Matthew 15:32-38 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I have compassion on the multitude— Σπλαγχνιζομαι, a very expressive word, signifying My bowels yearn, or are moved, see ch. Matthew 9:36. It is pleasing to remark the strong compassion which our blessed Lord continually discovered in all his actions toward mankind. The multitude, it is probable, intent on hearing Christ and seeing his miracles, had lodged two nights together in thefields, as the season of the year was pleasant, this event happening quickly after the passover: and, besides that the great number of the cures which had been wrought but just before might animate them,—perhaps they might conclude, that the miraculous power of Christ, which was displayed in so many glorious instances around them, would either preserve their health from being endangered by the large dews which fell in the night, or restore them from any disorder they might contract by their eagerness to attend on his ministry. The multitude having now, as on a former occasion, consumed all the provision they brought with them, Jesus would not send them away without feeding them, lest they might have fainted in the way home. The disciples, who it seems did not reflect on the former miraculous dinner, imagined that Jesus proposed to feed this great multitude in the natural way; and were greatly surprised, and strongly hinted the impracticability of so doing, Matthew 15:33. Jesus did not reprove them for these wrongnotions, but meekly asked them what meat they had; and upon their telling him that they had seven loaves and a few little fishes, he ordered them to be brought, and out of these made a second dinner for the multitude by miracle. The Evangelist having, in the history of the former dinner, described the manner in which the multitudes were set down, thought itneedless on this occasion to say any thing of that particular; probably because they were ranged before in companies, by hundreds and by fifties. Few or none of these persons, it is most probable, were present at the former dinner; they seem to have been principally such as followed Jesus from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and the neighbouring heathen country: hence they are said, on seeing his miracles, to have glorified the God of Israel. This dinner was in all respects like to the first, except in the number of loaves and fishes of which it was made, the number of persons who were present at it, and the number of baskets which were filled with the fragments that remained. One cannot but remark with what wisdom Jesus chose to be so much in deserts during this period of his ministry: he was resolved, in the discharge of the duties of it, to make as little noise as possible, to avoid crowds, and to be followed only by such as had dispositions proper for profiting by his instructions; and to say the truth, not a great many others would have accompanied him into solitudes, where they were to sustain the inconveniences of hunger and the weather for several days together. As the multitude on this and the like occasions remained long with Jesus, doubtless his doctrine distilled upon them, all the while like dew, and as the small rain upon the tender herb; if so, what satisfaction and edification should we find in the divine discourses which he then delivered, were we in possession of them! Therefreshment that we receive from such of them as the inspired writers have preserved, raises an ardent desire of the rest. At the same time it must be acknowledged, that we are blessed with so much of Christ's doctrine as is fully sufficient to the purposes of salvation. See Macknight, Doddridge, and Wetstein.