After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias, from the Capernaum side to a quiet deserted place beyond the water with His disciples for a short season of rest. A great multitude followed because they had seen His miracles on the diseased, some hurrying by land and some coming in boats, so a crowd was waiting before He reached shore. Though weary and seeking rest, when He saw them coming His heart was stirred with sympathy for their greater need, and He left His retreat to teach them the way of salvation and heal the sick through the day. In that wilderness place far from home He fed about five thousand men besides women and children from five barley loaves and two small fishes, multiplying the food in His hands through the disciples until all were satisfied and twelve baskets of fragments remained. The chapter this crossing opens presents Him as the Bread of Life given for the life of the world, whose flesh eaten and blood drunk by receiving His words into mind and life give eternal life and resurrection at the last day.
Crossing and Setting
After these things marks a crossing to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and locates beside that water all that follows in the feeding of the multitude. The chapter opens with that movement over the water and introduces Christ's teaching as the Bread of Life. He had withdrawn with His disciples to minister to the gathered multitude, teaching and healing them after the crossing.
From the Capernaum area He went over the sea to a quiet, deserted, secluded place beyond the sea with His disciples to obtain a short season of peaceful rest for Himself and for their benefit. They entered a boat to make their way there, seeking a rare season of rest up in a mountain where He sat with His disciples apart. He had withdrawn with them to a secluded place beyond Capernaum to rest awhile before the feeding.
A great multitude followed Him because they had seen His miracles on them that were diseased and seen Him heal the sick, as He traveled from place to place to minister to temporal and spiritual needs. Some searching for Him saw Him depart from the shore, noticed the direction He went, and the news spread from city to city that He was crossing the sea, so many hurried by land to meet Him and flocked to the place where His boat would land while others followed over the water in boats. A multitude was waiting before He reached the shore, yet He landed without being noticed and unobserved and spent a little time apart with His disciples before seeing the crowd and going to minister to them.
Though weary and seeking rest, from the hillside He looked on the people coming and still coming, and His heart was stirred with sympathy for their greater need. Though interrupted and robbed of rest He was not impatient but left His retreat to teach them the way of salvation, sinking pure and simple teaching such as had never fallen on their ears into their hearts. He taught the people throughout the day and healed their sick and comforted their sorrow and healed the sick and afflicted brought to Him, rather than sending them away hungering.
The setting was wilderness far from home where food was not readily available, with evening near, and Jesus knew the crowd would become hungry and faint. The crossing and secluded landing took place when the Passover was nigh, with pilgrims traveling toward Jerusalem. On one such journey of leading people away from cities to quiet places where He taught them, a multitude followed Him and after being with Him for three days were weary and hungry, and though He shared their human need and had no apparent means He depended on His heavenly Father to provide.
After the multitude was fed, the people returned the following morning to the barren shore where they had last seen Him watching them leave with compassion, because they knew no boat had been left for Him to depart in, and news of the miracle had spread widely drawing large crowds by land and water. They had been fed by Him the day before on that shore of the Sea of Galilee, then went to Capernaum looking for Him. That same act of breaking food and dividing it among them on the mountainside was brought to mind when the risen Saviour broke bread and divided fish among the seven disciples on the shore and made Himself known and acknowledged by all, leaving them in mysterious awe as in silence they gazed upon Him, and the disciples remembered the mountainside miracle and recognized that the resurrected Jesus still cared for them and could provide for them as they did His work. Much of His ministry was passed near that sea on a beach within sight of where the disciples later gathered, where above ten thousand persons were fed from a few small loaves and fishes not far distant from Capernaum the scene of many miracles, so the whole shore stood as a reminder of Jesus and His mighty works, His words and His deeds.
The journey across the sea after the miracle of the loaves was marked by a storm in which the disciples rowed against adverse winds until Jesus came to them walking on the water and reassured them, and the tempest suddenly ceased as the boat reached land. He reached Gennesaret after crossing the sea during that storm, while people searched for Him at Bethsaida and Capernaum.
