Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand on the HillsideBibleWorld
14:18Matthew 14:18
He said, Bring them hither to me.
Jesus tells His disciples to bring the scanty food on hand to Him rather than sending the hungry multitude away to find food for themselves. The supply is only five barley loaves and two small fishes, far too little for more than ten thousand weary people gathered in a desert place in the evening, yet He receives it, gives thanks, breaks it, and keeps multiplying it through the disciples' hands until all eat and are satisfied. What seems meager by human judgment becomes sufficient when placed in His hands, showing His miracle-working power as the great Provider who depends on His Father and teaches His followers to depend on God. The disciples receive only as they impart and impart only as they receive, for they are the channel between Christ the Source of strength and the people and can supply nothing for body or soul of themselves. His pity for fainting followers leads Him to meet bodily need while giving spiritual instruction, calling His people to share what they have with those in need and to gather the fragments carefully so nothing is lost.
Setting and Miracle Sequence
"Bring them hither to me" is the command to bring the available food to Him rather than sending the multitude away to buy food in the villages, and it opens the feeding that supplies what the disciples cannot provide by themselves. The disciples had reported only five loaves and two fishes, and His answer turns them from dismissal to bringing that small store to Him in preparation for the miracle.
The supply brought is five barley loaves and two small fishes, a boy's store found by Andrew. It is scarcely sufficient for twenty and is nothing among so many, so that Philip answers that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not give each a little. Jesus already knows how to provide and is testing the faith of the disciples.
The place is a desert or wilderness place with no means to obtain more food, in the evening when the day is far spent. About five thousand men besides women and children are there, more than ten thousand people in all near the Sea of Galilee, who have been all day without food listening to His teaching to save souls, with some weary and fainting and the disciples wanting to send them away hungry. He has them seated on a grass plot on the grass in companies of fifty and one hundred to preserve order and let all witness the miracle, and a hymn is sung.
Once the food is brought, He looks up to heaven, gives thanks and blesses, breaks the bread and the fishes, and places the pieces in the disciples' hands to distribute. As the disciples put them in the hands of the hungry ones they come back to get more, and the food does not diminish as often as they return for fresh supply while it is being passed from hand to hand until all eat and are satisfied. Twelve baskets full of fragments and fishes are then gathered so nothing is lost, while in the other feeding seven baskets are gathered.
After the feeding Jesus sends the people away, whose plan to make Him king opposes His purpose. News of the miracle spreads and brings large numbers back to seek Him, identifying the crowd as people fed by Jesus the preceding day. The feeding of more than ten thousand people from a few small loaves and fishes on the shore of Galilee is a mighty work the disciples remember as they look again upon the region.
Christ's Power and Compassion
Faced with hunger in the wilderness with no apparent supply or means to obtain food, Jesus depended on His Father to provide what was needed for the people. The command to bring the available food to Him belongs to the feeding of the five thousand, and it shows Christ bringing that small store to bear on the need in trust in God's abundant resources to supply what was lacking. That reliance teaches His followers to depend on God for what they need.
The miracle reveals His miracle-working power as the great Provider for the world, the world's Redeemer with omnipotent power and abundant beneficence. By divine power He created food for the feast, receiving the five loaves and few small fishes into His own hands, blessing the bread and giving the bounties of Providence to satisfy the hungry multitude. It is the same creative power at work in the daily growth of crops and provision of food, where God works through people who tend grain and prepare bread, yet human effort and natural processes do not replace His agency, and His gifts are meant to bless and not to be used selfishly. In this He showed His power to work miracles for the benefit of suffering humanity and to help suffering people.
Having laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity, leaving heaven to be born poor in a stable to stand close to humanity and educate it, He walked on foot giving accumulating lessons and was attentive wherever He went to those needing attention. His pity and close, self-forgetful, compassionate care for hungry, weary, fainting people who had followed Him to be taught led Him to notice their need, ask for food to give them, and meet bodily need while giving spiritual instruction. He Himself was their sanctuary and helper and great leading Physician. Those softened and subdued and sanctified by His Holy Spirit who dedicate themselves to God will receive His Spirit to work the works He worked and to communicate to those in necessity.
