A little lad and His lunch
A little lad and His lunch
“There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish — but what are they for so many? ”
There are a thousand different directions we could go: faith as a child, giving to God, etc. But today I want to focus on what was in his lunch, five barley loaves and two fish. I learned yesterday that a barley loaf was the bread of the poor. Revelation points to barley being cheaper than wheat.
“Then I heard something like a voice among the four living creatures say, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius — but do not harm the olive oil and the wine.”
Three quarts of barley and one quart of wheat for the same price, a day's wages for the laborer or soldier. So now we don’t think in terms of a day's wages but rather in hourly rate or annual pay. An ounce of silver is equal to 7.36 denarii. So with silver at the price of $25.98 per ounce as of June 2021. This would make one denarius $3.53. Can you imagine working for $3.53 per day? That sounds ridiculous. We would not be able to buy gas to drive to work if you worked more than 10 miles away from home. Today a bushel, 32 quarts, of wheat is $5.86 and barley is $7.52. When Revelation comes true it will be around $112.96 and $37.65 accordingly. Hang on, for inflation will be getting worse.
Back to his lunch. He was not a rich kid who had extra but maybe these five loaves of bread were to feed him for a week. Or they were loaves for his brothers who were out tending the father's sheep.
What is unique about the fish? Some scholars think it was a variant of Talipia or Perch and it was smoked into a fish jerky. It would have been cooked in a way that it would keep for days while being on a journey. In Matthew, we find the story of Jesus feeding the 4,000.
“Now Jesus summoned His disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry; otherwise they might collapse on the way.”
It is assumed the fish would have been with them for three days or longer. Maybe this boy had been traveling with his family around the Sea of Galilee to hear and see Jesus so he may have saved the bread and fish for a later meal.
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