The Old Testament prophets prophesied of a new covenant where we would all be taught of God. This is speaking of revelation knowledge that comes from within, through our spirit. Under the Old Covenant, God dealt with the Jews through the outer man. He did this because an Old Covenant man (who was not born again) could not perceive the spiritual truths revealed in the New Covenant by the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:14). This difference between the old and new covenants is the reason why there had to be two covenants.

The Old Testament man was comparable to a child in his ability to grasp spiritual truth. It is impossible to explain spiritual truth to a young child, and yet, a child must be restrained from submitting to evil. So, the Word of God teaches us to use the “rod of correction” (Prov. 13:24; 19:18; 22:15). The child may not understand resisting the devil, and yet, when the devil tries to entice him to steal, he will say “No!” because he fears he will get the rod if he does steal. Likewise, Old Testament saints were restrained from sin by a fear of the wrath and punishment of God. This curbed sin, but it also hindered them from receiving the goodness and love of God (1 Jn. 4:18).

Under the New Testament, which Jesus is speaking of in this verse, the punishment for our sins was laid on Him. We no longer serve God out of fear of punishment like once we did when we were “children” under the law, but we serve Him out of love; because He has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, making us His sons. We serve Him because our nature has been changed through the new birth. Today, be taught of God through the indwelling presence of Christ.

It is probable that these Jews were expecting Jesus to rain down manna on them the way God did before in the wilderness. After all, anyone who could feed five thousand men with one small lunch should be able to produce manna. They were still thinking of physical food.

The word “manna” means literally “what is it?” The children of Israel said, “It is manna: for they wist (or knew) not what it was.” (Ex. 16:15) Manna was a nutritious food which appeared on the ground every morning shortly after the children of Israel left Egypt and began their 40-year wandering in the wilderness. Moses called it “bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.”

The Lord, in speaking to Moses, called it “bread from heaven.” It was small and round, like coriander seed, and was white in color or yellowish, like bdellium. The people, after gathering it, ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar, baked it in pans and made cakes of it. It tasted like wafers made with honey or fresh oil. It was gathered every morning and had to be used up that day or it would stink and have worms. An exception was on the sixth day. It could be gathered for the Sabbath and wouldn’t spoil (Ex. 16:22-26).

Although they were looking for pieces of bread to materialize, which would have been a great miracle, it would have been insignificant compared to the miracle of God being manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). They were talking to the greatest miracle that God had ever performed, but they were blind to it. Many times, we get so intent on seeking God in one area that we forget the greatest miracle of all, which is the love and redemption given to us from God through His Son.

All throughout history, mankind has been seeking ways to do the works of God. Everyone has a knowledge within them of the reality of God (Rom. 1:18-20), and a desire to be right with Him. However, just as with these Jews, few agree with the Lord as to how to do it. These Jews were willing to do something to obtain salvation, but they were not willing to commit themselves to Jesus and accept His gift.

This is one of the major differences between Christianity and the religions of the world. Religion is willing to make sacrifices to obtain right standing with God, but Christianity recognizes our complete inability to ever do enough to save ourselves and calls for total faith and reliance on what Jesus did for us.

No one deserves salvation. It cannot be earned by what the Bible calls “dead works” (Heb. 6:1; 9:14). Dead works include all religious activities, good deeds, or charity that one may do as a means of being justified before God.

Faith towards God and what He has done through Christ Jesus is the only means of receiving His free gift of salvation. He only asks us to believe.

Jesus knew the hearts of all men and therefore, He did not commit Himself to this crowd. Just the day before, these same people tried to take Him by force and make Him their king, but He withdrew and spent the night in prayer.

This crowd looked like they were seeking Jesus, but they were actually trying to use Jesus to seek their own end. It is true that there are many personal benefits to be reaped through serving the Lord, but the benefits are never to become our object. In all things, Christ must have the preeminence (Col. 1:18).

Jesus exposed the true intentions of the people’s hearts by preaching a strong message of commitment. Those who were self-centered were offended and left while those who were willing to lay down their lives to experience God’s abundant life remained. Commitment to God Himself (not what He can produce) is what always separates the true worshippers of God from the false.

As Jesus began to explain in these verses that He was the only way to the Father (Jn. 14:6) and that they would have to come through Him, the people grew angry. It always angers the flesh to think that all our righteous acts can’t save us, but Jesus made it clear that our only part in salvation is to believe. Believe what? Believe on Jesus and His sacrifice – not ours. Salvation is a gift and cannot be purchased (Rom. 10:2-3).

Many times, we get so intent on seeking God in one area that we forget the greatest miracle of all, which is the love and redemption given to us from God through His Son. God loves us so much!

Most of the time, we think of a person with a hard heart as being someone who is in terrible rebellion to God. While it is true that a rebellious person does have a hardened heart, in this instance, the Word is referring to the disciples’ hearts being hardened. They were, “sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered” at Jesus walking on the water.

The word “hardened” as used here, means “to make calloused, unyielding or cold in spirit, or insensitive to.” The disciples were not God haters, but rather they had become so sensitive to the natural world and its limitations that they were overwhelmed to see Jesus supersede these laws. Therefore, they had a hardened heart.

