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In this message we come to Matt. 14:14-21, the record of the Lord’s miraculous feeding of the crowd in the wilderness.
Many times after we have experienced rejection and have passed through it, we have been happy and released. But after we experience this release, we realize that we are in want and do not have anything to live on. We are lacking in necessities. This was the situation of the crowd that followed the Lord into the desert.
I believe that those who followed the heavenly King to the desert were enjoying a happy, pleasant time. They might have been so happy that they even forgot about eating. Verse 15 says, “Now when evening was come, the disciples came to Him, saying, This place is a desert, and the hour has already passed; therefore send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Peter might have taken the lead to remind Jesus that they were in the desert, that the hour was late, and that the crowds needed something to eat. He might have been the one to suggest that the Lord send the crowds away into the villages to buy food for themselves. The disciples seemed to be saying, “Lord, You see now that it is evening. Don’t keep the crowd here. Send them away.” Was not this a good idea that proceeded out of a good heart? Today’s Peters all have good hearts. In the church life the good-hearted ones often make proposals. Do not be such a Peter.
In reading the book of Matthew we need to take care of the doctrinal arrangement of the book. Many readers consider Matthew either a storybook or a history book. But it is not a history book; it is a book of doctrine. The Lord’s word in verse 16, therefore, is significant: “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat.” The disciples asked the Lord to send the crowds away that they might go and buy food for themselves. But the Lord told the disciples to give the crowds something to eat. Their concept was to ask people to do something; this was the principle of the law. But the Lord’s concept is to give people something to enjoy; this is the principle of grace. What the disciples proposed was wholly based upon the principle of the law.
In verse 16 the Lord Jesus stopped the disciples. The Gospels record a number of times that Peter was stopped. He was very experienced in this matter of being stopped in speaking. On the mountain, when he proposed building three tabernacles, he was stopped by God. When he told the man who collected the half-shekel tax for the temple that his Master paid the tax, he was stopped by the Lord. The Lord Jesus always stopped the good-hearted one. If you do not have such a good heart, the Lord will not stop you. But if you have a good heart, be prepared to be stopped by Him. Your good heart needs to be stopped because it is natural. The Lord Jesus stopped the disciples by saying, “You give them something to eat.” The Lord seemed to be saying, “Do not ask the crowd to do something in order to get something. That is law. You should give them something to eat. This is grace. I’m not here as Moses telling people to do something in order to get something. I am Jesus Christ. I came with grace. I always give people something. The law came through Moses, but grace came with Me. Therefore, you must give the crowd something to eat. You disciples are completely wrong, for you are still under the law, telling people to do certain things. Are the people hungry? Certainly they are. I know this. I haven’t done anything up to this point in order to expose you. I waited for evening to come just so that you might be exposed. If I had done something about their need, you would never have been exposed.” Often in the Lord’s recovery such instances occur. The Lord has deliberately done certain things to exhaust the patience of the natural ones. However, the good-hearted ones cannot bear this. Often, minutes before the end, they make a proposal. If they had waited for another few minutes, their folly would not have been exposed. Nevertheless, we must learn to get away from the regulations and commandments of the law. Instead, we must learn to know grace, to exercise grace, and to give to others according to the principle of grace.
When the Lord Jesus told them to give the crowd something to eat, the disciples said, “We have nothing here except five loaves and two fishes” (v. 17). When you are about to exercise grace, you will see that you have nothing. If you simply issue commandments to others, you will not realize how poor you are. You may think that you are very smart and say to yourself, “How smart I am! No one else has noticed that evening has come. But I know everything. I can even instruct Jesus. In the Lord’s recovery I am the most intelligent one. I can tell others to do this and that. I know the time, I know the situation, I know what to say, I know what to do, I know everything. I even know how to command the Lord Jesus.” However, when we are told by the Lord to exercise grace, we shall say, “When I am under the law, I am blind and don’t know myself. Under the law, my poverty is not exposed. But now the Lord Jesus, speaking a word of grace, has told me to give them something to eat. This gracious word exposes my poverty. Immediately, I see that I have nothing. I have only a commanding mouth. I can give commands, I can instruct, and I can teach, but I have nothing to give.” The law does not expose us that much. But whenever we are about to exercise grace, our poverty is exposed. We see that we have nothing to give to others, even nothing to feed ourselves.
