The ministry of the Lord and His disciples were
so successful that a large crowd would follow them. It was difficult for the
Lord and His disciples to pull away from the crowd and not be noticed. That was
precisely what happened in these verses. Although Jesus had told His disciples that
they should go to a solitary place for a time of retreat, the people got wind
of it. As they were in the boat and pulling out to their destination, they were
spotted by many who knew them. So the horde of people, joined by others from
the town, outran the boat and went to the place where they were going, long
before the Lord and His entourage arrived. When the Lord arrived at His
destination and saw the great mass of people, He was moved with compassion. He
saw them as sheep without a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.
The people were listening to His teachings.
Though we are not told what He taught, it must have been so interesting that no
one barged. And before they realized it, the sun had set and it was getting
late. Remember, the disciples had had a long day and they were hoping for some
rest. So they came to the Lord, telling Him, “This place is desolate and it is already quite
late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding
countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But the
Lord did a deliberate thing. He told them to get something for them to eat. His
disciples immediately retorted implying that it was well-nigh impossible to do
what the Lord had told them to do. Even we can immediately think of some
reasons: Where to find the bakery in this deserted place? Even if there is one,
where do we find the fund, two hundred denarii in all, to buy the bread?
The Lord’s immediate response was, ‘how many
loaves do we have?’ Go and look for it! And they found five loaves and two
fish. In John 6:9 we are told that these were the food of a young lad. To the
Lord, it was sufficient for a miracle. The Lord then commanded that they should
gather in groups and sit around the green grass. So they gathered in groups of
hundreds and fifties. The Lord took both the loaves and the fish, with eyes
lifted toward heaven, He blessed them. Then He broke the bread and divided up
the two fish among them all. Mark did not tell us exactly what had happened.
With a bit of sanctified imagination, we can see the Lord passing whatever he
had blessed, and broke and gave it to the disciples to distribute to the crowd.
The remarkable miracle was this, whatever the disciples got in their hands just
multiplied itself. Every time they gave out, some more would appear in their
hands. There seemed to be an endless supply. So much so that even after the
5,000 men (not inclusive of the women and children) had eaten, they picked up 12
baskets full of left overs.
Here are some lessons from this miracle:
· In Divine economy, supplies
will definitely equal the demands, if not more.
· There is no problem too big
that the Lord cannot solve. If He could solve the problem confronting a
multitude, how big can our puny problem be to Him?
· There is nothing too small
that the Lord cannot use. If He could feed well over 5,000 people with just
five loaves and two fish, how will He not use whatever we are offering for His
service?
· There is no person too
insignificant that the Lord cannot use. If He could use an unknown lad, how
will He not use us who are willing to offer ourselves to Him?
· God would only use us as we
willingly offer ourselves and our resources to Him just as the lad did.
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