The Great Provider.—Mark 6:30-56

Notes

1. Seeking Rest.—The natural tendency of the human heart is to become impatient when hindered in its object. Jesus needed rest and refreshment, but as he looked upon the vast multitude who were perishing and dying for the want of the bread of life, his great heart of love and pity was touched, and he turns from his own desires, begotten by actual physical necessities, to feed the multitude with the bread of life, finding his own food the while in doing the will of God. John 4:34. This was the spirit of the Master. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

2. The Cash in the Treasury.—When our Saviour ordered the disciples to feed the multitude, they asked him, according to Mark, "Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?" Then follows Philip's statement, recorded by John: "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little." The Roman penny was worth about seventeen cents, and the sum in the treasury of the disciples probably amounted to just two hundred times that, or about thirty-four dollars. The multitude probably numbered not less than 10,000, and Philip's statement, from a natural point of view, was a correct one. But one loaf was sufficient in the hands of the Master. His creative power furnished what was wanted, "exceeding abundantly above all" that was thought. He is the same Jesus yesterday, to-day, and all days to come.

3. The Baskets.—"Twelve baskets" (Greek kophinos), probably one each for the twelve disciples. It denoted a small wicker basket, of which each man may have carried one. In Mark 8:8, 20 a different Greek word (spuris) is translated basket, meaning a large basket, or hamper, such as Paul was let down in from the window. Acts 9:25.