Mat 14:23-24 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord must force His disciples to go on board and go ahead of Him to the other side without Him. He Himself says goodbye to the crowds. After having given proof of His blessed presence in the miraculous feeding, now inevitably comes the moment that He must send the people away. It is a prophetic picture of what God had to do with His people because they rejected His Son. When the Lord has sent the mass of people away, He climbs the mountain to pray. His disciples are at sea. They do not see the Lord, but He sees them. He prays for them. He seeks fellowship with His Father in solitude and in the heights. While He prays, the disciples are in distress. There is a headwind. This is a picture of everyday life. He allows storms to test our faith. The disciples are worried. In them we can see a picture of the believing remnant of Israel among the hostile nations, of which the sea is a picture, in the time of the great tribulation. The disciples think that the Lord has forgotten them. The remnant during the great tribulation will think so too. In several psalms they state this ( ). But He does not forget them. He does not come to them until the night is darkest, in the fourth watch. That is also against the dawn of the day. It is also the time for the morning star to rise. Prophetically, we live in the end of the dispensation of the night, which is almost gone ( ). We also have arrived in the darkest period of the night. Especially at that point we can experience His closeness the most and we can see Him coming to us. However, we are often like the disciples who regard the Lord as a ghost. This happens when, in all adversity, we see only the devil, as if he makes life difficult for us, while we ignore the fact that our circumstances are in the hand of our loving Lord. Job saw it differently. He took everything from the Lord’s hand. He did not say, ‘The LORD gave and satan has taken away’, but, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away” ( ). In our circumstances we must learn to discover the Lord, that He is close to us and has power over all circumstances. The Lord walks on the water as if on solid ground. He Who, as God, created the elements as they are, can, as the Son of Man, according to His pleasure, dispose of their properties and walk over them. He does not do His walking on the water for the crowds, for their appetite for sensation, but He does it for fearful disciples to convince them of His power. He is not yet calming the water. That comes at the end. When the disciples cry out in fear, He speaks to them reassuringly. First He says to them to take courage. He has already spoken this wonderful word of encouragement in this Gospel to people who need it so much ( ). Then, He refers to Himself “it is I”, for only through Him can there be taken courage. Finally, He says they should not be afraid. He wants to dispel their fear because it prevents them from taking courage.

‏ Matthew 14:23-24

In the Storm

The Lord must force His disciples to go on board and go ahead of Him to the other side without Him. He Himself says goodbye to the crowds. After having given proof of His blessed presence in the miraculous feeding, now inevitably comes the moment that He must send the people away. It is a prophetic picture of what God had to do with His people because they rejected His Son.

When the Lord has sent the mass of people away, He climbs the mountain to pray. His disciples are at sea. They do not see the Lord, but He sees them. He prays for them. He seeks fellowship with His Father in solitude and in the heights. While He prays, the disciples are in distress. There is a headwind. This is a picture of everyday life. He allows storms to test our faith. The disciples are worried. In them we can see a picture of the believing remnant of Israel among the hostile nations, of which the sea is a picture, in the time of the great tribulation.

The disciples think that the Lord has forgotten them. The remnant during the great tribulation will think so too. In several psalms they state this (Psa 10:11 ; Psa 13:1 ; Psa 77:9). But He does not forget them. He does not come to them until the night is darkest, in the fourth watch. That is also against the dawn of the day. It is also the time for the morning star to rise. Prophetically, we live in the end of the dispensation of the night, which is almost gone (Rom 13:12). We also have arrived in the darkest period of the night. Especially at that point we can experience His closeness the most and we can see Him coming to us.

However, we are often like the disciples who regard the Lord as a ghost. This happens when, in all adversity, we see only the devil, as if he makes life difficult for us, while we ignore the fact that our circumstances are in the hand of our loving Lord. Job saw it differently. He took everything from the Lord’s hand. He did not say, ‘The LORD gave and satan has taken away’, but, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away” (Job 1:21). In our circumstances we must learn to discover the Lord, that He is close to us and has power over all circumstances.

The Lord walks on the water as if on solid ground. He Who, as God, created the elements as they are, can, as the Son of Man, according to His pleasure, dispose of their properties and walk over them. He does not do His walking on the water for the crowds, for their appetite for sensation, but He does it for fearful disciples to convince them of His power. He is not yet calming the water. That comes at the end.

When the disciples cry out in fear, He speaks to them reassuringly. First He says to them to take courage. He has already spoken this wonderful word of encouragement in this Gospel to people who need it so much (Mt 9:2 ; 22). Then, He refers to Himself “it is I”, for only through Him can there be taken courage. Finally, He says they should not be afraid. He wants to dispel their fear because it prevents them from taking courage.