Miracle of Provision
The gathering numbered five thousand men besides women and children, about ten thousand in all, who had gone without food while listening as the day ended, and Jesus asked Philip where bread could be obtained to test faith, though He already knew how He would provide. A boy supplied the whole stock, five barley loaves and two small fishes, and after giving thanks Jesus distributed through the disciples as much as the people desired. He had the people seated in groups to keep order and let them witness what was done.
The supply did not diminish or run out as it passed from Jesus to the disciples and to the people but multiplied in His hands, their hands being filled again as they gave it out. Everyone ate enough and was satisfied, and the disciples themselves also ate together with Christ. He then had the leftover pieces gathered so that nothing would be wasted, and they filled twelve baskets, with as much remaining as at the start.
The miracle displays the same creative power by which God continually produces the harvest and sustains life, working through rain, air, sunshine, seed, and human labor to provide food for millions. God supplies what sustains life as surely as He multiplied the loaves, yet people may overlook His agency and credit only natural processes or human effort. His gifts are meant to bless and be received with recognition of His kindness, not turned to selfish use.
The provision shows Christ supplying both temporal need and spiritual bread, depending on His heavenly Father to provide though He shared human need and had no apparent means to meet it. It was part of His mission and expressed His love for men as the heavenly Provider and the people's Father and keeper, the Source of all blessings whose way of ministering is the example for service. It is the work of the same Coming One who guided Israel in the wilderness and supplied bread and clear flowing water, who as man worked a wonder like that done for one hundred men in Old Testament times. Though He walked in lowliness and poverty He was greater than Moses, for He is the One who declared Before Abraham was, I AM, and by the touch of His hand and the grace of God on the small portion He can spread a table in the wilderness for more than a million and multiply scanty provision a hundredfold until it is all-sufficient.
Bread of Life Teaching
The chapter that opens with this crossing presents Christ as the Bread of Life, the rich manna of heaven given for the life of the world. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood gives eternal life and resurrection at the last day. Those who receive Him as personal Saviour take His life-giving words and spiritual truths into mind and life. To eat this bread is to understand those truths, practice them, and live by them, for His words are spirit and life.
Feeding upon Him creates soul hunger for God and gives spiritual strength and comfort. It brings peace, joy, hope, assurance, and love for Bible religion. He came that believers might have life more abundantly, and He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. Even if a believer dies as Christ died, the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God.
The living Word, the living oracles, are called His flesh and blood even before the crucifixion because His work as substitute for sin was the hope of ancient Israel. The New Testament was added not to discard the Old but to shed light back upon it and reveal the significance of Israel's religious system and Jewish economy. Its teachings call Christians to practical holiness and obedience.
The chapter plainly expresses the will of God for His people and contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Its statements are to be read, studied, received, and obeyed for eternal life, to understand truths about depending on Christ rather than on human beings for wisdom, strength, and guidance. Reading the chapter forces a choice of whom to serve, and the choice is a question of life or death. Light from the throne of God must be let into the heart, for no one can serve God with a divided heart, and a mind given to the transactions of the theater finds no soul hunger for God.
The truths Jesus taught there led hearers to decide for or against Him and revealed their true feelings. Mere outward connection with any church will not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. Those not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. As bread strengthens the body, so faith in Christ and obedience to His teaching give the soul spiritual strength and everlasting life.
Responses to the Sign
While they were eating the food He had provided from five barley loaves and two small fishes, enough for thousands of hungry people, they knew He was indeed the Messiah. His pure and simple teaching had sunk into their hearts, and His healing of their sick and comforting of their sorrow had nearly convinced them of His divinity. No human power could do so mighty a miracle, so this crowning wonder brought their growing conviction to entire belief in His divine power.
The feeding gave evidence heaped upon evidence sufficient to convince any mind open to evidence, leading thoughtful and candid witnesses to take exalted views of His character and office. It showed that His power came from God, that He did the Father's work and represented the Father, and that He is the world's Redeemer with omnipotent power. More than five thousand were fed from a few loaves and fishes with twelve baskets of fragments remaining, which should have removed prejudice, unbelief, and malice and helped the disciples recognize the Father in His works.
