Below is a devotion shared from the heart of one of our men.
John places the account of the “feeding of the 5,000” shortly before the Passover (6:4) … this explains the large crowd that was getting ready to make the journey to the Temple in Jerusalem. We know, though, that whole families made the journey (Luke 2:41ff); assuming conservatively that a family consisted of two adults and two children, there’d have been more than 20,000 in the crowd (because the 5,000 refers to the men, the heads of the families). In those days, though, families were much larger: we know that the Lord had four half-brothers and at least two half-sisters (Matt. 13:55-56). So there could well have been 40,000 or more mouths to feed. This helps us to appreciate the scale of the miracle.
The Twelve assessed the situation, worked out a solution and recommended this course of action (“disperse the crowd”) to the Lord. How extraordinary that they should be telling the Lord of the universe what to do! I wonder if they ever looked back on this and realised what they had done.
Jesus flatly rejected their solution, and proposed his: “You feed them”. Can you hear their gasp as they tried to understand what the Lord had said? John mentions Philip and Andrew specifically: the former calculated that 8 months’ wages wouldn’t be able to give the crowd one mouthful each, and the latter was wholly pessimistic about the extremely limited resources. (Quite likely they were stating the collective view.) One lesson that Philip and Andrew (and the rest) learnt from this is that the Lord is not restrained by our inability to comprehend his power … but he didn’t just have them standing by watching as he worked, he used them even as he demonstrated his power! Nor did they go home empty-handed: there was one full basket of food for each. I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall of their houses as they related what had happened!
What about the little boy with five loaves and two small fish? That was his, and he could well have kept it for himself; if the others hadn’t made provision, that was their problem, not his! However, by making the little that he had available to the Lord, many thousands were blessed — and he didn’t miss out, because “they all ate and were satisfied” (Matt. 15:37). When we make available to our heavenly Father what we have, however small, he is able to use it to bring blessing to many.
The tragedy was that the crowd that had been fed missed completely the miracle that had happened: the following day they found the Lord only because they wanted another free feed (John 6:26). All around us are those who are blind to the great things God has done for them; we have the great privilege of setting before them the greatness of our God, especially the great salvation that he offers through Christ Jesus.
