"But Jesus said unto them, they need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto Him, we have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, bring them hither to me." [Mt 14:16-18]
If we are truly honest with ourselves, we might all say as Gideon did to God, “I am the least in my father’s house;” [Jdg 6:15] for Paul tells us, “for ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things…and God hath chosen the weak things…” [1 Cor 1:26-27] If we do not yet see our weakness and unprofitableness, thinking in ourselves we are “some great one,” [Acts 8:9] then we soon shall, for “God resisteth the proud” and those “whosoever exalteth [themselves] shall be abased.” [Jam 4:6, Lk 14:11] We must all come to the “lowliness of mind” [Phil 2:3] to which we are called, and see very clearly the truth that Paul also confessed,
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” [2 Cor 3:5]
To be sufficient is to be adequate; the word means “qualification for any purpose; competence; adequate substance or means; supply equal to wants.” [Webster 1828] Everything we have, any capability or intelligence or wisdom; yes, anything we possess, has all been gifted to us from above; for we read rhetorically, “what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” and again it is written, “a man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” [1 Cor 4:7, Jn 3:27] In and of ourselves, no matter if wealthy or poor, bond or free, we are nothing. Jesus says, “without me ye can do nothing.” [Jn 15:5] So we see that we do not, according to the very definition of sufficiency, possess in ourselves any worthy qualification or competence. If we find ourselves possessing any wisdom, strength, skill, or wealth at all, we must frankly conclude that it came from God Himself and was not at all inborn; for again, “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” [Jam 1:17]
Seeing then that we are incapable and insufficient in our own power or resources, let us come to today’s verse, wherein Jesus said to His disciples, who only had “but five loaves, and two fishes,” “give ye them to eat.” In John’s gospel, he records that Jesus said this specifically to Philip, and it was because He wanted “to prove him: for He himself knew what He would do.” [Jn 6:5-6] Notice two things. One, that the disciples most assuredly had far less than what was required to do the task Jesus had commanded; and two, that Jesus knew they could not do it in their own strength but asked nevertheless. The general consensus among the disciples, after discerning the loaves and fishes available to them was, “but what are they among so many?” [Jn 6:9] In Mark’s account we are told, “and they say unto him, shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?” [Mk 6:37] Amongst the disciples, but not so with Christ, there was doubt; and perhaps deservedly, for which man thinking in the flesh and seeing with the eyes, would logically conclude that this small portion of food was sufficient for the large crowd, which contained “five thousand men, beside women and children.” [Mt 14:21] This is exactly the point.
Jesus led His disciples into a situation, as He often did, where there was no logical solution. The disciples would not find sufficiency or strength in their own resources: they needed Jesus’ power. This brings us to perhaps the most important thing Jesus says in this discourse regarding the food: “bring them hither to me.” The same is true for whatever we may possess – we must bring that thing or those things to Christ. For without Him, we are powerless and those resources will remain unused, or at the very least, very underwhelmingly used. However, when we bring whatsoever we may have to Jesus, He makes those things or that thing useful. It is through Jesus, that we find fruitfulness and progress. For in Matthew, after the disciples submitted what they had to Christ, we read,
“And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.” [Mt 14:19-21]
Apart from Jesus, the five loaves and two fishes would have remained just that: five loaves and two fishes. But through Christ our Lord, they became multiplied to an exceeding abundant amount, just as we are told God,
“…is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…” [Eph 3:20]
The same is true in our lives. Instead of complaining that we are weak or do not have enough resources, let us lay down that which we do have at our Lord’s feet, being confident that He can multiply it and make it useful. Whatever we have today, let us lay it down at Jesus’ lovely and precious feet; as He said then, so too He says today regarding our possessions/resources, “bring them hither to me.” Let us not make excuse as Moses did or as Gideon or as Jeremiah; let us remember that, “it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture,” [Psa 100:3] and so therefore we can trust in Him and not in ourselves, for “power belongeth unto God” and not unto us, [Psa 62:11] and “[we] can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [us],” [Phil 4:13] but apart from Him we can do nothing.
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