God's Abundance

I originally wrote this in 2003.  I ran across it this morning and it helped me, so I thought I would publish it here.

God's Abundance
This is a short essay to dispel the notion: "If we do not need something, God does not need to give it to us." Or stated another way: "God only gives us what we need, and only if we really need it."

John 6:1-15 - The feeding of the 5,000

A great crowd was following Jesus "because they saw the miraculous signs He had performed on the sick". They were drawn to Him because He was blessing and healing.

He had them sit down. There were 5,000 men; Mark records that they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Matthew notes that this number did not include women and children. He had "five small barley loaves and two small fish". How much food do you think it would take to feed 5,000 men? Philip thought it would take 8 months wages just for each to have one bite.

Consider the magnitude of this miracle. If each man was just given 4oz. of fish and a piece of bread - that would amount to 1,250 lbs of fish and 5,000 rolls. For simplicity, let's say there were 50 groups of 100 men apiece. How long do you think it took to distribute 25 lbs of fish to EACH group of 100 men? This was a large scale miracle.

There are some who would say that people in the crowd had food to eat already. But that does not bear out when you see their reaction to this event. John, in verses 14 and 15, tells us that the people reacted so violently that they tried to take Jesus by force and declare Him king whether He wanted it or not.

Later, Jesus tells the crowd why they really followed Him. It was not because of the miracles, but because they were FILLED and SATISFIED (John 6:26 - "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.") It is easy to dismiss when the blessing happens to somebody else. It is easy to be the skeptic when you are not the one being healed. But, you cannot deny when you are the one being touched; being filled. You feel the satisfaction in your belly, you see the hunger go away, you feel the energy return to your bones.

Look at the latter half of John 6:11: "and distributed to those who were seated AS MUCH AS THEY WANTED." He was not being stingy, He was not saying "take only what you can eat" or "make sure to leave enough for others". On the contrary, He was saying "Is that all you are taking? Here is more. Take more. Take more." Can't you hear the promises of Malachi in this? "Test me. Test me. I'll open the windows if you'll just trust me at my Word."

When Jesus was convinced they were satisfied, wanted no more and couldn't eat another bite -- He still poured out more. (Another parallel to Malachi 3:10 - "so much blessing that you will not have room enough to contain it") Verse 12 shows us that He instructed the disciples to gather up the fragments that remained so that nothing was lost. They filled twelve baskets.

It's important to note that there was nobody, at least not indicated in the scripture, that was believing for this miracle. Abraham was not there standing on a promise. Moses was not there with his rod. Elijah was not there interceding on his knees. The disciples were counting their money, wondering how they could feed these people. The disciples even had a backup plan: Mark 6:36 says the disciples wanted to "send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."

And here's the funny thing. That would've been a good plan. That would've worked. The people could have left and went to villages and other people's homes and bought something to eat or relied on the hospitality of the people. And even if they didn't actually get a meal, it's unlikely they would have starved or suffered a whole lot of hardship. There wasn't really a NEED to feed them, was there?

But, Jesus decided different. He decided it was time to show the Father's heart and desire to bless "above and beyond all we could ask or think". And the result so moved the crowd, they lost control of themselves and Jesus had to perform another miracle just to escape their frenzied attempt to make Him their king. What was so great about this miracle that caused such a response? You can't say it was just the act of multiplying the food that caused it, because they would've responded right then and rushed Him without even partaking of it. It was the fact that they partook of the meal He provided and were SATISFIED in their souls. Jesus touched a hungry point in their spirits that had never been touched before. The meal was simply a vehicle for imparting grace.

One last point. Jesus instructed His disciples to gather up the fragments that remained so that "nothing is lost".  With the overflow blessing comes stewardship. Blessings are precious to God, He wants good stewards of them. To whom much is given, much is required. While this is true, it should not be used as the proverbial bucket of cold water on the flames of being satisfied in the blessing of God. It can be used as a deceit of the enemy to convince people that God will only bless them if they have a calling worthy of a blessing. If He does not bless, then they must not have a worthy work to perform. The argument misses the whole point and hence that is the trap. Our fixation should not be on the blessing or the calling, that's God's business. Our fixation, our passion, should be to simply love God. Ephesians 3:17-19 states that when we love God, when we know the love of Christ, we are filled "to the measure of all the fullness of God". When we are filled, we are satisfied. When we are satisfied, we will, like the crowd, pursue God.