During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”
4 His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”
5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied.
6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. 7 They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. 8 The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 9 About four thousand were present. After he had sent them away, 10 he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.
11 The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. 12 He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.” 13 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.
-Mark 8:1-13
-Mark 8:1-13
Have I read this before? Wait... I have! Just two chapters ago at the end of Mark 6 (or 5 AYL devotionals ago) Jesus feeds the first large group of 5000 with only five loaves of bread and three fish. The passage today is very similar, there was another large crowd gathered to hear Jesus speak and at the end of the day the people were hungry. So Jesus gathered a small amount of food and miraculously distributed it to everyone, even resulting in an abundance of food leftover. However, I think there are major differences in the details of each story making the importance of this feeding of the 4000 different than that of the 5000.
This passage starts with Jesus telling his disciples about the people and their hunger, different than previously where the disciples asked Jesus about the situation. Surely Jesus knows what he is about to do, so why does he ask the disciples first? See I don't think the disciples forgot what happened the last time they needed to feed a ton of people, yet their response makes it seem like the opposite. Jesus here is exposing the lack of faith the disciples had in him. Maybe Jesus was looking for a response just asking about can you do what you did last time, or would it be possible to multiply these seven loaves we have. Regardless, the disciples here were either hesitant to ask Jesus about performing a miracle or did not have the full faith to believe that he could.
Aren't we so like the disciples in this story? Sure, we haven't seen Jesus himself feed a large group of people with a loaf of bread (well at least I haven't), but as Christians have we not seen Jesus move in our lives? Whether it be at church retreats, Young Life camp, or any random situation we have seen Jesus working not only in ourselves, but with the people around us too. We've witnessed and experienced God providing for us in our moments of need. Yet, the next time we enter a dry season in our faith or a hard time in our lives, its like we forget everything we've ever experienced like the disciples seemingly forgot the feeding of the five thousand. We start to doubt that God can provide for us, or that He isn't actually there with us in those hard moments.
But He is there, and He does always provide. Like in today's passage, even when the disciples display a moment of weak faith, Jesus still feeds the hungry people with seven loaves of bread and a small amount of fish. This doesn't mean we should demand God to do things, we see how that turns out for the Pharisees in the couple verses after the feeding of the four thousand. But it means we can have faith and hope that He will provide for us. Maybe we don't know when or how, but during hard parts of our lives we can take comfort that we put our faith in God who has never let us down before and never will in the future.
This passage starts with Jesus telling his disciples about the people and their hunger, different than previously where the disciples asked Jesus about the situation. Surely Jesus knows what he is about to do, so why does he ask the disciples first? See I don't think the disciples forgot what happened the last time they needed to feed a ton of people, yet their response makes it seem like the opposite. Jesus here is exposing the lack of faith the disciples had in him. Maybe Jesus was looking for a response just asking about can you do what you did last time, or would it be possible to multiply these seven loaves we have. Regardless, the disciples here were either hesitant to ask Jesus about performing a miracle or did not have the full faith to believe that he could.
Aren't we so like the disciples in this story? Sure, we haven't seen Jesus himself feed a large group of people with a loaf of bread (well at least I haven't), but as Christians have we not seen Jesus move in our lives? Whether it be at church retreats, Young Life camp, or any random situation we have seen Jesus working not only in ourselves, but with the people around us too. We've witnessed and experienced God providing for us in our moments of need. Yet, the next time we enter a dry season in our faith or a hard time in our lives, its like we forget everything we've ever experienced like the disciples seemingly forgot the feeding of the five thousand. We start to doubt that God can provide for us, or that He isn't actually there with us in those hard moments.
But He is there, and He does always provide. Like in today's passage, even when the disciples display a moment of weak faith, Jesus still feeds the hungry people with seven loaves of bread and a small amount of fish. This doesn't mean we should demand God to do things, we see how that turns out for the Pharisees in the couple verses after the feeding of the four thousand. But it means we can have faith and hope that He will provide for us. Maybe we don't know when or how, but during hard parts of our lives we can take comfort that we put our faith in God who has never let us down before and never will in the future.
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