The people then tried to take Him by force and make Him king, expecting a temporal kingdom with its reign centered in Jerusalem. He rejected the plan because He did not come to establish a temporal kingdom but taught His spiritual kingdom and presented Himself as the bread of life. After His refusal His popularity began to wane as He devoted Himself more earnestly to teaching His disciples.
Judas shared in distributing the food to the hungry multitude and in bringing the sick and suffering to Christ, seeing the relief and joy and gladness healing brought and feeling the satisfaction that comes in service to God, which might have taught him Christ's methods. But he was blinded by selfish desires and did not grasp Christ's way. He was first to use the enthusiasm excited by the miracle of the loaves, setting on foot the project to take Christ by force and make Him king in Jerusalem, hoping to gain honor as the one who brought about His crowning. Jesus rebuked the plan, and Judas's high worldly hopes ended in bitter disappointment and increasing alienation from Him.
Many who witnessed the wonder were drawn for temporal advantage because they ate of the loaves and were filled, rather than from faith in His divinity and mission as the Teacher sent by God and the Son of God and Bread of life. The miracle was meant to awaken that faith, but witnessing it did not produce it in them. Instead they later demanded another sign and hoped to learn how He increased the food.
Christ made the miracle the occasion for His sermon on the bread of life, declaring He was the Bread of life and setting forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, requiring death to self, self-denial, and separation from the world. When they heard those conditions almost immediately after the miracle, many apostatized and went back and walked no more with Him. Some of His disciples turned from Him and turned away after hearing Him.
This later demand for a sign after the feeding with five loaves and two fishes did not arise from lack of proof, for the miracle had supplied fresh evidence of His power and clear evidence to the Jewish leaders. They had closed their eyes to the light through prejudice. Their demand served as an excuse to avoid the self-denial and separation from the world involved in following Him.
Pattern for Service
The feeding teaches full reliance on Christ and service as channels who receive from Him and give to others, for as His followers continue imparting what they receive they continue to receive more. What is wisely used in God's service can increase as it is given, and those who rely on God can receive strength and resources to give others the Bread of Life, who is Christ Himself as the source of strength and of all temporal and spiritual blessings. The disciples received bread from Him and gave it to the people, showing they are appointed as His co-workers, instruments, and representatives to give the Bread of Life to hungry souls rather than being the source of the good themselves. Being insufficient in themselves, they must seek spiritual food from God so they can supply others and turn no one away unfed, and those who work with Christ in this way receive divine grace to share with people in need.
The gathering of fragments teaches that the bounties of Providence are not to be squandered but are to be used with care and industry and frugality and close economy. Even after a miracle has met immediate need, what remains should not be wasted, and this lesson was given as much for present benefit as for those living in Christ's day, applying even in trying circumstances to all connected with institutions. Those in leading positions must set the example in gathering up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost, saving what can be saved with jealous care that nothing be wasted. The work is to be done not to win praise of men but so it may bear the scrutiny of God, trusting God rather than placing people under human restrictions or putting men where God should be.
What seems a meager supply can become enough to satisfy and leave something to share, for five loaves and two fish fed five thousand men besides women and children and twelve baskets of fragments remained. Christ can bless and multiply a small provision until it is enough to meet the needs of many, and offerings given cheerfully, lovingly, without selfishness and in faith can be increased to support His work. Small scattered means placed in missionary work will be multiplied by God as they are imparted to others so that all may eat and be filled, and the work must not be stopped nor its advance measured by the means at hand but must go forward in faith, planning and working as responsible human agents to diffuse the gospel over the whole earth. As the food passed from Christ to those who accepted it, it increased, illustrating how God's truth multiplies as it is distributed, so that even a small piece of literature containing the third angel's message may influence a seeker and nothing containing truth should be wasted. Gifts sent in with thanksgiving and prayer for soul-saving medical missionary work are multiplied and blessed in the same way, and when the best use is made of the means available God enables His people to feed the multitudes who are starving for the Bread of Life.
