Matthew 15:32, commentary and pictures

In compassion Jesus refused to send the hungry multitude away fasting after they had continued with Him three days with nothing to eat, lest they faint or collapse on the way home. The crowd was in Gentile territory, showing His concern extended to them. Thousands had forgotten the wants of nature and stayed with deepest interest to hear His ministry of truth and gracious words.

He shows tender solicitude as a pitying father mindful of physical wants, though often hungry Himself yet awake to the necessities of others. The same love and compassion dwelt in the Father's heart, and compassion brought Christ from heaven to clothe divinity with humanity to touch humanity with unparalleled tenderness and sympathy in its fallen, sinful condition. With farseeing intuition He took in all the necessities of the case, His soul drawn out in heartfelt sympathy for physical weakness and suffering, desiring to relieve hunger and thirst that made some faint and fall by the hillside, with no thought of passing by indifferently without noticing or helping. He remembered His own experience after His long fast in the wilderness of temptation when He grew faint and angels came to serve and minister to Him.

Without hesitation He worked a miracle to feed the thousands, the feeding of the four thousand with seven loaves and two fish, having the people sit on the grassy ground, breaking the food into small pieces and giving it through His disciples until all had enough, then commanding to gather the fragments so nothing would be lost, with seven baskets full gathered, distinct from the other feeding when twelve baskets were gathered. One account presents the event as five thousand besides women and children who had been with Him all day without food toward sunset, with Jesus asking Philip about obtaining bread so they would not return to their homes unrefreshed or faint on the way. The disciples again struggled to trust His power despite having seen Him feed a multitude before, for He asked about bread to test their faith though He Himself already knew how to provide. The verse reveals what Christ can do and calls for more faith in Him, for He can minister, teach, guide into truth, and help in all wrestling and trials.

He who would not work a miracle to satisfy His own hunger in the wilderness would not allow the multitude to suffer for lack of food, and the verse shows He cares about physical needs and acts to sustain them. His miraculous power to furnish food, one of several such miracles, did not teach that people are to put forth no effort to provide life's necessities, but He used the miracle to impart spiritual truths vital to salvation. In the same way God's power to heal the sick in answer to prayer does not abolish agencies for the suffering, since the Lord will not always work miracles to keep people alive, and the sick are to be placed where they can have hygienic living and treatment.

His care for physical need, joined with His healing of the lame, blind, dumb, maimed and many others, gives a lesson for His people today to have a part with Him in healing the sick and ministering to the wants of the needy, with the healing work to be done in connection with health institutions that did not exist in the early days of the message but now exist. His feeding of the four thousand is to be studied as an example of the Lord's methods in carrying forward food work. His compassion is the pattern His workers must manifest by letting divine tenderness possess the soul, being pitiful to those regarded as weak and erring, and letting the love of Christ flow to brethren and through them to others, sweeping away misunderstanding.