In John 6:1-14, the fourth sign, an event of profound significance in the narrative, unfolds amidst the backdrop of Herod Antipas beheading John the Baptist and Yeshua sending His disciples to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick (Mar. 6). This pivotal incident was birthed out of the Days of Unleavened Bread exodus and the count of fifty days or seven Sabbaths, a liminal time in which His elect firstfruits learn to live in the will and power of YHWH. Describing the kingdom of God’s triumph in the disciple’s exodus (like His glorious triumph over Pharaoh in the Sea), Yeshua declared, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. And I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, for they cannot harm you because your names are registered as citizens of heaven” (Luk. 10:18-20). The fourth sign unveils Yeshua and His followers’ priestly identity in the realm of His kingdom, a revelation of immense import.

While John the Baptist came to prepare the nation for Yeshua, his death signaled the Anointed One’s taking up the mantle to prepare the Father’s chosen. Like Israel’s wilderness journey to Mount Sinai, discipleship involved time in Yeshua’s presence, studying and discussing with Him, receiving instruction, absorbing every detail to live as He did, and emulating Him in thought, action, and resolve. The priest’s role, a central element in the themes of the fourth sign, is defined by a deep understanding of Scripture, imparting discernment and judgment between the profane and the holy. Yeshua’s rigorous training of His disciples just before this sign lays the foundation for the priesthood role He entrusted them within the fourth, fifth, and later eighth sign. Ultimately, through their work, the nations become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16; 1Pe. 2:5). This underscores the weight and importance of the priest’s role, a responsibility that demands utmost seriousness and dedication.

The fourth sign begins with Yeshua crossing the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias. The root word of Galilee, galil, encompasses an intense transformation, turning from the deadness of inability (idolatry) from not knowing God to knowing God through experiencing His salvation, just as Moses led Israel through Yam Suph and the wilderness to worship Him. Only John uses “Sea of Tiberias” and solely in the fourth, fifth, and eighth signs. Tiberias means “good vision, navel,” making it an apt word for seeing God on His holy mountain, out of which flows nourishment to the nations so that the entirety of humanity become children of Abraham, who “obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws” (Gen. 26:5). The Teacher trained His disciples to galil, to walk in holiness with God, exercising His will even unto death, trusting the outcome to the Father. Psalm 37:5–6 beautifully describes the galil theme.

5 Commit [galil] your way to YHWH,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday. (Psa. 37:5–6, NKJV, [i] mine)

“And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples” (Jhn. 6:3). Implied by the mention of much grass, the Shepherd of Israel came to feed His sheep on the grassy mountain in a deserted place called the “fishing-house.” (Fishing equates with harvesting.) John creates movement from Jesus going over the sea, the multitudes following Him, to going up the mountain and sitting with His disciples, identical to Moses leading Israel through Yam Suph and the wilderness to God’s Mountain, and on Pentecost Israel’s elders saw and ate in God’s Presence. In Mount Sinai’s wilderness, Moses miraculously fed Israel manna and the words of God. He set up judges to teach the people. The Feast of Weeks celebrates a harvest made holy and presented to God for acceptance. Through eating His words and living by every Word of God, the firstfruits became His witness to the nations of God’s righteous justice. The John 6 scene beautifully parallels Israel’s journey to Mount Sinai, inviting us to reflect on the profound connections.

John’s calling attention to the Passover, the feast of the Jews, traces to the Firstborn’s purchase and obligation, their preparation and gifts, and their holy new life “in Christ” and Christ “in them.” To fully leave the world’s culture, oneness with the Father and Son is vital to the firstfruits. Humans do not inherently know the way of the spirit—the breath of life—the way of the universe’s empyrean government (Ecc. 11:5). God develops His holiness (separateness from sin) in us by removing our chaff through hardships on our wilderness journey of seven Sabbaths. From His holiness, the love of God flows out to humanity. Undeniably, Jesus sent His disciples to do the works of God “in Christ,” just as the Father had sent Him and did the works in Him. Yeshua commissioned them to carry on His realization of the Sabbaths with the same zealous compassion—casting out evil, bearing one another’s burdens, healing, cleansing, bringing to life, and teaching. John’s brief, key statement, “The Passover, the feast of the Jews was near,” set the stage for the fourth sign’s focus, the firstfruit’s participatory role in covenant faithfulness. As we saw previously, Passover’s betrothal is consummated on day fifty.

John’s parallels to the Torah continue, “Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him [like sheep without a shepherd (Mar. 6:34)].” To “lift up one’s eyes and see” identified Yeshua with Abraham “on the third day lifted his eyes and saw the place [of sacrifice] afar off. At this point, John’s story parallels Abraham’s test of offering Isaac. Yeshua tested Philip (Jhn. 6:6), and like Israel’s test in the wilderness (and Adam and Eve’s in the Garden), the test involved eating. A boy gave all his five barley loaves and two fish to Yeshua, which the Teacher used to feed the five thousand. Yeshua told His disciples, “You give them something to eat” (Mar. 6:37). After He blessed it, He gave the loaves and fishes to His disciples to distribute to the people. The crowd ate as much as they wanted, and the disciples gathered up the barley loaves fragments that remained so that nothing was lost, twelve baskets in all.

A brief story in 2 Kings 4:42–44 parallels John 6. Much of the wording is the same. Phrases “Give it to the people that they may eat” and “they ate and had some leftover,” as well as the doubting servant questioning God’s power to provide a great need with such a small amount, match the Gospel accounts of Yeshua feeding the multitudes. God had assigned the twenty loaves of barley bread (the bread of the firstfruits) to Israel’s tabernacle priests, but in this short account, it is given to one hundred men, signifying the complete number of firstfruits. One hundred, symbolized by the nineteenth Hebrew letter, qoof קַ, is defined as “to make a complete circle, end of a cycle” (Seekins, p. 84). The “bread of the firstfruits” was twenty loaves of barley bread, a double tithe (Strong’s H6242), allusive of the two loaves, “the two-tenths bread of the firstfruits,” of Leviticus 23:20 waved before God on Pentecost (Deu. 26:1–10, 2Ch. 31:5, Neh. 10:35–37). The twenty loaves foreshadowed the reality of the two-loaf firstfruit harvest, the double portion belonging to Christ, the Firstborn. A double portion that preserved the world alive has roots in Joseph’s saving 20 percent of the grain of Egypt

Takeaway:
Set on the mountainous slope of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberius just outside Bethsaida, the fourth sign shows Yeshua as the new Moses, the Prophet to come. Like Moses taught Israel’s elders the Word of God, Yeshua teaches His disciples to work in oneness with Him in their priestly role to the world.

Fun Factors:
John 6:1-14 has 119 letters (25² + 22²) in 216 words (6³, 3³ + 4³ + 5³; Moses = 345), totaling 134872, 8 × 23 × 733, 184(27² + 2²); 1 × 8 × 4 = 32, 184 + 32 = 216. The numbers tell us that the seed of the woman, the perfect human (6³), is the reality of the new Moses (3³ + 4³ + 5³), reflecting the sun’s light into the earth’s darkness (216). As His followers, we also are the light of the world.