Compassion compelled Jesus to do something about the situation. In the previous chapter, we have the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand at Bethsaida by the Sea of Galilee, where the crowd were mostly Jews. Here, however, the crowd comprised Jews and Gentiles (Mark 7: 31), and gives...

Moses had sent the twelve spies, one from each tribe of Israel, into the land God had promised. He asked them to recce the place and to bring some of the fruit of the land. This would help them assess the situation of the people of the land they were to conquer, and to know how fertile was the...