Though He possessed divine power while doing ordinary daily labor, He did not use it to satisfy His own hunger in the wilderness, for He would not work a miracle for Himself, and miracles in His life served others, not Himself. Nor did He use divine power to lessen the burdens of His daily work or of ordinary human life, but accepted the trials of ordinary life and worked patiently. His mission was to save others and to bear the burdens and griefs of humanity, not to use divine power for His own benefit. He lived with the inconveniences of poverty so He could understand and discern the needs of the poor, and He came to minister to and serve the suffering and needy rather than to seek wealth or honor or popularity or worldly advantage or abundant temporal supply.
Those who ate recognized His divine power and concluded He was the promised Messiah, the Deliverer and rightful King of Israel. His use of simple, plain fare sufficient for ordinary need showed both His power and tender care for ordinary needs. He does not promise His followers luxury, but promises that their needs will be supplied and that His abiding presence is better than worldly good.
Bringing Little to Christ
"Bring them hither to me" is the command to bring the small amount of food on hand to Christ instead of dismissing the need as hopeless, and the feeding of the five thousand teaches that what seems meager and far too little by human judgment becomes more than sufficient in His hands. The supply was only five loaves and two small fishes, and though it could not by itself meet the crowd, when directed to be brought to Him He used it to provide for everyone until all had eaten and twelve baskets of fragments remained after five thousand men besides women and children were fed. What is insufficient in human hands is sufficient when placed in His hands, for God can multiply what is available so that limited resources used with trust can serve multitudes hungry for the bread of life. His followers can therefore trust Him rather than worry over what they cannot control, and should act in faith rather than stop to question whether their gifts or efforts will be enough.
When the few loaves and fishes are given to Him, He receives them into His own hands, has the people seated on a grassy place, breaks the food into small pieces, blesses and multiplies it, and gives it through His disciples until all have enough, then commands the fragments gathered so nothing is lost, with twelve baskets full in this feeding and seven in the other. This shows what Christ can do with little when it is given to Him, and calls for more faith in Him to help, minister, teach, and guide into truth. It is evidence that the same Jesus can give fruit to His people's labor today and bless their work to provide what is needed for others, including the poor. He also gives tact, skill, and understanding to those who come into line with Him.
Gifts sent in with thanksgiving and prayer will be multiplied and blessed by the Lord in the same way as the small supply brought to Him and blessed for the disciples to give to the five thousand. If the best use is made of the means at hand, God will enable His people to feed the multitude starving for the Bread of Life. Even limited means should therefore be put into God's work and shared with others in faith, for God can multiply what is imparted so that many are supplied.
What God has given is to be brought to Christ to be blessed and imparted to the hungry, with nothing gambled away or taken from another by conniving, and nothing wasted. His close care noticed hungry, weary, fainting people who had followed to be taught, and when told there were five loaves and a few fishes He seated the multitude in companies, five thousand besides women and children, asked the blessing upon the food, and it increased as it passed through the disciples until hunger was satisfied with much left.
Receiving to Give Others
Having received from the Father in full reliance on God, Jesus took the small store of loaves and fishes, though it was only a small supply for His own family of disciples, and He did not invite them to eat first but commanded the food to be brought to Him and then began to distribute it, bidding the disciples serve the people. The food multiplied in His hands, and the hands of the disciples reaching out to Christ Himself the Bread of Life were never empty, so the little store was sufficient for all, and after the wants of the people were supplied Christ and His disciples ate of the precious heaven-supplied food from the gathered fragments. So all united with Christ receive from Him the bread of life, the heavenly food, and impart it to others.
The disciples are the channel of communication between Christ the great Center and Source of all strength and the people. Their service to the needy depends on receiving divine grace from Him first, and as they handed out the bread the gift increased. The five loaves and two fishes were placed in the disciples' hands to distribute, and helpers' hands were filled to serve others as they pass on what they receive from Christ, like workers who give the word of life to hungry souls. Of themselves even the most intelligent and spiritually minded can supply nothing for the needs of the soul; they can bestow only as they receive and can receive only as they impart, and as they continue to impart they continue to receive, receiving more the more they impart.
The blessed and multiplied loaves given to the disciples to share illustrate how God can bless limited resources used for His work, so that used with trust in God limited means can serve multitudes hungry for the bread of life, including feeding people spiritually. Christ's pity for the people led Him to meet their need, and His followers should share what they have, including the truth, with those who lack it. The feeding opened to the disciples their work as Christ's representatives: they were to give the bread of life to the people, but first had to receive from Him what they needed to share.
