Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the
mountain and sat down there. Then
great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame,
blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet,
and He healed them. So the multitude
marveled when they saw the
mute speaking, the maimed
made whole, the lame
walking, and the blind
seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. Now
Jesus called His disciples to Himself and
said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with
Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away
hungry, lest they faint on the way." Then
His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to
fill such a great multitude?" Jesus
said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And
they said, "Seven, and a few little fish." So
He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And
He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and
gave them to
His disciples; and the disciples gave to
the multitude. So they all ate and
were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that
were left. Now those who ate were
four thousand men, besides women and children. And
He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala. (Matthew 15:29-39).
Here is a scene of great need;
the extent and the range of the need is quite definitely and deliberately
stressed repeatedly. It is "the multitudes", "great multitudes" which are in
view. The need is brought out in great fulness, and over against it there is
this disclosure of Christ's concern and desire that that need should be fully,
wholly met, and strangely, this occasion is in the mountain. There was another
occasion when He fed the multitude, as we saw already in the earlier chapter.
Here it is said to be in relation to the mountain, indicative again of this
principle that it is heavenly fulness which is in view. This, figuratively, is
the mountain of heavenly or spiritual fulness, out of which the need, however
great, vast, or deep, can be fully met. Let me reverse that and put it in this
way, that heavenly fulness demands a heavenly position. "In this mountain will
the Lord of hosts make unto all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines
on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined" (Isa.
25:6). "In this
mountain...". When
you look to identify that mountain, you find it refers to Zion, and then you
find that it indicates the heavenly Zion of Hebrews 12. "Ye are come unto mount
Zion" (v. 22). It is a heavenly, not an earthly Zion, which is really in view
prophetically there, and it again embodies this law that a heavenly position is
essential to heavenly fulness. This operates in two connections.
Resource for Need
First of all, as to the
disciples. If we are those who are, in heart at least, and some in very
practical ways, taking responsibility in the things of the Lord, called unto
that service, that ministry, of meeting spiritual need, it will depend entirely
upon our spiritual position as to how much resource we have with which to meet
the need.
If we are working with the
mentality of an earthly kingdom for God, if our conceptions of the work of God
are all just down here in relation to this earth, and we are pursuing the work
of God along the line that this world employs for pursuing its interests and
ends, having just a temporal conception of the things of God, we shall be left
to find the resources. That is the history of Christian work, that if you have a
merely temporal, earthly conception of the work of God down
here,
establishing something
here, getting a
name for the work of God here, God just leaves you to find your own
resources to carry it on, so you will have to be travelling about all over the
place trying to get people to support it. The Lord is not taking responsibility
for it; He is leaving it to you. But when we get into His own heavenly
conception of things we see that in this dispensation God is not seeking to
build something on this earth of a permanent character, but is taking something
out of the nations to be linked with His Son in heaven, a people out of the
nations for His Name, something that is taken out and linked with Him in heaven
in a spiritual way. While here in body, its life is drawn from above, all its
relationships are heavenly, and you come into the realm of spiritual fulness,
and God looks after that; there is plenty.
That is a very practical thing
indeed, and it represents the great, vast difference, between your wearing
yourself out in trying to find the means to carry on the work of God, and the
Lord carrying you on on an altogether supernatural basis of resource. Some of us
know that difference in our own history between the time, the years, when we
were having to find the straw for the bricks, the resources for building what we
were trying to build, and it was exhausting work. It meant reading all the
latest books and keeping in touch with all the latest ideas and working hard to
find sermons and addresses and the wherewithal to meet the demand. How often we
were just at the end of all resources, but then the revelation of God's heavenly
intention came and a transition took place, from which time forward there has
been no lack. It is just the river flowing in fulness all the time; a very
practical difference.
You must really know what it
means to have your life hid with Christ in God, where Christ is, in order to
have all the heavenly resources at your command for a heavenly realm of life and
ministry. As you know, in the Gospels things are only hinted at, suggested and
illustrated. When you come over to the latter part of the New Testament, you see
it just working out all the time. There is abundance, plenty of food available.
The need is vast, there is no doubt about it. People are saying everywhere that
they are in a state of spiritual starvation - quite unnecessarily. The supplies
are adequate and even more to meet the level of the demand, as indicated here.
In chapter 14 there were twelve baskets left over; here it is seven baskets. You
will notice in your margin that different words are used for 'baskets'. The
words indicate that the seven baskets were larger than the twelve baskets. But
there are seven baskets here, and that is the number of spiritual fulness, and
there is always a margin in heaven. You never exhaust heaven, and you never can
keep even with heaven. Heaven will always be ahead of you. If you have a life in
union with the Lord above, He is always well ahead of the greatest need. You
never can catch up with heaven's resources. This is one more emphasis upon the
heavenly position necessary to know heavenly resources.
Resource for Service
Again, as in each previous
instance, there is a foreshadowing of things. On both occasions the disciples
were proved to be altogether inadequate to the situation. It is remarkable that
two occasions like this should occur, and that on the second they should not
have learned the lesson of the first. They had seen the five thousand fed, and
then when it comes to four thousand - beside women and children, they raise the
old question, 'How can it be done?' They project their doubts into it; they are
altogether unequal to this situation, they do not see from whence the need could
be supplied. The Lord does marvellous things, and a little time elapses and
another big situation arises, and we are just as much in doubt as we were. It
was overwhelming then, but somehow or other it has lost its power with us now,
and we are just questioning again as to what is going to happen, what is going
to be the issue; that is the old earthly life. And so these men were proved
repeatedly to be unequal to the situation, not seeing or knowing how the thing
could be dealt with and the need be met.
Get them on the other side of
the Cross; the other side of Pentecost, and are they questioning this matter?
No, they are equal to the situation now. What they find now is, not that the
need is too great, but the capacity of the people too small to receive what they
have to give. 'We have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them.'
So far as the disciples are concerned, they have come to know by the Holy Spirit
heavenly union with the Lord and that meant that they can be equal to the
situation, however great. Let us take that to ourselves. That is true as to the
multitude, as to the need. Well, here again, the same thing applies: the
servants for their service, the crowds for their need. It is all in heaven, it
is all available; there is sufficient resource, and more than sufficient, for
the greatest need that could be brought to the Lord, provided you get away from
earthly limitations; provided the Cross cuts clean in between your earthly
relationships to bring you into union with your Lord in heaven.