“And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them, and they did set them before the people.”
Mark 8:6 (Emphasis mine)
I decided against opening the blog by saying most people are familiar with the story of Jesus' miraculous feeding of four thousand men. The Bible purposely does not record every detail of a story. The confessed objective of the gospel writers is to provide enough information to guide the reader toward salvation and peace with God. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
I want to direct your attention to three bits of information provided by Mark. Though it was not a high holy day or a proclaimed fast, the crowd had been fasting for three days. They were not on the brink of starvation, but Jesus was concerned about the physical strain fasting could cause some of them on the way home. It also means there were no hidden lunches in the crowd.
The next thing is the reaction of the disciples to Jesus’ relating that He wanted to feed everybody. They were incredulous. They were in the middle of nowhere with no place to buy supplies even if they had the money. They thought the task assigned to them was impossible.
When it was time to eat, Jesus did not call manna from heaven. He did not ask people to share. He took out the bread they had, prayed, and handed it to His disciples—His disciples—the very men who just complained to Him that the job was impossible. Jesus assigned the chore of taking seven loaves of bread to feed a hungry crowd to ordinary men with doubts and insecurities. Disciples today still have doubts and insecurities, and they are still tasked with this job.
Now, here’s the miracle within a miracle—they went out and did it! No more arguments, complaints, or wondering what to do next. They acted contrary to what their natural senses told them based only on the command of Jesus.
A similar scene was played out another time. They had been fishing all night and caught nothing. When they came to shore, Jesus told them to cast their nets again. “And Simon answering said unto him, ‘Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.’ And when they had done this, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes…” (Luke 5:5-6)
When God directs, He empowers those who will obey His commands. But do not conclude faith is blind. When Jesus spoke to the disciples telling them to set bread before the crowd, they were already in the process of formulating the theory that Jesus was capable of doing anything He said. They had tested the theory multiple times and found, sometimes to their utter amazement, it worked. It worked again that day.
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord…”
Maranatha
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