May the Lord be merciful to us! Do not think that this is merely a story about the Lord Jesus feeding five thousand men plus women and children with five loaves and two fishes. You may be familiar with the story of this miracle, but you may still lack the revelation or the light it contains. But today we are under the Lord’s enlightenment. All of us are Peters. When we think that we know what to do and can tell others what to do, we are a Peter under the law. We are not one under grace. One who is under grace will always say, “Lord, I have nothing to give. There is a great need, but I cannot meet it. I realize that today is the day of grace, not the day of the law. Nevertheless, I have nothing to give. Grace exposes me.” Are you under the law or under grace? If you are under the law, you will still feel that you have something to boast of — your smart mind, your foresight, your knowledge, your ability to instruct others. But when the Lord puts you under grace, your poverty and nothingness will be exposed, and you will have to admit that you have nothing to give, even nothing with which to feed yourself. Here we see clearly the principle of the law and the principle of grace.
Speaking of the loaves and fishes mentioned in verse 17, the Lord said in verse 18, “Bring them to Me.” Whatever we have of the Lord we need to bring to the Lord that it might become a great blessing to many others. The Lord often uses what we offer to Him to provide for the need of others. It is also in this way that He provides for the need of His followers today.
Although you may say that you do not have anything to offer to the Lord, you at least have yourself. Praise the Lord that we all can give ourselves to Him! We may have nothing but a poor, ugly self, but we can give our self to Him. Even a sick person can give himself to the Lord. Let us give whatever we are to Him. The Lord needs our consecration. If what we have is kept in our possession, it will be nothing. But if it passes out of our hands into the Lord’s hands, it will become a great blessing. Consecrate yourself to the Lord. Offer what you have to Him. Then the Lord will have a way to bless many people, and you will be included in that blessing.
We all must see the doctrine in this portion of the Word. The doctrine is that we must not be under the law, but under grace. Grace exposes our poverty and our nothingness. Yet we have something — ourselves — to give to the Lord. No matter how little we have, we need to offer it to Him. If we put what we have into His hands, it will become a great blessing.
Verse 19 says, “And commanding the crowds to recline on the grass, He took the five loaves and two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and break and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.” The Lord fed the people; He ministered the life supply to them. By having the crowds recline on the grass, He put the people into good order. This shows the Lord’s wisdom and orderliness. By looking up to heaven the heavenly King indicated that His source was His Father in the heavens. Then He blessed the loaves and fishes and broke them. This indicates that whatever we bring to the Lord must be broken for it to become a blessing to others.
The Lord will break whatever is consecrated to Him. This means that after we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we shall be broken by Him. However, many of us have prayed, “Lord, have mercy on me and do not break me. Lord, You know my wife is breaking me into pieces. Keep me whole, and save me from my wife’s breaking hand.” A number of sisters have also prayed to be saved from the breaking hand of their husbands. But the more you pray in this way, the more breaking there will be. We, however, are more like rubber than bread. It is easy to break bread, but difficult to break rubber. Therefore, with us, breaking is not enough. Sometimes the Lord also has to cut us. I am not joking, for I know my own case. Nevertheless, whatever you are and whatever you have must be offered to the Lord. If you do this, in His hand nothing will remain whole. Rather, everything will be broken. The Lord will break whatever is placed into His hands. If we are not broken, our consecration does not mean anything, and it is not effectual. Our consecration only works by our being broken by the Lord.
