He delights in blessing and surprising us, and Scripture continually shows us that He uses smallness and weakness to display His glory (1 Corinthians 1:27). Our possessions and attributes are never too small to serve God. Christ amplified the meager provisions that were brought to Him, and similarly, God amplifies our gifts, money, and talents when we bring them to Him. Through Christ's miracle of feeding the 5,000, God demonstrates that He is big enough to shatter all of our finite expectations and abundantly provide for our needs. Some scholars believe that the crowd could have been between 15,000 and 20,000 people. This is astounding because the Bible notes 5,000 men in attendance, plus women and children (Matthew 14:21). The bread and fish were multiplied until everyone ate their fill, and there was even food left over (John 6:11–13). Certainly this would not be enough for the large crowd! But Jesus thanked God for the food and each person who gathered to see Him was fed. One of the disciples found a boy who had fives loaves of barley bread and two fish (John 6:9). 'But Jesus said, 'They need not go away you give them something to eat'' (Matthew 14:16). In the evening, the disciples wanted to send the people away so they could reach the surrounding villages before dark and buy food (Matthew 14:15). In this particular instance, Jesus and the disciples had withdrawn, but the crowds followed and when Jesus saw them, He 'had compassion on them and healed their sick' (Matthew 14:14). A large crowd began following Jesus as He traveled and healed the sick.

In all four of the Gospels, Jesus is recorded performing a great miracle for His followers-usually known as the feeding of the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13–21 Mark 6:30–44 Luke 9:10–17 John 6:1–14). What lessons can we learn from Jesus' feeding of the 5,000?

Four thousand souls