This chapter is based on Matthew 15:29-39; 16:1-12; Mark 7:31-37; 8:1-21.
In Decapolis, where the demoniacs of Gergesa had been healed, the people had constrained Jesus to depart. But they had listened to the messengers He left behind. As He came again into that region, a crowd gathered, and a deaf, stammering man was brought to Him. Taking him apart from the multitude, Jesus put His fingers in his ears and touched his tongue. He sighed at thought of the ears that would not be open to the truth, the tongues that refused to acknowledge the Redeemer. At the word, “Be opened,” the man's speech was restored. HLv 271.1
Jesus went up into a mountain, and there the multitude flocked to Him, bringing their sick and lame. He healed them all; and the people, heathen as they were, glorified the God of Israel. For three days they thronged about the Saviour, sleeping at night in the open air, and through the day pressing to hear the words of Christ and see His works. HLv 271.2
At the end of three days their food was spent. Jesus would not send them away hungry, and He called on His disciples to give them food. At Bethsaida they had seen how their little store availed for feeding the multitude; yet they did not now bring forward their all, trusting His power to multiply it for the hungry crowds. Again the disciples revealed their unbelief. Those He fed at Bethsaida were Jews; these were Gentiles and heathen. Jewish prejudice was still strong in the hearts of the disciples. “Where are we to get bread enough in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” RSV. HLv 271.3
But obedient to His word they brought Him what they had—seven loaves and two fishes. The multitude were fed, seven large baskets of fragments remaining. Four thousand men, besides women and children, were thus refreshed. HLv 271.4
Then with His disciples, Jesus crossed the lake to Magdala. In the border of Tyre and Sidon His spirit had been refreshed by the confiding trust of the Syrophoenician woman. The heathen people of Decapolis had received Him with gladness. Now as He landed once more in Galilee, where most of His works of mercy had been performed, He was met with contemptuous unbelief. HLv 272.1