Monthly Archives: JULY 2023

John 6:5-14     (Also in Matthew 14:15-21, Mark 6:35-44 and Luke 9:10-17)

(5) When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? (6) And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. (7) Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. (8) One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, (9) There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? (10) And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. (11) And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. (12) When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. (13) Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. (14) Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

 This story we find in all the Gospels, and each author pretty much conveys the same narrative. This is one miracle that is hard for me to wrap my head around. We have already seen healings, dead raising, deformities fixed, water to wine and nature controlling. Here we are fixing to see something new, and on a new level.

  Jesus notices the great multitude of people following Him. Jesus asks Philip shall we buy bread to get them something to eat? Of course, Philip responds with I don’t think we have enough to feed all these. Jesus already knew what was going to happen, but you can see this was maybe a test for Philip. To see possibly how he would respond. Even walking with Jesus, I believe Philip was still thinking in Worldly standards not Kingdom of Heaven standards. Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  Andrew then Comes and says there is a lad here with bread and fishes, but, still not enough for so many. Both disciples come up with we have this much resources but it still would not be enough. A question we can ask ourselves is why did Jesus not just "multiply” the money they had to go get enough food for everyone. If you break it down, look how that would have blessed the stores and people in the nearby town. In that event only a few people, the disciples, would have seen a miracle. But, by taking the food they had readily available, 5000 men plus women and children are now going to witness who Jesus is. Let that soak in a moment. Can you imagine what would have been going through everyone’s mind. You can see the food being dispersed and multiplied right in front of you.

 Jesus has the disciples have the men sit and Blessed and distributed the food. They all ate and had much more left over. Jesus gave thanks even for what little they have so they all would be able to eat. Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. I am almost certain Jesus gave thanks for what He had and made it know unto God His desire to feed the multitude.  Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

 When we read what God can do with so little, we have to sometimes reevaluate our thinking when it comes to our everyday life. So often when we are in short need of something, we will often pull a Philip, well I do not think I have enough money to do what needs to be done. We might start looking at what other resources we have. In this instance we are talking about food, our one need in life everyone needs. Have we ever thought about blessing the food in our house, maybe not just for dinner time, but after we go stock up on supplies and are filling our cabinets. Just giving a blessing for being able to have food in our house. Think of how we can be blessings for others by keep our provisions blessed and allowing God to multiply for us to share and take care of the needs of others.  We can become kingdom minded and store our treasures in Heaven. Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

 This passage is clearly about blessing others with what you have, even if it does not seem to be enough. We can maybe ask ourselves. What would Jesus do? And, should we be doing it ourselves? It is passages like this will really put our faith to test.