Friday 10 November, 2017

8 During those days another large crowd gathered. They had nothing to eat. So Jesus called for his disciples to come to him. He said, 2 “I feel deep concern for these people. They have already been with me three days. They don’t have anything to eat. 3 If I send them away hungry, they will become too weak on their way home. Some of them have come from far away.” 4 His disciples answered him. “There is nothing here,” they said. “Where can anyone get enough bread to feed them?” 5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied. 6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. He took the seven loaves and gave thanks to God. Then he broke them and gave them to his disciples. They passed the pieces of bread around to the people. 7 The disciples also had a few small fish. Jesus gave thanks for them too. He told the disciples to pass them around. 8 The people ate and were satisfied. After that, the disciples picked up seven baskets of leftover pieces. 9 About 4,000 people were there. After Jesus sent them away, 10 he got into a boat with his disciples. He went to the area of Dalmanutha.

I was talking with someone recently about the Old Testament name for God ‘Jehovah Jireh’. This name translates to mean ‘God will provide’ or ‘God will see to it.’ Not even just that God can provide, but that He will.

We see this characteristic of God in this passage through the actions of Jesus. When Jesus was surrounded by the disciples and the people who were following Him, He was already aware of their hunger & their need for food to eat. He knew before they even got to that point that they would be in this situation, stomachs grumbling.  He knew that the need was great – that there would be lots of mouths to feed – but that His ability to see to it & provide was greater. In this instance, Jesus met the hunger of these people in a very real, tangible, and miraculous way, and showed both His incredible power & deep compassion for them at the same time. I wonder what it would have been like to taste and eat the food that Jesus had multiplied? To know that the bread you were eating, in the natural sense, should not have been able to exist?

This is what is so great about the fact that God will provide. It’s not just that He did provide for people in the Bible, like in this passage. He will, and does, continue to see to it for each of us. He knows the situations we will face before we even get there. We too can ‘taste that bread’ when we see what God is able to provide – what God will provide – even when we feel that the situation is too big, too hard, or even impossible.

God, I am so grateful that you are in control, that you are already aware of all the situations I will ever face in life. I thank you that your desire is to see to it, and that you use your incredible power and compassion to provide for me every day. Help me to continue to place my faith in your goodness & provision for my life. Amen.

Written by Madelaine Tarasenko