Luke 9:12-17

 ¹² When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” ¹³ But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” ¹⁵ And they did so, and made them all sit down. ¹⁶ Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. ¹⁷ So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

Commentary

Vs. 12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”

With the multitudes steadily seeking Jesus upon His re-arrival, their numbers had now grown to over five thousand men, not including woman and children who came seeking Him, seeking from Him knowledge of the Kingdom of God, or seeking healing for themselves, or for their loved ones, or seeking Him to find answers about themselves, or eternity, or most importantly how to be reconciled to God. The reasons people seek the Lord Jesus Christ (then and now) are many-fold and diverse, just like the people who come from all walks of life today who are still being drawn by God to seek Him. For anyone who truly does seek Jesus Christ will find Him (Matt. 7:7-11).

And so, it was as the day began to wear away, that the twelve realizing that this multitude would soon need to depart if they were to find provisions for themselves before evening and dark. Now approach Jesus and tell Him to send the multitudes of people away, so that they may and go into the surrounding towns and villages and get lodgings and food for themselves (vs. 12). Which on the surface seems reasonable, until one considers that they’re anxieties and worries are now seeking to direct the Lord’s Ministry!  For there they are right in the middle of the greatest single gathering of peoples at any one time in Jesus’ earthly ministry, and the twelve are only focused on all of the potential problems of having the people stay late, and not on the power or grace of God that was then being poured out mightily. If you think about it, they at that moment had less faith then the very multitudes they were so worried about, for the crowds weren’t “panicking” about the hour being late, they were quite content to be with Jesus, even in that deserted place. How many times then have revivals or evangelistic meetings or outreaches been shut down (even when God was working mightily in and amongst them) simple because someone deemed it no longer “feasible” to carry on. Now is there a time to shut down of course there is, but clearly Jesus had other ideas about when that would be, for He still had work to do there, and He was going to do it, and so we must all be listening to Him for instruction and guidance, and not be following our own fears and worries, and thus shut down the work of God in its midst.

Vs. 13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.”

Upon hearing the twelves reasoning’s as to why Jesus should send the multitudes away, Jesus’ doesn’t even entertain their request, instead He says to them, “You give them something to eat.” To which the disciples were likely stunned in hearing, for they were probably sure that Jesus would’ve heeded their advice, and told them to send the multitudes away. And so, upon hearing that they say to Jesus, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” Thus, they make their case again that they cannot feed the people from their own resources, (which is true, and which Jesus already knows that they can’t), and so they say, the only way they can feed them is if they go and buy food for the five thousand, which again is not really feasible for them to do, given the late hour and the logistics of doing so. Given the number of peoples which would’ve exceeded five thousand if including all the men, woman, and children.

Vs. 14 For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”

Having heard the disciples reply Jesus now tells them to make the people sit down in groups of fifties for that is something they can do, thus a hundred groups of fifty could be fairly quickly achieved by the twelve.

Vs. 15-17 ¹⁵ And they did so, and made them all sit down. ¹⁶ Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. ¹⁷ So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

Now when the twelve disciples had all the people seated, Jesus took the five loaves of bread and two fish which they had originally offered to Him to feed the multitudes, and so looking up to heaven (exactly where the disciples should’ve been looking, or had their focus on, in the first place), Jesus blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples who then set them before the multitude, thus magnifying His Word, His Work, and His Power in their midst, by showing compassion to them all, and thus feeding them all (vs. 15-16). A sign then not just to them, but to the disciples as well, that with God all things are possible (Phil. 4:13). And so, it was that the whole multitude ate and were filled, fully satisfied then by the Lord Jesus Christ’s provisions for them. Now when the multitudes had finished eating then twelve baskets of leftover fragments were taken up by the twelve. And thus, they too would’ve had a basket each for themselves, and thus more than enough to feed themselves as well. Nothing then that anyone commits to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Ministry Service then is ever wasted. 

Scripture Quotations

New King James Version (1982): Thomas Nelson