To Encourage You

Mark 6:35-37 “And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.  Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.’ But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ And they said to him, ‘Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?’”

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus stopped people in their tracks with the things that He said to them?  The passage from Mark 6 above is one example of this.  Jesus had been busy teaching a large crowd of people.  We learn a little later in this passage just how many – 5,000 men.  And it is likely that there may have been at least twice that number present, for it omits mentioning anything about women and children.  In any event, the disciples had had enough, so they went to Jesus to instruct Him about what He should do – which is not wise, when you think about it.  Jesus then stops them cold with these words: “You give them something to eat.”  Of course, they had nothing with which to feed such a large crowd.  To them, Jesus had just asked them to do something that was impossible.  Why in the world would He say such a thing?  Was He crazy? 

Isn’t this so often the case when we come to the words of the Bible?  At first blush, much of it makes absolutely no sense to us.  Why would God ever say the things He does?  Because of this, many people don’t bother to try to understand it. Like those to whom Jesus said another preposterous thing, i.e., “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53), they walk away. 

So, if this is true, why does the Lord speak as He does?  For one, could it be that He simply means to get our attention?  With so many voices speaking to us, He makes a point to stand out from the crowd.  He has made every effort to give us “ears to hear.”  Also, we need to understand that His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways, for as the Heavens are above the earth so are His thoughts higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).  Spiritual, supernatural things are difficult to understand by our unspiritual, natural minds. In fact, they are impossible to understand, because “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).  In fact, the natural man, but for the intervention and initiative of God, wouldn’t give spiritual things a second thought, even though his very life depends on them. 

Jesus knows us better than any of us know ourselves.  He knows how to get the ball rolling, so to speak, in our minds, by drawing out questions when we otherwise wouldn’t be wise enough to even ask them.  And as He lovingly prods us with His words, He works to bring to us the very knowledge of God. 

Among the many incredible things that the Bible has to say to believers is that they have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).  If that doesn’t stop you in your tracks, what does?  By this He is telling us that His very mind, His supernatural and high thoughts, are given to us in the Scriptures.  We can know much about how the Creator, the Omniscient God, thinks, simply by reading the words of the Bible; but not just by reading, but by also asking Him to give us understanding of its words.  He loves to do this for us as He has demonstrated in these words: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Isaiah 55:2).  And that rich food, for those who know Him, is the awesome understanding of the Word of God, the very manna from Heaven, the true Bread of Life.