Mark 6:35 “And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed:”
Our Lord views difficult situations differently than we do. A very large gathering of folks came to hear the Lord speak in “a desert place”, and “when the day was now far spent”, it would be dark soon, the disciples were concerned that the people had not eaten. Their idea was to “Send” the people “away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.” (Mark 6:36). The disciples, principally the Lord’s Apostles, had great compassion for the people, but had no means with which to help them. So, their idea was to just send the problem away. But, the Lord had other plans, He had another lesson to teach them, He simply told His disciples to “Give ye them to eat” (Mark 6:37). In their human view, it was not possible to give the people anything to eat. They rhetorically asked the Lord, “Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?” (Mark 6:37); that is, should we go to town and purchase Two Hundred Days Wages (Matthew 20:2) worth of food for this great crowd? The Lord asked the disciples how much food they did have, and they came up with five loaves of bread and two fishes (Mark 6:38). Without hesitation, the Lord told the people to sit in an orderly arrangement, and then He instructed the disciples to feed them. As the disciples began to feed the people, those five loaves and two fishes so wonderfully multiplied that they actually fed “five thousand men” (not counting women and children) (Mark 6:39-44). And, after everyone had eaten, “they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes” (Mark 6:43)! The message to us is, that there are problems we do not have the power to overcome; but, while we are limited, our Lord is not; He is the Great Problem Solver, The Great Victor, The Great Helper, The Great Comforter, and The Great Savior. Furthermore, just like the Lord gave natural food to His disciples to feed the people, He gives Spiritual Food to His preachers to “Feed the flock of God which is among you” (I Peter 5:2) – and they are fed!