You Give Them Food - Matthew 14:16

Matthew the apostle wrote how, “Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals”, and in chapter fourteen and verse sixteen of his book, Matthew wrote how Jesus' told His disciples, “give you them to eat” where we read:

But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give you them to eat .

The verse reads, “But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart;” Matthew began with the word, “but Jesus” which means “nevertheless, moreover and Jesus whose name means Jehovah is Salvation and is the Son of God, the Savior of mankind and God incarnate” “said” which means “uttered, declared and proclaimed” “unto them” or “to His disciples”, “they need not depart” which means “the multitude does not need to leave”. Matthew shared how Jesus told His disciples the crowd did not need to go into the nearby towns to buy food.

The verse goes on to say, “give you them to eat.” Matthew added the words, “give you them” which means “disciples, you furnish and supply the multitude” “to eat” or “some food”. Matthew shared how Jesus instructed His disciples to feed the multitude of people.

When we think through Matthew's words in this verse, we can imagine the disciple's reaction to Jesus' directive. Rather than the disciple's solution which was to send the crowd away, Jesus told them to feed the people. This task must have seem impossible to the disciples because they forgot to factor in that Jesus was with them. God desires to have a loving personal relationship with every person through His Son Jesus, and when there is an impossible need or task at hand, there is no better solution than the one the Lord has in mind. May all who read these words learn to go to Jesus with problems that seem impossible.

Next time we see Matthew shares how Jesus' disciples tell Him they have, “five loaves, and two fishes”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.