ALMS - MARK 8:1-9

1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,
2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:
3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.
4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?
5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.
6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.
7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.
8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.
9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away. KJV

This is the second miracle of God performed by Jesus concerning the multiplication of food. Mark notes in this example of God’s bigness that the multitude was very great and they had nothing to eat. The compassion of Jesus noticed this lack of provision unfortunately the disciples of the Lord did not share that same godly compassion. We can see that the disciples had learned not to ask Jesus to send them away because the last time that request was unacceptable. This time Jesus initiates the action to feed the multitude by calling His disciples. We can understand from this that the Lord will call His workers first instead of calling all the people together to announce His plans. Notice that the Lord had exact knowledge of how long the people had been with Him. We can not be sure if the people had fasted for three days listening to Jesus or if they brought food and the food they brought lasted only a day or two. Since verse 3 states that some of them came from a long way we can understand why the Lord Jesus held the meeting longer. If someone comes a days journey the Lord desires to give them as much information as they can handle. The teaching and ministering of the Lord will always be interrupted if people are hungry and tired (faint). Our fellowship with the Lord is better served in the long haul opposed to a big feast a couple times a year. We should always be positioned at the Master’s feet on a daily basis to allow continuous growth and development. Although it was very common for people to take food with them on a long journey they had no ideal just how long Jesus would be teaching. Therefore, they were not prepared for a long journey with a long meeting of three days. The Lord knew this and provided His own solution similar to what He had done before. Since some of the disciples did not pick-up on the Lord intentions Jesus had to ask them the same question again, “How much food do you have on hand?”. It would seem that since the meeting was so long the disciples were mentally tired so they thought the meeting should be stopped immediately. However we can see that the Lord of Harvest was not ready to close the Harvest meeting so soon. In this account we can see that the disciples answered Jesus that they had seven loaves according to verse 5. Jesus repeated the very similar sequence of events that He had previously done when He first fed the people miraculously. He first told the disciples to have the people sit down to establish order. We can gather from verse 9 that the people were sat down by groups and rank to establish a head count. Then Jesus repeated the process He showed the disciples during the first miraculous feeding. He first gave thanks which included the prayer of blessing (remember He looked up and blessed before). Then He gave the broken bread to the disciples to give to the people to let the disciples see up close the multiplication of the bread (and fishes). The disciples knew exactly what they started with but because the work was much they probably did not show a lot of excitement during the miracle. We must remember that the day was well spent and the meeting ran long so I am sure they were primarily thinking of the some R&R (rest and relaxation). We will mention again that the people ate and were filled according to verse 8 with seven baskets of food left over. This bears repetition that God’s Will is for everyone to have enough to eat with some left over, this is the biblical definition of prosperity. We will mention that this “alms” was in the mind of Jesus before it was given to the people. It is very possible that the timing of this miracle was dependent upon the food present. We have no indication that the Lord would have made food out of nothing. Therefore, since Jesus operated in the gifts of Spirit, He could of known that He needed to start this process before all the food is gone. This thought teaches us to never eat all our seed but rather save some for a future harvest. We see that the size of the “alms” given to Jesus does not seem to be significant but rather the willingness to give the Lord something to work with. It is a fact that whatever you give Him He can multiply it back unto you and others. This shows us what God is able to do with our little heart once given to Him. He will break it open to help others while it continuously increases in His Hands because we become one in Him. Therefore remember that who ever you give an “alms” unto in the Kingdom of God you are giving Jesus something to work with that will bring glory to this Name. Amen!

Refer to Mark 6:34-44 for first miraculous feeding according to the Apostle Mark.

In His Love, Eric & Angela Foster

back to the top