The feeding at Bethsaida taught them that He could make their small supply enough for a multitude, so they should trust His power and offer what they had. The continuing supply that fed the hungry multitude shows that His works of helpfulness are to be counted as a credit.
Practical Lessons for Living
The feeding shows that what is on hand is to be shared with those in need even when it looks meager, trusting Christ to supply what is lacking, for plain fare sufficient for ordinary need becomes enough in His hands through both power and tender care. After the crowd is fed the remainder is not wasted but carefully gathered so that nothing is lost, and this gathering teaches economy and thrift in managing resources, especially in difficult times. The bounties of Providence that satisfy the hungry are to be valued, carefully gathered up, and shared with others rather than left or thrown away.
The same miracle teaches that God provides for human needs and gives knowledge for preparing suitable food for different times, occasions, and places. Health-food work is one means of supplying that need, and He does not leave His people without knowledge of how to prepare good food where they are. What is brought to Him He can use to meet a real need, and preparing food to supply people's needs illustrates that provision.
God works through ordinary means and human effort, as in tending grain and preparing bread and in cheerful, unselfish giving, yet human effort and natural processes do not replace His agency. His gifts are meant to bless and not to be used selfishly, and He can bless and multiply what is placed in His hands until little is sufficient to meet great needs and advance His work. Through simple food and human hands He can provide abundantly for genuine need while teaching lessons for good rather than gratifying distorted appetite. That He could furnish food miraculously does not mean no effort is to be put forth to provide life's necessities, for the miracle was a means to impart spiritual truths vital to salvation; in the same way answered prayer for healing is not a sign to abolish institutions for sufferers, since He will not always work miracles to keep people alive and the afflicted are to have hygienic living and treatment through agencies that must not be despised.
The miracle also teaches compassionate care for those seeking salvation: weary and hungry people are to be enabled to hear the word of life, everything possible is to be done so none are sent away faint or discouraged, and whatever makes the way to Christ burdensome or unwelcome is to be removed. Christ Himself is sanctuary and helper and great leading Physician, attentive wherever He goes to those needing attention, and those softened and subdued and sanctified by His Holy Spirit who dedicate themselves to God will receive His Spirit to work the works He worked and to communicate to those in necessity. What He can do with little when it is given to Him calls for more faith in Him to help, minister, teach, and guide into truth.
Jesus tells His disciples to bring the scanty food on hand to Him rather than sending the hungry multitude away to find food for themselves. The supply is only five barley loaves and two small fishes, far too little for more than ten thousand weary people gathered in a desert place in the evening, yet He receives it, gives thanks, breaks it, and keeps multiplying it through the disciples' hands until all eat and are satisfied. What seems meager by human judgment becomes sufficient when placed in His hands, showing His miracle-working power as the great Provider who depends on His Father and teaches His followers to depend on God. The disciples receive only as they impart and impart only as they receive, for they are the channel between Christ the Source of strength and the people and can supply nothing for body or soul of themselves. His pity for fainting followers leads Him to meet bodily need while giving spiritual instruction, calling His people to share what they have with those in need and to gather the fragments carefully so nothing is lost.
Setting and Miracle Sequence
"Bring them hither to me" is the command to bring the available food to Him rather than sending the multitude away to buy food in the villages, and it opens the feeding that supplies what the disciples cannot provide by themselves. The disciples had reported only five loaves and two fishes, and His answer turns them from dismissal to bringing that small store to Him in preparation for the miracle.
The supply brought is five barley loaves and two small fishes, a boy's store found by Andrew. It is scarcely sufficient for twenty and is nothing among so many, so that Philip answers that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not give each a little. Jesus already knows how to provide and is testing the faith of the disciples.
The place is a desert or wilderness place with no means to obtain more food, in the evening when the day is far spent. About five thousand men besides women and children are there, more than ten thousand people in all near the Sea of Galilee, who have been all day without food listening to His teaching to save souls, with some weary and fainting and the disciples wanting to send them away hungry. He has them seated on a grass plot on the grass in companies of fifty and one hundred to preserve order and let all witness the miracle, and a hymn is sung.
Once the food is brought, He looks up to heaven, gives thanks and blesses, breaks the bread and the fishes, and places the pieces in the disciples' hands to distribute. As the disciples put them in the hands of the hungry ones they come back to get more, and the food does not diminish as often as they return for fresh supply while it is being passed from hand to hand until all eat and are satisfied. Twelve baskets full of fragments and fishes are then gathered so nothing is lost, while in the other feeding seven baskets are gathered.
