With only five loaf of bread and two fishes would you feed a multitude of 5,000 people and not including children, women and elder people? Is your faith independed or depends on seeing to believe? What would you do when there’s a multitude of people coming and you don’t have enough to offer? Would you find a way to feed them or tell them to go home? All of these are questions that we probably ask ourselves while reading this story. Jesus and his disciples where on a remote island in the Sea of Tiberius on a far shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus wanted to rest after the many healings he and his disciples had done. I also believe Jesus wanted to have some time to himself due to the death of John the Baptist. He was probably upset and not having such a great day, Jesus maybe wanted to dwell with the grief in his own, so he went off to the remote island.
Now how did a multitude arrive there? Crowds began to follow Jesus based off the miracles they had heard that he performed. Jesus did not dwell on the grief, but returned to the ministry he came to do in this earth. The disciples seeing a great multitude approaching started looking around for food to feed the crowd and found themselves with five loads of bread and two fishes, so they probably starred going crazy and went to Jesus asking for help. But they all gathered around telling Jesus to send them home so they could get something to eat because they did not had enough. I imagine Jesus thinking “from all my disciples, who’s faith shall I test”, and a light turning on in his head, he looks over to Philip and asked him, “Where shall we buy bread for three people to eat?” Jesus already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip living in a town just nine miles away answered him,”Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”.
Jesus wanted to test the faith of his disciples; that’s so deep to me because why would he ask Philip knowing that Philip would only give him a human solution. Jesus was basically highlighting to his disciples the powerful miracle he was about to perform. What is faith? “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1(KJV) Sometimes God places challenges in front of us that alone we can’t accomplish because it’s impossible, but He does that so we can rely on him to help us and give us his strength, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me.” Philippians 4:13(KJV). So the impossible is possible when you believe and have faith in God that it will be done. In the book of Daniel 3:16-18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were being pressured to deny God and worship the King Nebuchadnezzar, but they chose to be faithful to God and no matter what happen. They knew that their faith in God would not let anything bad happen to them. They told the King they would not serve the gods or worship the imagine of gold the king had set up. They were not afraid of the king’s reaction because they had a strong faith in God. Even when King Nebuchadnezzar threaten their lives if they didn’t worship the god he had set up, their faith still stood. Sometimes we only want to have faith if the outcome is going to be positive. Not everything in our lives is going to be good because clearly in the bible it tells us in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take the heart because I [God] have overcome the world.” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when faced with the possibility of death for not bowing down, told King Nebuchadnezzar that God was able to save them from the burning furnace, but even if he didn’t, they would still not worship the false idol.
Jesus instructed his disciples to have the people sit down in groups of 50. Psalms 23:1-2 ties in with the passage from John. John says there were about five thousand men, but the Greek term used here is gender specific, meaning that only the men were usually numbered, so the whole crowd, including men, women and children, could have been four times that number. Psalms 23:1 tells us, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” A part of the multitude that followed Jesus was due to his miracles, another part of the crowd followed was because of his teaching, and the last part was because they recognized that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God. Now Jesus would feed the group that followed him and then pastored to them. What were the disciples worried about? Not having enough food to feed the multitude. But why when Jesus is son of God and it tells us that “The Lord is our Shepherd; I shall not want”, meaning he will provide, he will always provide.
But why did Jesus wanted the multitude to sit on the grass, Psalms 23:2 says “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” The multitude was sitting in green grass where there were relaxing, getting ready to eat. Why wouldn’t there be grass on that remoted island and not rocks when in the bible it tells us it was isolated no one lived there? God always works in perfection. “He leadeth me beside the still waters.” They were on a remoted island, so what surrounded them? Water. God wanted his sheep (the multitude) to sit in the grass surrounded by water to leadeth them after feeding them.
To settle this, did Jesus tell his disciples, “Now go to the grocery store in the near town and buy 1,000 loaves of bread and clean out the seafood department?” No, he told them to bring to him what they had. His disciples Andrew, brought to Jesus what a little boy had, which was five loafs of bread and two fish. Now the disciples knew that even with what the little boy had brought wasn’t enough, but what that little boy gave, it made a difference. If we have nothing to offer to God, he will have nothing to use. But if we give him the little that we have, he can turn it into something great. Taking the loaves and the fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Feeding the multitude showed me three things.
1. Giving thanks. It amazed me that Jesus gave thanks, that he didn’t look at the situation that was around. Sometimes we worry too much about what is around us and don’t look at what the outcome of the situation might be if we only left it in Gods hands, and gave thanks in faith knowing that it will be done.
2. In the breaking of the bread the Lord give us a great revelation of what was going to happen. This action that Jesus did was a sign of what he himself was going to do as he gave his body as a sacrifice for all of us on the cross of Calvary. He was broken into pieces and beaten badly, the bible shows us that he is our daily bread that gives us life as he broke the loaves he was again showing his love and giving testimony that he was the Son of God. This miracle of the feeding is great because of the representation of the sacrifice he was going to do for the world as he was crucified. At the end of it all he looks up to heaven and said to the Father “It is done”. This is the same thing he did during the feeding of the multitude, he looks up to heaven and said, “Thank you.” WOW, what a loving God, the loaves represents Jesus as the living sacrifice, and our daily bread.
3. Jesus feed the multitude in abundance until they all were satisfied. God always supplies us in abundance because it’s like if you neighbor was in need and you felt in your heart to help, would you give them the exact need or go an extra mile? Go the extra mile like God does with us in the mist of any situation. Even with the five loaves of bread and the two fishes, there were still leftovers. The bible says that the disciples were still able to full 12 baskets from the leftovers food. Again, others who have studied the reference see this and see the number of baskets “12” as being significant, or relative to the 12 tribes of Israel in the desert. Maybe it is, what do you think? Twelve baskets and twelve tribes, Moses feeling the people, Jesus feeding people. Scripture is intensely connected. It’s amazing how the scriptures are so intwined, that they tie events together that are sometimes hundreds of years apart. In this case it would have been over 1400 years years earlier, (between 1440 and 1400) were the years of the exodus and wandering in the desert.
In closing. What is faith? Faith is believing in the most of the situation God is Sovereign, faith is not caring what is around, believing that the outcome won’t be what your seeing at the moment, faith is leaving everything in Gods hands, faith is declaring the impossible for men possible for God. When your faith is tested ask yourself WHAT WOULD JESUS DO.
-God Bless
