Showing Hospitality
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them to eat.”
Matthew 14:16
. And by an act of creative power He
supplied food sufficient to satisfy their need. Yet how simple was the
food provided! There were no luxuries. He who had all the resources
of heaven at His command could have spread for the people a rich
repast. But He supplied only that which would suffice for their need,
that which was the daily food of the fisherfolk about the sea.
If men were today simple in their habits, living in harmony with
nature’s laws, there would be an abundant supply for all the needs of
the human family. There would be fewer imaginary wants and more
opportunity to work in God’s ways.
Christ did not seek to attract men to Him by gratifying the desire
for luxury. The simple fare He provided was an assurance not only of
His power but of His love, of His tender care for them in the common
needs of life. And while He fed them with the barley loaves, He gave
them also to eat of the bread of life. Here is our example. Our fare
may be plain and even scanty. Our lot may be shut in with poverty.
Our resources may be no greater than were those of the disciples with
the five loaves and the two fishes. Yet as we come in contact with
those in need, Christ bids us: “Give ye them to eat.” We are to impart
of that which we have; and as we give, Christ will see that our lack is
supplied.
In this connection read the story of the widow of Sarepta. To this
woman in a heathen land God sent His servant in time of famine to
ask for food. “And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not
a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse:
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and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for
me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said unto her,
Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake
first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For
thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste,
neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth
rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of
Elijah.”
1 Kings 17:12-15
.
Wonderful was the hospitality shown to God’s prophet by this
Phoenician woman, and wonderfully were her faith and generosity
rewarded. “She, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the
barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to
the word of the Lord, which He spake by Elijah. And it came to pass