Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting” (I Timothy 1:16).

But if the word “longsuffering” means to suffer long with someone, how can Paul say that Christ showed forth “all longsuffering” to him? As Saul of Tarsus, he didn’t join the rebellion against God until Acts 7:58, less than a year before he was saved. God certainly hadn’t suffered with Paul for very long!

But in saving Saul, the Lord didn’t just show longsuffering to him alone, He showed it to all mankind. In the past, “the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (I Peter 3:20), but it only waited 120 years (Gen. 6:3). After God judged mankind with the flood, He started all over again with Noah, the father of all nations (Gen. 10:1-32). God endured those nations for 200 years, showing more longsuffering. But when they built a tower in rebellion against Him, He saved Abraham, and made his seed His favored nation, putting up with them for 1500 years. Even more longsuffering!

After God sent His only begotten Son to His favored nation and they crucified Him and stoned His prophet, you would think that God’s longsuffering would have been exhausted. You would think God would have given up on mankind and judged us with the worst judgment the world had ever seen, the Great Tribulation (Mt. 24:21). Instead He saved Saul of Tarsus, the leader of the world’s rebellion against God, to show forth all longsuffering. Paul’s salvation was the culmination of all the longsuffering God had shown in all human history. It was one small step of longsuffering for a man, one giant leap of longsuffering for mankind.

But God did not show forth this longsuffering merely as the culmination of all His longsuffering in the past. He also showed it forth “for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting” in the future, and the longsuffering the Lord showed Paul is the same longsuffering He has shown to mankind ever since.

“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that…” (Titus 3:3,4).

After that, what? After that you’d think the wrath of God would fall on us, just as you would have thought it would have fallen on the world when they stoned Stephen. Instead we read, “after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared” (v. 4)—and it’s still appearing some 2,000 years later! Now that’s “all long-suffering!”

Have you believed on Him to life everlasting? The Lord Jesus died to pay for your sins and rose again (I Corinthians 15:3,4), and all He asks is that you believe He died to pay for your sins. Why not “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” right now “and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Years ago, a brokerage firm known as E. F. Hutton aired a TV commercial that featured two people talking about financial investing in the midst of a crowded room. When one said to the other, “Well, my broker is E. F. Hutton, and E. F. Hutton says…,” all the people around them hushed their conversations, and leaned toward them so as not to miss out on E. F. Hutton’s advice. I thought of this recently when I read I Timothy 1:15:

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…”

Imagine you’re not saved, and you’re hearing that verse read in church. If the pastor paused at the word “save” to turn the page, I daresay you’d lean forward in your seat in eagerness so as not to miss out on hearing who Christ had come to save. How thankful you would be when you heard He came to save sinners, for if you are honest you have to admit that you are among the “all” who “have sinned” (Rom. 3:23).

But the news would not have been as good for you had you been a Gentile reading the Bible before the inclusion of Paul’s epistles. When the angel told Joseph that his wife Mary would bear a son, he added, “He shall save His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21), and the Lord’s people were Jews. Aren’t you glad the Apostle Paul later made it clear that Christ came to save sinners, whether they be Jew or Gentile?

When Paul says that this saying is “worthy of all acceptation,” he means there is no part of it that is not worthy for you to believe and accept. That’s not true of all old sayings! They say there is nothing certain in this world except death and taxes, but that saying is not worthy of all of your acceptation if you are saved. There will always be taxes, but your death is anything but sure since the Rapture might come in your lifetime! We Christians aren’t looking for the undertaker, we’re looking for the Uppertaker (Tit. 2:13).

But if you’re not saved, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” is a saying that is worthy of all your acceptation! Christ did come into the world, and He came to save sinners like you. If the greatest need of men were education, God would have sent us a teacher. If our greatest need were money, He would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need were philosophy, He would have sent us a philosopher. But our greatest need was salvation, so He sent us a Savior who died for our sins and rose again (I Cor. 15:3,4). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.