After the feeding Jesus sends the people away, whose plan to make Him king opposes His purpose. News of the miracle spreads and brings large numbers back to seek Him, identifying the crowd as people fed by Jesus the preceding day. The feeding of more than ten thousand people from a few small loaves and fishes on the shore of Galilee is a mighty work the disciples remember as they look again upon the region.
Christ's Power and Compassion
Faced with hunger in the wilderness with no apparent supply or means to obtain food, Jesus depended on His Father to provide what was needed for the people. The command to bring the available food to Him belongs to the feeding of the five thousand, and it shows Christ bringing that small store to bear on the need in trust in God's abundant resources to supply what was lacking. That reliance teaches His followers to depend on God for what they need.
The miracle reveals His miracle-working power as the great Provider for the world, the world's Redeemer with omnipotent power and abundant beneficence. By divine power He created food for the feast, receiving the five loaves and few small fishes into His own hands, blessing the bread and giving the bounties of Providence to satisfy the hungry multitude. It is the same creative power at work in the daily growth of crops and provision of food, where God works through people who tend grain and prepare bread, yet human effort and natural processes do not replace His agency, and His gifts are meant to bless and not to be used selfishly. In this He showed His power to work miracles for the benefit of suffering humanity and to help suffering people.
Having laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity, leaving heaven to be born poor in a stable to stand close to humanity and educate it, He walked on foot giving accumulating lessons and was attentive wherever He went to those needing attention. His pity and close, self-forgetful, compassionate care for hungry, weary, fainting people who had followed Him to be taught led Him to notice their need, ask for food to give them, and meet bodily need while giving spiritual instruction. He Himself was their sanctuary and helper and great leading Physician. Those softened and subdued and sanctified by His Holy Spirit who dedicate themselves to God will receive His Spirit to work the works He worked and to communicate to those in necessity.
Though He possessed divine power while doing ordinary daily labor, He did not use it to satisfy His own hunger in the wilderness, for He would not work a miracle for Himself, and miracles in His life served others, not Himself. Nor did He use divine power to lessen the burdens of His daily work or of ordinary human life, but accepted the trials of ordinary life and worked patiently. His mission was to save others and to bear the burdens and griefs of humanity, not to use divine power for His own benefit. He lived with the inconveniences of poverty so He could understand and discern the needs of the poor, and He came to minister to and serve the suffering and needy rather than to seek wealth or honor or popularity or worldly advantage or abundant temporal supply.
Those who ate recognized His divine power and concluded He was the promised Messiah, the Deliverer and rightful King of Israel. His use of simple, plain fare sufficient for ordinary need showed both His power and tender care for ordinary needs. He does not promise His followers luxury, but promises that their needs will be supplied and that His abiding presence is better than worldly good.
Bringing Little to Christ
"Bring them hither to me" is the command to bring the small amount of food on hand to Christ instead of dismissing the need as hopeless, and the feeding of the five thousand teaches that what seems meager and far too little by human judgment becomes more than sufficient in His hands. The supply was only five loaves and two small fishes, and though it could not by itself meet the crowd, when directed to be brought to Him He used it to provide for everyone until all had eaten and twelve baskets of fragments remained after five thousand men besides women and children were fed. What is insufficient in human hands is sufficient when placed in His hands, for God can multiply what is available so that limited resources used with trust can serve multitudes hungry for the bread of life. His followers can therefore trust Him rather than worry over what they cannot control, and should act in faith rather than stop to question whether their gifts or efforts will be enough.
When the few loaves and fishes are given to Him, He receives them into His own hands, has the people seated on a grassy place, breaks the food into small pieces, blesses and multiplies it, and gives it through His disciples until all have enough, then commands the fragments gathered so nothing is lost, with twelve baskets full in this feeding and seven in the other. This shows what Christ can do with little when it is given to Him, and calls for more faith in Him to help, minister, teach, and guide into truth. It is evidence that the same Jesus can give fruit to His people's labor today and bless their work to provide what is needed for others, including the poor. He also gives tact, skill, and understanding to those who come into line with Him.
Gifts sent in with thanksgiving and prayer will be multiplied and blessed by the Lord in the same way as the small supply brought to Him and blessed for the disciples to give to the five thousand. If the best use is made of the means at hand, God will enable His people to feed the multitude starving for the Bread of Life. Even limited means should therefore be put into God's work and shared with others in faith, for God can multiply what is imparted so that many are supplied.