Christ's journey and feeding are a pattern for going out among people, gathering them, and sharing word, light, life, and truth with active generosity rather than indolence or confinement to the church. His way of ministering is an example to follow as closely as possible: noticing the faint and hungry, having them sit on the grass, supplying need as the Source of all blessings, helping practically, removing obstacles, and making sure weary hearers can receive the word of life. His care for bodily need shows His generosity is not exhausted, and He can also give His people knowledge to help provide food in different places. The food business is one of His own instrumentalities to supply human necessity, and He will teach the preparation of the best foods for all times and occasions, with preparations simple and inexpensive, the work conducted economically and unobstructed by selfish private interests.
The simple food and ordinary provision through nature and human work teach that God's provisions are good, while selfishness and unnatural appetite pervert them and bring misery. The same divine agency that provided food instantly also works through rain, air, sunshine, seed, and human labor to produce the harvest and sustain life, yet people often overlook His agency and credit only natural processes or human effort. His gifts are meant to bless, not be turned to selfish use, and people should recognize His kindness, give Him glory, share what He gives, and not gain money by gambling or by schemes that take from others. Jesus taught outdoors by the lake, using nature to make spiritual truths clear and memorable, and led people away from cities to quiet places where He taught them. Food created by God and distributed illustrates that what people possess is entrusted to them by God, and Christ's works including helpful acts are to be counted as a credit.
The power He showed in supplying food stands behind His command to give food to those in need, and the miracle shows God can multiply limited resources to provide for a multitude. That same miracle shows God can provide for human needs and give tact, skill, and understanding to those who work in harmony with Him. The chapter's lessons on receiving Christ and living by His words are to be read and studied to understand truths about depending on Christ rather than on human beings for wisdom, strength, and guidance, and its words are to be received and obeyed for eternal life. Receiving Him means taking His life-giving words into mind and life, for His words are spirit and life, and those who receive Him as personal Saviour have eternal life and will be raised at the last day.
Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias, from the Capernaum side to a quiet deserted place beyond the water with His disciples for a short season of rest. A great multitude followed because they had seen His miracles on the diseased, some hurrying by land and some coming in boats, so a crowd was waiting before He reached shore. Though weary and seeking rest, when He saw them coming His heart was stirred with sympathy for their greater need, and He left His retreat to teach them the way of salvation and heal the sick through the day. In that wilderness place far from home He fed about five thousand men besides women and children from five barley loaves and two small fishes, multiplying the food in His hands through the disciples until all were satisfied and twelve baskets of fragments remained. The chapter this crossing opens presents Him as the Bread of Life given for the life of the world, whose flesh eaten and blood drunk by receiving His words into mind and life give eternal life and resurrection at the last day.
Crossing and Setting
After these things marks a crossing to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and locates beside that water all that follows in the feeding of the multitude. The chapter opens with that movement over the water and introduces Christ's teaching as the Bread of Life. He had withdrawn with His disciples to minister to the gathered multitude, teaching and healing them after the crossing.
From the Capernaum area He went over the sea to a quiet, deserted, secluded place beyond the sea with His disciples to obtain a short season of peaceful rest for Himself and for their benefit. They entered a boat to make their way there, seeking a rare season of rest up in a mountain where He sat with His disciples apart. He had withdrawn with them to a secluded place beyond Capernaum to rest awhile before the feeding.
A great multitude followed Him because they had seen His miracles on them that were diseased and seen Him heal the sick, as He traveled from place to place to minister to temporal and spiritual needs. Some searching for Him saw Him depart from the shore, noticed the direction He went, and the news spread from city to city that He was crossing the sea, so many hurried by land to meet Him and flocked to the place where His boat would land while others followed over the water in boats. A multitude was waiting before He reached the shore, yet He landed without being noticed and unobserved and spent a little time apart with His disciples before seeing the crowd and going to minister to them.
