“Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.” Matthew 13:48

Since we carry our goods in plastic bags, totes, and boxes, it takes some imagination to realize how important baskets were in Bible times. Baskets needed to be woven by an experienced weaver. Sometimes the lady of the house would make her own using willow branches or palm leaves.

In the Bible we find many uses for baskets. It was a basket that held baby Moses. Exodus 2:3 says, “When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch.” We read of the Israelite slaves in Egypt using baskets to carry the bricks they made. Some baskets were used to carry fruit, as in Jeremiah 24:2, “One basket had very good figs.” The chief baker in Joseph’s jail cell had a dream in which he carried his baked bread in a basket on his head. Some baskets also had lids and handles for carrying.

In the New Testament we find two types of baskets. One was a huge basketlike hamper such as the one in which Paul was let down from the city wall. “I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall” (2 Corinthians 11:33).

The other was carried on the back like a backpack. This basket was used to pick up the scraps in the feeding of the 5,000, “The disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over” (Matthew 14:20).

Just as the baskets at the feeding of the 5,000 were overflowing with God’s goodness, so our lives are filled with blessings. How thankful we are!

From the book “Precious Words of the Bible” by Reynold R. Kremer