What God has given is to be brought to Christ to be blessed and imparted to the hungry, with nothing gambled away or taken from another by conniving, and nothing wasted. His close care noticed hungry, weary, fainting people who had followed to be taught, and when told there were five loaves and a few fishes He seated the multitude in companies, five thousand besides women and children, asked the blessing upon the food, and it increased as it passed through the disciples until hunger was satisfied with much left.
Receiving to Give Others
Having received from the Father in full reliance on God, Jesus took the small store of loaves and fishes, though it was only a small supply for His own family of disciples, and He did not invite them to eat first but commanded the food to be brought to Him and then began to distribute it, bidding the disciples serve the people. The food multiplied in His hands, and the hands of the disciples reaching out to Christ Himself the Bread of Life were never empty, so the little store was sufficient for all, and after the wants of the people were supplied Christ and His disciples ate of the precious heaven-supplied food from the gathered fragments. So all united with Christ receive from Him the bread of life, the heavenly food, and impart it to others.
The disciples are the channel of communication between Christ the great Center and Source of all strength and the people. Their service to the needy depends on receiving divine grace from Him first, and as they handed out the bread the gift increased. The five loaves and two fishes were placed in the disciples' hands to distribute, and helpers' hands were filled to serve others as they pass on what they receive from Christ, like workers who give the word of life to hungry souls. Of themselves even the most intelligent and spiritually minded can supply nothing for the needs of the soul; they can bestow only as they receive and can receive only as they impart, and as they continue to impart they continue to receive, receiving more the more they impart.
The blessed and multiplied loaves given to the disciples to share illustrate how God can bless limited resources used for His work, so that used with trust in God limited means can serve multitudes hungry for the bread of life, including feeding people spiritually. Christ's pity for the people led Him to meet their need, and His followers should share what they have, including the truth, with those who lack it. The feeding opened to the disciples their work as Christ's representatives: they were to give the bread of life to the people, but first had to receive from Him what they needed to share.
The feeding at Bethsaida taught them that He could make their small supply enough for a multitude, so they should trust His power and offer what they had. The continuing supply that fed the hungry multitude shows that His works of helpfulness are to be counted as a credit.
Practical Lessons for Living
The feeding shows that what is on hand is to be shared with those in need even when it looks meager, trusting Christ to supply what is lacking, for plain fare sufficient for ordinary need becomes enough in His hands through both power and tender care. After the crowd is fed the remainder is not wasted but carefully gathered so that nothing is lost, and this gathering teaches economy and thrift in managing resources, especially in difficult times. The bounties of Providence that satisfy the hungry are to be valued, carefully gathered up, and shared with others rather than left or thrown away.
The same miracle teaches that God provides for human needs and gives knowledge for preparing suitable food for different times, occasions, and places. Health-food work is one means of supplying that need, and He does not leave His people without knowledge of how to prepare good food where they are. What is brought to Him He can use to meet a real need, and preparing food to supply people's needs illustrates that provision.
God works through ordinary means and human effort, as in tending grain and preparing bread and in cheerful, unselfish giving, yet human effort and natural processes do not replace His agency. His gifts are meant to bless and not to be used selfishly, and He can bless and multiply what is placed in His hands until little is sufficient to meet great needs and advance His work. Through simple food and human hands He can provide abundantly for genuine need while teaching lessons for good rather than gratifying distorted appetite. That He could furnish food miraculously does not mean no effort is to be put forth to provide life's necessities, for the miracle was a means to impart spiritual truths vital to salvation; in the same way answered prayer for healing is not a sign to abolish institutions for sufferers, since He will not always work miracles to keep people alive and the afflicted are to have hygienic living and treatment through agencies that must not be despised.
The miracle also teaches compassionate care for those seeking salvation: weary and hungry people are to be enabled to hear the word of life, everything possible is to be done so none are sent away faint or discouraged, and whatever makes the way to Christ burdensome or unwelcome is to be removed. Christ Himself is sanctuary and helper and great leading Physician, attentive wherever He goes to those needing attention, and those softened and subdued and sanctified by His Holy Spirit who dedicate themselves to God will receive His Spirit to work the works He worked and to communicate to those in necessity. What He can do with little when it is given to Him calls for more faith in Him to help, minister, teach, and guide into truth.