If they had kept in mind the miracle they had just seen Jesus perform (the feeding of the five thousand), then they wouldn’t have been amazed to see Jesus walking on the water toward them. After all, He had constrained them to get into the ship and was therefore responsible for them. He was just a short distance away from them, and was in the same storm himself, so they knew He was aware of their situation. They should have been expecting Jesus to come and save them, even if He had to walk on the water to do it.

Many of us are more sensitive to fear and doubt than we are to the truths of God’s Word. This is because we have thought more on things that minister fear and doubt. We can take these laws about hardening our hearts and use them in a positive way. We can actually harden our hearts to doubt by considering only God’s Word. It is a possible and obtainable goal to become just as sensitive to God and faith as we have been to Satan and doubt. Meditate on God’s Word today.

The reason Peter began to sink was because of his fear. In verse 31 Jesus used the word “doubt” in reference to Peter’s fear. Fear is simply negative faith or faith in reverse. Where did this fear come from? Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.” It didn’t come from God. This fear was able to come upon Peter because he took his attention off of Jesus and put it on his situation.

Fear or doubt cannot “just overcome” us. We have to let it in. If Peter had kept his attention on Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith (Heb. 12:2), he wouldn’t have feared. In the same way that faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17), fear comes by hearing or seeing something contrary to God’s Word. We would not be tempted with fear or doubt if we didn’t consider things that Satan uses to minister fear and doubt. The wind and waves didn’t really have anything to do with Peter walking on the water.

He couldn’t have walked on the water apart from Jesus even if it had been calm. The circumstances simply took Peter’s attention off of his Master and led him back into carnal thinking. Likewise, Satan tries to distract us with thinking about our problems.

Peter’s faith didn’t fail him all at once, as can be seen by the fact that he only “began” to sink. If there had been no faith present, he would have sunk all at once and not gradually. This illustrates that the entrance of fear and the exit of faith do not happen instantly. There are always signs that this is happening. If we will turn our attention back to Jesus, as Peter did, He will save us from drowning. No problem is too big for God. We should cast our care about the problem over on God and just keep our eyes on Jesus, the Word.

This one word “come” was spoken by the one who made all things (Jn. 1:3) and it had just as much power in it as the words that were spoken at creation. This is where the power came from for Peter to walk on the water. Likewise, any word spoken to us by God carries in itself the anointing and power it takes to fulfill that word, if we will release it by believing it and acting on it.

We need to not only know God’s power, but the greatness of God’s power, and then the exceeding greatness of God’s power. This exceeding greatness of God’s power is towards us. That means that it is for us and our benefit. Some people get glimpses of God’s power, but very few have the revelation that it is for us and at our disposal. It doesn’t do us any good to believe that God has power if we don’t believe that it will work for us. This great power of God is effectual only for those who believe. We must believe to receive, or if we doubt, we do without.

Despite all the criticism that might be leveled at Peter in this instance, he did walk on the water. There were eleven other disciples in the boat and although they clearly saw Jesus and Peter walking on the water, they still did not participate. One of the important steps in receiving a miracle from God is to leave the security of your natural resources (get out of your boat) and put yourself in the position where there has to be a miracle from God to hold you up. God is no respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11). Any of the disciples could have walked on the water, if they would have asked and gotten out of the boat.

Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). The temptation for Jesus to submit to the crowd and exalt Himself must have been there but He didn’t respond to it. He came to do the Father’s will and not His own will (Jn. 6:38). He immediately withdrew from everyone and spent all night in prayer with His Father. Prolonged prayer is an antidote for the temptation of pride and will work a God-type of humility in your life.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul is preaching a death to self, but it is very important to notice how this death took place. Paul said he was dead through what Jesus did. He experienced this death by simply reckoning what had already happened through Christ to be so (Rom. 6:11).

There are people today who have taken the “dying to self” doctrine to an extreme and, instead of being free of self, they are totally self-centered. They constantly think of self. It may be in all negative terms, but it is still self-centered. A truly humble person is one who is Christ-centered. Dying to self is not a hatred for self but rather a love of Christ more than self.

There are false religions that preach a denial of self. We need to be not just dead to self, but alive to God. A focus on the denial of self without the enthronement of Christ leads to legalism. True humility is not a debasing of self, or a hatred of self, or our accomplishments. It is simply an awareness that all that we have and are is a gift of God. Therefore, only a person who acknowledges God can operate in true humility.

It is important to analyze Peter’s statement. Peter was overwhelmed when he saw Jesus walking on the water, and he wanted to do the same. While there is really nothing wrong with his desire, the request he put before Jesus was totally wrong. He didn’t ask the Lord if he wanted him to walk on the water, or if his faith was up to it. Instead he said, “If it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” What was Jesus going to say, “It isn’t me. Don’t come.”?

There are no other examples of someone walking on water in the Word of God. Jesus had a definite reason for walking on the water; however, Peter simply wanted to see if he could do it. God will permit us to do things that are not His perfect will for us.

Many times we hinder our own prayers by the way we ask things of God. We say, “Do you want me to do (a) or (b)?” The Lord may not want us to do either one. We should offer Him a third choice – (c) none of the above. We should trust God’s wisdom and even allow Him to select the options.