It was late in the afternoon and the disciples were tired, hungry, and looking forward to a night of rest. Check out what they said to Jesus in chapter 14:15 ". . . just send the crowd away so they can go back to their villages and buy their own food." Can you hear all the undertones of their request? "Jesus this crowd is standing between us and our dinner and rest so can't we just ask them to leave?" How many times do other people's needs get in the way of our own desires? Plenty, for me if I'm being honest.
"They do not need to go away," Jesus said to His disciples, "you need to give them something to eat." Notice the shift in responsibility as Jesus was teaching them the importance of serving (as well as compassion). The disciples didn't take this news well, (remember they are tired and hungry as well) and immediately started offering excuses, "we only have five loaves of bread and two fish, plus we don't have the money or resources to purchase and cater food to this large of a group." In fact, one of His followers, Philip, did the math and said to Jesus, "It would take a half years wage just for everyone in this group to get one bite!"
Of course, we know the rest of the story. (Shout out to Paul Harvey) - Jesus fed the entire crowd, not just a few bites apiece, but enough food so that everyone had all they could eat. Plus there was food left over! Then Jesus said, ". . . we are not going to waste any of this food, put it in baskets and they had twelve baskets of food left over."
Let's fast forward to the next day as the disciples boarded a boat to travel across the lake. Guess what they forget to bring? Yup, the food. And guess what they immediately started doing when they realized that they had forgotten the food. Worrying. They started discussing among them the fact that they didn't have any food and what were they were going to eat, less than 24 hours after watching the grand miracle of Jesus feeding thousands of people with five loaves. Jesus does seem to lose his patience at this point as He says, "You of little faith, why are you still talking about not having any bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves that fed the five thousand?"
So many times when I talk to people who aren't Christ followers they will say things like, "why doesn't God just write His message on the sky so I can see it and know He is real?" And don't get me wrong I've had these very thoughts many times myself. I can think of at least a couple of reasons why God doesn't work that way. We have very short memories, and we are selfish people who are driven by our flesh and not our soul desires. If we aren't willing to seek Him and put in the work then even the most spectacular miracle would start to fade in importance over time. God wants a long-term relationship, not a fling based on the wrong motivations. Also, Jesus discerned that many people were following Him just to see what they could get out of the relationship. (Healing, money, power, fame, etc.) In fact, Jesus would constantly remind His followers of the difficulties and high cost of devoting their lives to Him and would see His followers fall away in great numbers when they heard these truths. Look at a quick tour through history of God doing miracles and people still choosing not to believe.
1) God performed miracles through Moses and Pharaoh still didn't believe.
2) God performed miracles through Elijah and Jezebel didn't believe.
3) God performed miracles through Samson and the Philistines didn't believe.
4) God performed miracles everyday by feeding the children of Israel for months in the desert and yet almost all of them didn't believe He could deliver them to the Promised Land.
The point being that we have all seen miracles in our lives and yet many of us still choose not to believe. We have the miracle of Jesus rising from the dead, the miracle that is our Bible, the miracle of God's Word clearly predicting the future yet we still ask for more. In Romans 1:20 it says," For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."
In closing, I believe that this is why faith is so important as a believer in Jesus. In Hebrews 11:6 it reminds us, "But without faith, it is impossible to please God." Miracles are not the real reason that people don't believe in God. He is actively pursuing everyone as it is His desire that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. (1 Timothy 2:4) Here is one more verse from the book of with this promise, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." James 4:8.
