five thousand. This
miracle stirred the people to the very height of enthusiasm. Now, they
thought, we have one who is worthy to be our king. So intense was this
conviction that they wanted on the spot to proclaim him king, and
raise the standard of revolt against Rome (John 6:15). Even the
disciples seem to have been infected with this mad thought, for he
"constrained" them to go away (Matt. 14:22). On the day following,
however, the multitudes found him again, and tried to persuade him to
repeat the miracle of feeding. This he refused to do. He tried to make
them understand that he had better bread for them, even the bread of
life. But what they really wanted was only bakers' bread. They thought
that if Moses fed the people for forty years for nothing, their
Messiah should do even better than that. So, when he refused to be to
them a "commissariat department," they at once forsook him. "Many" of
his disciples "went back" at that time. For all of this read John
6:22-71. At this moment it was that Peter comes so grandly to the
front and makes his confession. When we see Peter later on denying his
Master, let us bear in mind his bold stand taken at this juncture.

#139. Opposed by the Pharisees.#--During all this year of popularity
the Pharisees were dogging the footsteps of the Master, as spies
dog the criminal. Of these Pharisees there were at this time, in
Palestine, about 6000. They were the ecclesiastical leaders of the
people, and this makes their opposition all the more ghastly. They,
who should have led the people aright, led them astray. The grounds
of their opposition were manifold. Among others were the following:

(1) They opposed him because of their _own intense pride_. They were
those who sought glory one of another, and so they could not believe
in him (John 5:44). His aims and theirs were so widely apart that they
could not even understand him. To them the glory that cometh from God
had no attractiveness. So they opposed him who was meek and lowly.

(2) They opposed him on account of _his humble origin_. He was only a
carpenter's son, and so to them was of no account. Had they made due
investigation, they would have found that he came of the line of
David, their great king. But they did nothing of the sort (Matt.
13:55-58). It was an offense to them that he came from among the
lowly, and not from some of the aristocratic families of the land. His
lack of training in the schools seems to have nettled t