‘ALL THINGS COME OF THEE’
‘And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and He sent them away.’
We may always conclude that a miracle had a deep abiding spiritual effect when, of the persons upon whom it was performed, nothing further is recorded. Of the Syro-Phenician woman, of the nobleman, of the centurion, of Jairus and his daughter, we hear no more. When, then, we read of the four thousand merely ‘that He sent them away,’ we may conclude they departed with the blessing of God resting upon them.
I. Admonition.—We learn from this passage that the duty of God’s ministers is to admonish men, in the words of their Divine Master, not to labour merely for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto them. The ordinance of labour imposed upon man at the Fall is not only good for him, but a necessity, and there is no great need to exhort the mass of our people to labour for the meat that perisheth. To reconcile these two duties, herein consists the difficulty. In order to profit by the Lord’s instruction, and so prepare our souls to receive Him as the Bread of Life, we must find time for searching the Scriptures, for self-examination, meditation, and prayer. It is to those only who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that the supply of all necessary things for the body and the soul is promised.
II. And why will men not believe this?—Because, although this is the Divine promise, yet the fulfilment of it depends upon the Lord’s pleasure; and sometimes He sees fit to reduce men to the lowest distress before He extends to them His aid. The four thousand were three days in the wilderness before the miracle of relief was wrought. Our Lord thus tried His humble and devoted followers in the desert; so will He generally try and prove us before He visits us with His blessing; yes, in spiritual things as well as temporal.
III. ‘The earth is the Lord’s,’ but in the things of earth He gives us a property for threescore years and ten; and He condescends to receive back, as an offering from us, what He may at any time require for His service. When He gathers a congregation, He receives at our hands a house wherein He may meet His people in sacraments and ordinances; and He appoints His servant, the bishop, to take possession of the same in His Name; and when, at the Holy Eucharist, He makes a spiritual banquet for His people in the wilderness of this world, He requires us, first of all, to make an oblation to Him of what is required for the feast, even as He took the loaves from His disciples. Thus is the Lord provided: and then, at His Holy Table, round which perhaps only two or three are gathered together in His Name, the Lord Jesus, according to His promise, is present unto the end of the world. All comes from Him; it is He Who gives the sacred food, while employing the agency of His ministers to dispense His bounties to believers.
—Dean Hook.