Readings: Genesis 2:7-17 | Romans 6:19-23 | Mark 8:1-10
Text: Mark 8:1-10
“How can one [man] satisfy these people with bread in this desolate place?” (v. 4)
- Man’s Worry:
- Overpopulation will destroy the planetClean drinking water will be in shortage
- A massive disease will devastate the human population
Exacerbated by evolutionary assumptions, the biggest common factor is that there is no God.
- Contrast Two Ways:
- There is no God, and everything arrived at today came from chance chemical reactions. It is a freak accident that life as we know it today exists, and it could expire at any millisecond.
- God created heaven and earth, and continually sustains it, including every life He has made, no matter our ability to quantify and predict it.
What are the odds of the first? True, it’s now the dominant view which contributes to much of public policy. It’s what’s assumed and forcefully insisted on in academia. But, what is really the probability of the location of the Earth, the complexity of DNA, of the biosphere, the intricacy of the ecosystem, and the sustainability of it all—if it really took billions of years to coalesce by itself? So many existing observations have to be ruled out, and disbelief needs to be suspended to imagine a distant, primitive cosmos…then earth…then life from non-life…species drifting…until you arrive at what we know today.
To put it another way, how much faith does it take to believe in billions of years to exist and survive on this insignificant blue speck in the universe?
On the other hand, what does the evidence show about the providence of God? How has the human being, weakest of the land creatures, survived to this day? As populations, economies, and nations have ebbed and flowed, how have things come back to order? Why does this natural law of family, church, and government work when every alternative offered seems to destroy lives?
All of this actually takes less “faith” (if you mean blind trust of the experts), because it’s right under our nose.
The disciples ask, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”More to the point, they ask how can a man satisfy such a multitude when all we see is desolation? It’s a direct affront against the 4th petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
The sad truth is that our unwillingness to believe the clear evidence is a symptom of our unbelief in “God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Rather than rely on our Father to give us today our daily bread, we insist on obtaining it for ourselves.
- Just consider where our first reaction is when there’s trouble:
- A financial catastrophe—I’ve got to get money now!Job loss—I better start pounding the pavementA sick child—Doctors, what can you do?
- Worldwide concerns (hunger, water, climate)—what grand plan can we devise?
In all of these, our first reaction is usually toward our own solution.
Forgive us, Father, for we have forgotten who You are, and we have sinned against you by proudly trusting in our own solutions.
- Learn God’s heart and mercy toward us from this account:
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people.
- The crowds are led out into a desperate circumstance. They are “past the point of no return.”
- This comes from a time when Jesus was preaching in a Gentile region. These are people who haven’t been taught about the true God.The Lord tells of His compassion for them and desire to satisfy their need. So, He asks what they already have at hand.He blesses that, and by it, He satisfies the needs of that enormous multitude.
- Contrary to any calculations, there is still more to provide going forward—seven loaves into seven baskets.
- What can we learn from this?
- Our biggest obstacle is unbelief, by which we are led into all kinds of idolatry in putting our faith in that which is not God.Our second biggest obstacle is laziness and waste. What God has already given to us, we squander so that we ourselves can feel satisfied. The “American dream” is great at selling us the lie that God promises an ideal, comfortable, pain-free, middle-class life to all. When we can’t do such things, we start to scrape and pinch so that we can have our “right.”God has not promised His children ease in this life, but He is continually driving us to put our trust in Him. The stupid adage goes, “God never gives you more than you can handle.” This is totally unbiblical, and would better be said that God never gives you anything that He Himself can’t bring you through (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13).That, in addition to providing what we truly need, God also gives His children the task of wise stewardship of what He gives. We don’t endlessly waste money, or food, or natural resources.
- We will never do a perfect job at this. The blood of Jesus covers our failures, our weak faith, what we creatures are unable to do. Indeed, what we will see is that when we commit our imperfect works to Him, He will bless and multiply it so that it fulfills His good purpose.
Of the two ways between a meaningless cosmic accident and survival of the fittest, and a gracious Father who provides for His creatures, Jesus shows us the truth which transcends man’s pomp. You and I are creatures of God—weak, limited, dependent. And that’s just where we need to be. When we are faced by the enormity and improbability of God providing for the needs of so many, an uncertain future, and what we actually can do, we’re driven to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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