Though weary and seeking rest, from the hillside He looked on the people coming and still coming, and His heart was stirred with sympathy for their greater need. Though interrupted and robbed of rest He was not impatient but left His retreat to teach them the way of salvation, sinking pure and simple teaching such as had never fallen on their ears into their hearts. He taught the people throughout the day and healed their sick and comforted their sorrow and healed the sick and afflicted brought to Him, rather than sending them away hungering.
The setting was wilderness far from home where food was not readily available, with evening near, and Jesus knew the crowd would become hungry and faint. The crossing and secluded landing took place when the Passover was nigh, with pilgrims traveling toward Jerusalem. On one such journey of leading people away from cities to quiet places where He taught them, a multitude followed Him and after being with Him for three days were weary and hungry, and though He shared their human need and had no apparent means He depended on His heavenly Father to provide.
After the multitude was fed, the people returned the following morning to the barren shore where they had last seen Him watching them leave with compassion, because they knew no boat had been left for Him to depart in, and news of the miracle had spread widely drawing large crowds by land and water. They had been fed by Him the day before on that shore of the Sea of Galilee, then went to Capernaum looking for Him. That same act of breaking food and dividing it among them on the mountainside was brought to mind when the risen Saviour broke bread and divided fish among the seven disciples on the shore and made Himself known and acknowledged by all, leaving them in mysterious awe as in silence they gazed upon Him, and the disciples remembered the mountainside miracle and recognized that the resurrected Jesus still cared for them and could provide for them as they did His work. Much of His ministry was passed near that sea on a beach within sight of where the disciples later gathered, where above ten thousand persons were fed from a few small loaves and fishes not far distant from Capernaum the scene of many miracles, so the whole shore stood as a reminder of Jesus and His mighty works, His words and His deeds.
The journey across the sea after the miracle of the loaves was marked by a storm in which the disciples rowed against adverse winds until Jesus came to them walking on the water and reassured them, and the tempest suddenly ceased as the boat reached land. He reached Gennesaret after crossing the sea during that storm, while people searched for Him at Bethsaida and Capernaum.
Miracle of Provision
The gathering numbered five thousand men besides women and children, about ten thousand in all, who had gone without food while listening as the day ended, and Jesus asked Philip where bread could be obtained to test faith, though He already knew how He would provide. A boy supplied the whole stock, five barley loaves and two small fishes, and after giving thanks Jesus distributed through the disciples as much as the people desired. He had the people seated in groups to keep order and let them witness what was done.
The supply did not diminish or run out as it passed from Jesus to the disciples and to the people but multiplied in His hands, their hands being filled again as they gave it out. Everyone ate enough and was satisfied, and the disciples themselves also ate together with Christ. He then had the leftover pieces gathered so that nothing would be wasted, and they filled twelve baskets, with as much remaining as at the start.
The miracle displays the same creative power by which God continually produces the harvest and sustains life, working through rain, air, sunshine, seed, and human labor to provide food for millions. God supplies what sustains life as surely as He multiplied the loaves, yet people may overlook His agency and credit only natural processes or human effort. His gifts are meant to bless and be received with recognition of His kindness, not turned to selfish use.
The provision shows Christ supplying both temporal need and spiritual bread, depending on His heavenly Father to provide though He shared human need and had no apparent means to meet it. It was part of His mission and expressed His love for men as the heavenly Provider and the people's Father and keeper, the Source of all blessings whose way of ministering is the example for service. It is the work of the same Coming One who guided Israel in the wilderness and supplied bread and clear flowing water, who as man worked a wonder like that done for one hundred men in Old Testament times. Though He walked in lowliness and poverty He was greater than Moses, for He is the One who declared Before Abraham was, I AM, and by the touch of His hand and the grace of God on the small portion He can spread a table in the wilderness for more than a million and multiply scanty provision a hundredfold until it is all-sufficient.
Bread of Life Teaching
The chapter that opens with this crossing presents Christ as the Bread of Life, the rich manna of heaven given for the life of the world. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood gives eternal life and resurrection at the last day. Those who receive Him as personal Saviour take His life-giving words and spiritual truths into mind and life. To eat this bread is to understand those truths, practice them, and live by them, for His words are spirit and life.