After the Lord broke the loaves, He gave them to the disciples. The loaves were from the disciples, and they brought them to the Lord. After being blessed and broken by the Lord, they were given back to the disciples for distribution to the crowds, to whom the loaves became a great satisfaction. This indicates that the disciples were not the source of blessing; they were only the channels used by the Lord, who was the source of the people’s satisfaction. The broken bread was passed on to the disciples, and the disciples distributed it to the crowds. This broken bread became the satisfaction to all the hungry people, and there was great blessing. The principle is the same today. No doubt there has been great blessing in the Lord’s recovery in this country. Nevertheless, we must realize that some dear ones have offered themselves to the Lord. In the Lord’s hand, they all have been broken, and those broken pieces have brought in the blessing.
John 6:9 tells us that the five loaves are barley loaves. In figure, barley typifies the resurrected Christ (Lev. 23:10). Thus, the barley loaves signify Christ in resurrection as food to us. While the loaves are of the vegetable life, signifying the generating aspect of Christ’s life, the fishes are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. To satisfy our spiritual hunger, we need Christ’s generating life as well as His redeeming life. Both of these aspects are symbolized by small items — loaves and fishes. This indicates that the heavenly King did not come to His followers in this age to reign over them as a great King, but as small pieces of food to feed them.
Verse 20 says, “And they all ate and were satisfied; and they took up what was over and above of the fragments, twelve baskets full.” Twelve baskets full of fragments indicate not only that the resurrected Christ is unlimited and inexhaustible, but also that the Lord’s provision for us is abundant, more than sufficient to meet all our need. The five loaves and two fishes satisfied about five thousand men, apart from women and children (v. 21). What we offer to the Lord may be very little; but the blessing will be great, and the overflow, the surplus, will be greater than what we offered. What we offer to the Lord cannot be exhausted. Rather, it will be used by the Lord to bless others abundantly, even with a surplus, to testify that this is the Lord’s marvelous doing. In this record of the miracle, the Holy Spirit’s intention in His inspiration is to show that the real need of the followers of the heavenly King is the proper food to satisfy their hunger. The disciples of Christ did not know this, nor did the crowds who followed. The heavenly King knew this and would do something miraculously to impress them with their real need and His provision for that need. All they needed was His resurrection life to satisfy their spiritual hunger, as signified in this miracle.
What the heavenly King did also clearly indicates that He provides for the necessities of His followers while they follow Him in this rejecting world. This corresponds with His word in the heavenly constitution that the kingdom people need not be anxious concerning what they shall eat (6:31-33).
In following the rejected King, we must pass through many kinds of rejections. After these rejections, we shall be in want and have certain needs. But do not worry about your needs or be anxious concerning them, for the Lord takes care of them, even at the end of the day in a desert place. The Lord has a way to meet your need. Simply offer what you are and what you have into His hand, let Him break the offering, and let the broken offering feed the hungry ones. If you do this, you will enjoy satisfaction, and there will be a surplus remaining.
What the rejected King did in 14:14-21 was not merely a miracle to feed people. The miracle here indicates that as the rejected King, Christ has the adequate, sufficient, rich life supply for His followers. He not only takes care of our physical and material needs; He also affords the life supply to satisfy our hunger. Many of us can testify that after passing through rejection, we came into a situation where we had a shortage. Nevertheless, the Lord took care of us, and we did not lack anything. Eventually, we did not care about the material supply, but about the life supply to satisfy our spiritual hunger. As we follow the rejected King on the pathway to glory, we can testify that we are enjoying the life supply. Moreover, we are feeding others. And after such an enjoyment, there are still twelve baskets full of life supply.
Now we can say that this pathway is very good. Although here we have rejection and want, He is our life supply. He takes care of our physical needs and renders the rich life supply, even with an overflow, to meet our spiritual need. Therefore, we can say, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” Not only are we without want — we are rich, we are satisfied, and we have twelve baskets full. With Him we have the material supply and the life supply. As we follow Him, even in the desert, we enjoy Him as our source of supply. Thus, we are not afraid of anything. Because He is with us, we shall not want. As long as we have His presence, everything is all right. We welcome the rejection and, in a sense, we even welcome the situation of being in want, for we have Him. Our need affords Him an excellent opportunity to do something for us.
