Lessons ~ Jesus Feeding the Five ThousandSample

The Need To Be Generous

The feeding of five thousand is probably one of the most famous miracles in the Gospels. The twelve disciples saw the need of the people and came to Jesus bearing the concern. The crisis was that the people needed to be physically recharged and that this being a deserted place, food and other basic amenities were not available (Luke 9:12).  

This is often the case with us. We see needs around us and we go to God for those needs to be met.  

The Lord’s response was to throw the ball back to the disciples by saying, “You give them something to eat” (Luke 9:13). The Lord knew what He was going to do but He said this to test them (John 6:6).  

The Lord does the same with us. He wants us to consider what our response will be to the need around us. Unfortunately, we are no different from the disciples. We are able to see the need and we come to God and hand over the crisis to Him. We think that it is now for God to solve the problem.  

We do not see that God has placed us in a situation in order to see, if we are willing to release the resources that we have, into God’s hands for Him to work out the miracle (Numbers 11:21-23). God’s hand is never too short to save. Twelve baskets of fragments were gathered after all had eaten their full (Luke 9:17).  

Praise God for the little boy in this situation (John 6:8-9). He somehow became aware of the emergency and immediately saw the resource in his little hands. Importantly, he was willing to release his modest resource and make it available for God to use.  

The disciples, too, had resources in their hands which is why the Lord gave them a hint and an opportunity to release their resource into His hands (Luke 9:13). The disciples considered the task of going and buying food for the people as a weak option (John 6:7) but aren’t we just the same? We look at the need around us and then measure the resource at our disposal and then decide that the need can never be met with what we have. Imagine if the little boy had kept back his lunch as a meagre resource in comparison to the enormity of the crisis.  

The Lord desires for us to adorn the gift of giving (Proverbs 11:24-25, Luke 6:38, I Timothy 6:17-19, Isaiah 58:7-8), which is His nature.  

Thought to ponder

The principle of giving is about willingly and joyfully placing our resources into the all powerful hands of God for Him to bless and meet the need.