Feeding upon Him creates soul hunger for God and gives spiritual strength and comfort. It brings peace, joy, hope, assurance, and love for Bible religion. He came that believers might have life more abundantly, and He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. Even if a believer dies as Christ died, the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God.
The living Word, the living oracles, are called His flesh and blood even before the crucifixion because His work as substitute for sin was the hope of ancient Israel. The New Testament was added not to discard the Old but to shed light back upon it and reveal the significance of Israel's religious system and Jewish economy. Its teachings call Christians to practical holiness and obedience.
The chapter plainly expresses the will of God for His people and contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Its statements are to be read, studied, received, and obeyed for eternal life, to understand truths about depending on Christ rather than on human beings for wisdom, strength, and guidance. Reading the chapter forces a choice of whom to serve, and the choice is a question of life or death. Light from the throne of God must be let into the heart, for no one can serve God with a divided heart, and a mind given to the transactions of the theater finds no soul hunger for God.
The truths Jesus taught there led hearers to decide for or against Him and revealed their true feelings. Mere outward connection with any church will not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. Those not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. As bread strengthens the body, so faith in Christ and obedience to His teaching give the soul spiritual strength and everlasting life.
Responses to the Sign
While they were eating the food He had provided from five barley loaves and two small fishes, enough for thousands of hungry people, they knew He was indeed the Messiah. His pure and simple teaching had sunk into their hearts, and His healing of their sick and comforting of their sorrow had nearly convinced them of His divinity. No human power could do so mighty a miracle, so this crowning wonder brought their growing conviction to entire belief in His divine power.
The feeding gave evidence heaped upon evidence sufficient to convince any mind open to evidence, leading thoughtful and candid witnesses to take exalted views of His character and office. It showed that His power came from God, that He did the Father's work and represented the Father, and that He is the world's Redeemer with omnipotent power. More than five thousand were fed from a few loaves and fishes with twelve baskets of fragments remaining, which should have removed prejudice, unbelief, and malice and helped the disciples recognize the Father in His works.
The people then tried to take Him by force and make Him king, expecting a temporal kingdom with its reign centered in Jerusalem. He rejected the plan because He did not come to establish a temporal kingdom but taught His spiritual kingdom and presented Himself as the bread of life. After His refusal His popularity began to wane as He devoted Himself more earnestly to teaching His disciples.
Judas shared in distributing the food to the hungry multitude and in bringing the sick and suffering to Christ, seeing the relief and joy and gladness healing brought and feeling the satisfaction that comes in service to God, which might have taught him Christ's methods. But he was blinded by selfish desires and did not grasp Christ's way. He was first to use the enthusiasm excited by the miracle of the loaves, setting on foot the project to take Christ by force and make Him king in Jerusalem, hoping to gain honor as the one who brought about His crowning. Jesus rebuked the plan, and Judas's high worldly hopes ended in bitter disappointment and increasing alienation from Him.
Many who witnessed the wonder were drawn for temporal advantage because they ate of the loaves and were filled, rather than from faith in His divinity and mission as the Teacher sent by God and the Son of God and Bread of life. The miracle was meant to awaken that faith, but witnessing it did not produce it in them. Instead they later demanded another sign and hoped to learn how He increased the food.
Christ made the miracle the occasion for His sermon on the bread of life, declaring He was the Bread of life and setting forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, requiring death to self, self-denial, and separation from the world. When they heard those conditions almost immediately after the miracle, many apostatized and went back and walked no more with Him. Some of His disciples turned from Him and turned away after hearing Him.
This later demand for a sign after the feeding with five loaves and two fishes did not arise from lack of proof, for the miracle had supplied fresh evidence of His power and clear evidence to the Jewish leaders. They had closed their eyes to the light through prejudice. Their demand served as an excuse to avoid the self-denial and separation from the world involved in following Him.
