Being Fed

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

BEING FED

John 6:1-13

6:1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Feast was near. 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"  6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" 10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."  13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

NIV

Here we were, at this place just a few days ago on our journey through the Holy Land, the Land God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. We stepped into this Sea of Galilee and we floated upon it in a boat, much as Jesus and his disciples had so many years ago. We envisioned just which hillside or mountainside Jesus would have gone up and where all those people would have sat down. Now, of course, the area is built up with modern structures, and agricultural pursuits, but the fact remains we were in this area where Jesus feeds the five thousand. To take a simple lunch of a boy and provide for that many people is something only God would do. Most of us believers are more than familiar with this miracle of the past, but what about this same concept for the present in our lives. Does Jesus multiple a simply boys lunch and feed thousands today? Maybe not in that exact method, but he can take our modest income and multiply it in ways to provide for our life and we could even have some leftovers. Sometimes we wonder if all the people, thousands of them were able to see what Jesus was doing with just a small amount of fish and loaves. We are told there were five thousand men but was that all was in the crowd, just men? Doubtful, but that is how things were in that time, just the men were counted, yet women would have also been in the crowd and if women they would have had their children with them. The crowd would have been more like seven or eight thousand or more. Jesus always provides in abundance as after all were feed as much as they could, there were leftovers. Do we look to Jesus for our provisions, or for our daily bread? We pray those words when we recite the Lord’s Prayer, but do we believe them? Sure it would seem we should not just sit on our backside and wait for daily bread to appear out of thin air, yet the Israelites did just that in the wilderness on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land and food did come to them out of thin air, each and every day. Sometime in our Post-modern culture, we might not see Jesus as much as work as he was in those days because we might look to our way of life as more dependent on our efforts and abilities then looking to Jesus. Could Jesus feed us in this same manner? Maybe, but what would that look like in our culture? We can testify of many times Jesus has provided for us beyond our own abilities, how he has multiplied our resources without any effort on our part. We only need to look for the hand of God working on our behalf. The crowd had to know Jesus had no way to carry that much food, and that he had down something miraculous. Maybe that is that the only reason they followed him because they saw how many sick people he had healed. It is ok, to follow Jesus because of his miracle in our life. Some people think we have to believe by faith, faith being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, as the beginning of that great faith chapter eleven of Hebrews says.

Heb 11:1-2

11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

NIV

But we have seen, we have experienced the hand of God in our life, we have seen him provide in ways beyond our abilities or resources. We have experienced his divine healing, his leading and we have heard his voice, whether, with our ears or our heart matters not, his voice was clear and certain, and here we sit because of his provision, his direction and we live abundantly. Yes, we believe by faith, but we also have sat on the grass and been fed.