THE SIGN OF THE LOAVES AND FISHES (Suggested Reading: Chapter 9:1-17)
The Lord is now the Divine Center in Israel, not the Temple, although God still acknowledges it as His Temple. Men have been accustomed to go in and out of the Temple. Now His own come to and go out from Him. He calls the twelve and invests them with His power and authority. But when He sends them forth, their first commission is to preach the Kingdom of God, and secondly, to heal the sick. We can never preach Christ to others unless we have been in His presence. Otherwise, we would not be ambassadors of Christ, but of ourselves.
Herod hears of His power and wonders if John the Baptist, whom he beheaded, is risen from the dead as some thought, or if He were Elias or one of the old prophets, as others thought. God does not relieve his perplexity, because there is no stirring of conscience— only idle curiosity as we learn from his question— "who is this?" Herod's bewilderment is only introduced here to show the moral state of the king among whose subjects the twelve had gone, with the power and authority of Jesus Himself. So they return to Him and account for what the Lord had given them, as we also must do some day, even though what we have received is on a much lesser scale. They are tired, no doubt. The Lord takes them to a desert place near the city of Bethsaida— house of provision.
Who Is This?
Herod's question must now be answered: "Who is this?" He would not have asked it if his subjects had not puzzled him with contradictory reports about Jesus. Therefore, they— and not Herod— must receive the answer to Herod's question, "Who is this?" The Scripture taught that it was the Lord who satisfied the poor with bread. The sign of the loaves and fishes speaks for itself. The underlying moral teaching is what we would seek to unfold here. This teaching is a figure of how Christ, working through His servants in all ages, feeds His Church. It is the Church period which is in question, since the sign precedes the Mount of Transfiguration, the figure of Christ in His glory in His millennial kingdom on earth. Note, too, that it is not our service for Christ in the gospel which is the point. In the story, that service was over and the Lord took the twelve aside into the desert to rest. The twelve here represent any who seek to feed God's people. It may be a sermon, address, talk to a small group, teaching in a Bible reading, writing an article in a magazine for Christians, etc., etc. It is not the form of things, but their nature. You get the thought in John 21 where the Lord commissions Peter to feed His sheep and lambs but does not tell him how to do it.
The Sign of the Loaves and Fishes—9:12-17
Well, the first thing is, have we faith to serve the Lord in this way in a desert, hidden from the eye of man, relatively speaking, for the feeding of Christ's sheep does not make us stand out like the work of an evangelist. Most of us haven't. True, we go to the Lord about it. But then we ask Him to send the people away and let them get their own food— "for we are here in a desert place." But this does not satisfy the heart of God. Remember that we cannot say we love God if we neglect His people— "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" 1 John 4:20. So the Lord tests them— "Give ye them to eat." Immediately they quibble, "We have no more than five loaves and two fishes." They had not yet learned the lesson "little is much if God is in it. "'Hadn't the God of Israel spoken? Was His power less in this command than what they had already proved when they went out in His service and came back victorious?
Well, we think it is. Often we shrink from the task of feeding Christ's sheep, which takes spiritual energy and pioneering. We say to ourselves— but really we are telling the Lord— "What, me?! I have only five loaves and two fishes! So-and-so is better qualified than I am. Let the people go to so-and-so and buy their bread and fish from him.”
“No," the Lord says, "the bread and fish isn't to be bought. Go ahead and give it to them— free.”
Now the Lord doesn't start you out with nothing you begin with five loaves and two fishes. The five loaves are your preparation for Christ's service. A loaf of bread starts with the plowing of land, the sowing of seed, the patient waiting for the crop, harvesting it, milling it, baking it. It is your education in divine things, the patient waiting for Christ, your testing under adversity— the baking process, etc. Man has five fingers and five toes, so it is the compass of your work and walk with God. The two fishes are entirely God's gift to you— you don't prepare a fish— God gives it to you as it is. Look up the subject of gift in the Bible yourself and see to it that you don't neglect your gift, whatever it is. Well, we take this provision and thank God for it. Effective prayer precedes the feeding of God's people. Suppose you write an article, book or pamphlet about Christ. In that case, look beyond the printing press which is multiplying your few loaves and fishes to the Lord, who gives you multiplied readers.
Everybody is fed fully when we follow God's way, not ours. God does not tolerate waste, either. The fragments that remain are twelve baskets. This means that when Christ has finished the work of feeding the Church and takes us to glory, twelve baskets are left over to feed Israel. What a God! But remember— Israel collects our fragments! We eat the loaves and fishes— we taste the goodness of our Lord's provision for us first. Israel gets the spiritual food that is left over after we are full.
One great lesson in all this is to be thankful to God for His care over us. The crowd ate until they had enough, but there is no record that they thanked God for satisfying their heeds. For some fifteen years I preached the gospel in a jail for young criminals. One Thanksgiving Day, before speaking to the prisoners, I asked them what they had to be thankful for.
“That the Russians haven't dropped the bomb yet," one young man said. "That I'm getting out soon," another said. And so on. The Christian would say, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable free gift." 2 Cor. 9:15. That gift is Christ and all true service for God in the Church is ministry which exalts Christ. The gift is unspeakable, but that does not mean we are to be silent about it. The Lord will multiply our loaves and fishes if we leave them in His hands.