Pattern for Service
The feeding teaches full reliance on Christ and service as channels who receive from Him and give to others, for as His followers continue imparting what they receive they continue to receive more. What is wisely used in God's service can increase as it is given, and those who rely on God can receive strength and resources to give others the Bread of Life, who is Christ Himself as the source of strength and of all temporal and spiritual blessings. The disciples received bread from Him and gave it to the people, showing they are appointed as His co-workers, instruments, and representatives to give the Bread of Life to hungry souls rather than being the source of the good themselves. Being insufficient in themselves, they must seek spiritual food from God so they can supply others and turn no one away unfed, and those who work with Christ in this way receive divine grace to share with people in need.
The gathering of fragments teaches that the bounties of Providence are not to be squandered but are to be used with care and industry and frugality and close economy. Even after a miracle has met immediate need, what remains should not be wasted, and this lesson was given as much for present benefit as for those living in Christ's day, applying even in trying circumstances to all connected with institutions. Those in leading positions must set the example in gathering up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost, saving what can be saved with jealous care that nothing be wasted. The work is to be done not to win praise of men but so it may bear the scrutiny of God, trusting God rather than placing people under human restrictions or putting men where God should be.
What seems a meager supply can become enough to satisfy and leave something to share, for five loaves and two fish fed five thousand men besides women and children and twelve baskets of fragments remained. Christ can bless and multiply a small provision until it is enough to meet the needs of many, and offerings given cheerfully, lovingly, without selfishness and in faith can be increased to support His work. Small scattered means placed in missionary work will be multiplied by God as they are imparted to others so that all may eat and be filled, and the work must not be stopped nor its advance measured by the means at hand but must go forward in faith, planning and working as responsible human agents to diffuse the gospel over the whole earth. As the food passed from Christ to those who accepted it, it increased, illustrating how God's truth multiplies as it is distributed, so that even a small piece of literature containing the third angel's message may influence a seeker and nothing containing truth should be wasted. Gifts sent in with thanksgiving and prayer for soul-saving medical missionary work are multiplied and blessed in the same way, and when the best use is made of the means available God enables His people to feed the multitudes who are starving for the Bread of Life.
Christ's journey and feeding are a pattern for going out among people, gathering them, and sharing word, light, life, and truth with active generosity rather than indolence or confinement to the church. His way of ministering is an example to follow as closely as possible: noticing the faint and hungry, having them sit on the grass, supplying need as the Source of all blessings, helping practically, removing obstacles, and making sure weary hearers can receive the word of life. His care for bodily need shows His generosity is not exhausted, and He can also give His people knowledge to help provide food in different places. The food business is one of His own instrumentalities to supply human necessity, and He will teach the preparation of the best foods for all times and occasions, with preparations simple and inexpensive, the work conducted economically and unobstructed by selfish private interests.
The simple food and ordinary provision through nature and human work teach that God's provisions are good, while selfishness and unnatural appetite pervert them and bring misery. The same divine agency that provided food instantly also works through rain, air, sunshine, seed, and human labor to produce the harvest and sustain life, yet people often overlook His agency and credit only natural processes or human effort. His gifts are meant to bless, not be turned to selfish use, and people should recognize His kindness, give Him glory, share what He gives, and not gain money by gambling or by schemes that take from others. Jesus taught outdoors by the lake, using nature to make spiritual truths clear and memorable, and led people away from cities to quiet places where He taught them. Food created by God and distributed illustrates that what people possess is entrusted to them by God, and Christ's works including helpful acts are to be counted as a credit.
The power He showed in supplying food stands behind His command to give food to those in need, and the miracle shows God can multiply limited resources to provide for a multitude. That same miracle shows God can provide for human needs and give tact, skill, and understanding to those who work in harmony with Him. The chapter's lessons on receiving Christ and living by His words are to be read and studied to understand truths about depending on Christ rather than on human beings for wisdom, strength, and guidance, and its words are to be received and obeyed for eternal life. Receiving Him means taking His life-giving words into mind and life, for His words are spirit and life, and those who receive Him as personal Saviour have eternal life and will be raised at the last day.