Matt. 14:20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.
Feeding the 5000 has been part of our ministry for over 20 years. It really came in a most unexpected way. It was 1990 and our church was running on empty. We had done everything we knew to do and we just couldn’t make ends meet. We just couldn’t pay our bills. Have you ever been in that predicament. I kept asking the Lord for a financial breakthrough. You know what I mean? Really Lord, just send us a millionaire. That’s when I had the most unusual impression. Help people who have no way to help you back. In other words lend to the Lord. That was it. Find the hurting, the homeless, the sick and the worn out and watch what happens. That’s how we started Feed the Multitudes. The Lord taught us how to depend on Him for the impossible. Here is how Matthew Henry describes this miracle.
“They did all eat, and were filled. Those whom Christ feeds, he fills; so runs the promise of God. They shall be satisfied. As there was enough for all, they did all eat, so there was enough for each, they were filled; though there was but little, there was enough, and that is as good as a feast. The blessing of God can make a little go a great way; as, if God blessed what we have, we eat, and have not enough. There was to spare; They took up of the fragments that remained, twelve baskets full, one basket for each apostle: thus what they gave they had again, and a great deal more with it; and they were so far from being nice, that they could make this broken meat serve another time, and be thankful. This was to manifest and magnify the miracle, and to show that the provision Christ makes for those who are his is not bare and scanty, but rich and plenteous; bread enough, and to spare, an overflowing fulness.”
After the people had been fed there were 12 large baskets full. These baskets were the size of a man and there was one for each disciple. That was no coincidence. Could it be that is how God meets our needs? It is in helping others that the Lord provides for us.
