SPIRITUAL FOOD
[p. 63] SPIRITUAL FOOD
The lessons connected with the five loaves and the seven and the one are most important. In each case it is a question of what the disciples have which can be made available for food. Have we got anything which the Lord can multiply? There are things which melt away to nothing if the Lord touches them, but there are other things which He can multiply to any extent. These are the things which His disciples are possessed of: in one word, as they are possessed of Christ.
The outlook of the Lord upon His people today must be much what it was in verse 34. He would “teach them many things” and he would have them fed. In view of the widespread need He would say to us today, “How many loaves have ye? Go and see”. Have we got anything which will feed men’s souls? I think we shall find that we have. They had five loaves. Five is what may be called the human number: man has five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot, and five senses. It speaks of what man is as a creature in dependent weakness which has become intensified by the fallen condition in which he is found. And it speaks of the grace of God in Christ to meet all human need. The disciples were conversant with the Old Testament, and they knew that God had pledged Himself in hundreds of promises to meet all the need of Israel. They had Christ in their thoughts as the One in whom all those promises were verified and fulfilled. I believe the five loaves represent that. It was to be known, and will be known, in Israel.
The two fishes represent the testimony that was there to men being secured for the pleasure of God. We know from John 6 that they were “small fishes”, but still it was there in testimony. If a divine thought is maintained even in the [p. 64] smallest way it is something which can be divinely multiplied. Its value reaches, or may reach, the whole of the people of God. We are privileged to hold and maintain it for all saints.
Whatever promises of God there are, in Christ is the yea and amen of them all.
The disciples “understood not through the loaves: for their heart was hardened”. How we need to be preserved from that hardness of heart that does not understand! If our hearts are hardened they get narrowed down to human thoughts, natural thoughts. It is a great thing to have hearts that are soft and impressionable spiritually, so that we understand the greatness of the Person with whom we have to do, and what He can do. Perhaps each one of us has enough of Christ to feed thousands of His saints if it came under His hand. It is a question of the sufficiency of Christ.
Then in chapter 7: 27 we find that the children of the kingdom had forfeited all title to the promises. They were hypocrites, with their heart far from God, and making His word void, their heart a fountain of wickedness. The Lord exposes all this, but He also brings to light the work of God in one who had no title to anything on the line of promise (verse 28). It was just to her what God was in Himself in His infinite goodness. This lay behind all the promises. Whether man has any title to promise or not, God is what He is, and I think the seven loaves are connected with this (chapter 8: 2, 5). It is not promises, but God Himself come forth to bless in the revelation of what He is. It is not here a crowd who are as sheep having no shepherd, but who have been with Christ three days. Such need food that they may return from spiritual privilege strengthened for the responsible life, so that there is no fainting on the way. A young woman said, ‘I think I should be perfectly happy if I could always remain in the meetings, but when I have to go home I get tested and I break down’. You need the seven loaves to meet that — to know that God is for you, Christ is for you, and the Holy Spirit is for you. That is perfection of resource to keep you [p. 65] up to the level of the spiritual privilege you have enjoyed. Your strength lies in appropriating what is available for you in divine Persons. ‘The fulness of our God alone, the measure is of grace divine’.