The number five signifies responsibility, the responsibility of Christ in feeding us. The number five is composed of four plus one. The number four represents the creatures (Rev. 4:6), and the number one represents the Creator (1 Cor. 8:6). The Creator and the creatures added together take responsibility. The number five is not composed of three plus two, but of four plus one. Look at your hand. It is composed of four fingers and a thumb. It would be very awkward if your hand had three fingers and two thumbs. Four fingers with one thumb enable the hand to do many things. The five barley loaves signify that the Lord as the Creator (one) added to the creatures (four) bears the responsibility to feed us. In His humanity, the resurrected Christ bears this responsibility.
The two fishes are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. As the redeeming life, He lives in the sea, the Satan-corrupted world. The barley comes out of the land, representing the earth created by God, while the fishes come out of the sea, signifying the world corrupted by Satan. The Lord Jesus came not only to the earth created by God, but also to the world corrupted by Satan. If He had come only to the earth created by God, He would only have been represented by the barley loaves. But since He also came into the world corrupted by Satan, He is also represented by the two fishes. He had nothing to do with the corrupted world. Just as fish are not salty though they live in salt water, so the Lord was not corrupted by Satan though He lived in the Satan-corrupted world. The Lord is like the fish that can live in the salty environment of the sea without being salted by it. In order to redeem us, He lived in the satanic and sinful world. But yet He was sinless, unaffected by the sinful world. As the generating life, Christ lived as a proper man in the God-created earth. As the redeeming life, Christ lived in the Satan-corrupted world without being affected by its corruption.
The number two means testimony (Rev. 11:3). The two fishes are a testimony that Christ is sufficient to bear responsibility in feeding us.
We have seen that barley, which is of the vegetable life, represents the generating life and that the fish, which are of the animal life, represent the redeeming life. Now we must ask, if the human race had never fallen, would Christ as our regenerating life still have been necessary? Yes. Before the fall of Adam, God put him in front of the tree of life. The tree of life has nothing to do with sin. Therefore, man must take God as his life by eating the tree of life. Even John 12:24 states that the Lord was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died, after which He was raised up to become many grains. This too had nothing to do with sin, for, according to the Scriptures, the vegetable life is to produce or to generate much fruit. The one grain of wheat bears many other grains. Hence, it represents the generating life.
As we have seen, before man fell, he ate only of the vegetable life (Gen. 1:29), but after he fell, he also ate of the animal life (Gen. 9:3). Before the fall there was no need for the shedding of blood. But after man fell he needed the animal life because redemption requires the shedding of blood. The vegetable life was sufficient before man sinned, but after he sinned the animal life became necessary.
The offerings in the Old Testament always had both the vegetable life and the animal life. For example, the Passover had the slain lamb, which represented the animal life, and the unleavened bread, which represented the vegetable life. These two different lives are necessary in order to meet all of our need. Also, the meat offerings of Leviticus were accompanied with the meal offering. The meal offerings were made of fine flour, vegetable oil, and frankincense—items of the vegetable life. In Leviticus, the meal offerings could never be accepted without the meat offerings. That was exactly what Cain did. He only offered vegetables to God and was rejected, while his brother Abel offered the sacrifice of an animal whose blood had been shed and was accepted (Gen. 4:3-5).
We need the Lord Jesus to be both our generating life and our redeeming life. By His death on the cross two things came out of Him—the blood to redeem us and the water to generate us (John 19:34). His shed blood brought redemption to us, and the water from His wounded side imparted His life to us. The five barley loaves were accompanied by the two fishes. It is impossible for barley to shed blood; therefore, it could never redeem us. The two fishes represent the animal life for redemption. The Lord is represented by both the barley loaves and the fishes, for He is our vegetable life to generate us and our animal life to redeem us.