From the desk of Pastor Ben

Feeding of the 4,000 – Part 1

“He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them, and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was leftover of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.”         (Matthew 15:35-38)

Jesus displayed compassion for people’s spiritual needs and physical afflictions, but He also had compassion concerning their daily food. He tells us to ask God to “give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) because He cares about our practical needs. Here, our Lord was determined that the needy crowd not go home hungry and collapse on the way.

As with the 5,000, the apostles again wondered where they could get enough food for so many people (15:33). They couldn’t possibly have forgotten the miracle of a month earlier, but they were merely noting again their lack of resources. This multitude was slightly smaller, but the disciples could no more provide enough food for them than they could for the 5,000.

This region where they were was likely even more desolate than the area where Christ fed the 5,000. If food was sparse on that earlier occasion, it certainly would not be readily available now. But surely the apostles did not doubt that their Lord could again miraculously feed a large number of people; they remembered vividly the feeding of the 5,000. The apostles’ words to Jesus simply emphasized their confidence that He could satisfy such a multitude whereas they could not. Jesus had no less power than before, and His disciples had no more than before.

Ask Yourself:
The size of our need does not determine the size of God’s provision. He meets needs completely, even when our need is great. Yet, even when our needs are smaller by comparison, we must never think that we are sufficient in ourselves to care for them. Are you depending on Him . . .for everything?