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“Give Ye Them to Eat”
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shall be supplied, and He has promised that which is far better than
worldly good—the comfort of His own presence.
In the production of earth’s harvests, God is working a miracle
every day. Through natural agencies the same work is accomplished
that was wrought in the feeding of the multitude. Men prepare the
soil and sow the seed, but life from God causes the seed to germinate.
It is God who every day feeds millions from earth’s harvest fields.
Men ascribe the working of His power to natural causes or to human
instrumentality. Man is glorified in place of God, and His gracious
gifts are made a curse instead of a blessing. God desires us to
recognize Him in His gifts. To accomplish this, the miracles of
Christ were performed.
A Valuable Lesson in Ecology
After the multitude had been fed, there was an abundance of
food left. But Jesus said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that
nothing be lost.” The lesson was twofold. Nothing is to be wasted.
Let everything be gathered up that will relieve earth’s hungry ones.
And there should be the same carefulness in spiritual things. The
people wanted their friends at home to share in the bread that Christ
had blessed. So those who were at the feast were to give to others
the bread that comes down from heaven, to satisfy the hunger of the
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soul. They were to repeat what they had learned of the wonderful
things of God. Nothing was to be lost.
The miracle of the loaves teaches dependence upon God. When
Christ fed the 5000, food was not nigh at hand. Here He was, in the
wilderness. But He knew that the large multitude would feel hungry
and faint, for He was one with them in their need for food. They
were far from home, and many were without means to purchase
food. The providence of God had placed Jesus where He was; and
He depended on His heavenly Father for the means to relieve the
necessity.
We too are to depend on God. We are not to plunge into diffi-
culties and misuse the faculties God has given us. But when, after
following His directions, we are brought into strait places, we are to
seek help from Him who has infinite resources at His command. He