Jesus did many impossible things. He was famous for that. On one occasion He fed to satisfaction over five thousand people by means of a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. But that story has an unexpected beginning-and ending. It shows us how to respond when Jesus gives us an impossible command. "But Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!' They said to Him, 'We have here only five loaves and two fish.' And He said, 'Bring them here to Me.' Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets" (Matthew 14:16-20). I've heard many messages given on this story. The theme I have most often heard is that if we give the Lord the little that we have, He can multiply it and make it a blessing to many. Although a reasonable application, it is only part of the story. The passage begins with Jesus commanding His disciples to give the people something to eat. Of Jesus' many commands given to the disciples, some were humanly impossible to fulfill. This is one. They reacted by saying it was impossible to feed such a great crowd with the limited resources they had. They assumed Jesus expected them to accomplish these things using their own abilities and resources, something they knew they couldn't. But that wasn't Jesus' expectation at all. Jesus responded by giving the disciples some important, practical instructions that they could do. He took care of the rest. We aren't given a lot of details, but...read more here  Send this writer a Note of Encouragement: Click Here
David McCarthy (Washington state, USA) is a contributing writer for IOM America - Transformational Biblical Worldview & Exchange Life Development.
Permission obtained from author to republish Doing His Commandments. Copyright � 2014-2015 David McCarthy. Editorial changes by IOM America approved by author.
All Scriptures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, � Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright� 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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