Jesus had gone out into a desert place, and, as usual, a great multitude followed Him. Thousands of hungry people were present, with nothing to eat, and Jesus said Philip, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" (John 6:5)
Philip at once began to calculate, and concluded that it could not be done, since two hundred pennyworth (200 days' wages) of bread would not be sufficient for each one to have a taste.
Peter volunteered the information that there was a lad present, who had five barley loaves and two small fishes, but such a small amount was not worth mentioning among so many. No; it was clearly an impossibility; the people must get along the best they could, for there was no food there for them.
But Jesus was not disturbed by these conclusions. He had simply asked the question, "Whence shall we buy bread?" in order to prove the disciples, "for He himself knew what He would do it." (John 6:6)
He knew how many hungry people there were present, and how much, or rather how little food there was at hand, yet He was not at all troubled. He knew what He would do, and He proceeded to do it. Not one of the great multitude went away hungry. Everyone was filled, and there was an abundance of food left.
How did it come to pass? The Bread of Life was with them. He who calls to all the world, "Come, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price," (Isaiah 55:1) had no need to go away to buy food for those who had followed Him.
Fifteen hundred years before that time, the ancestors of the same people were in the desert, and they had nothing to eat. "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full: for you have brought us forth into the wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger." (Exodus 16:3-4)
But they did not starve, for bread in abundance was sent them from heaven. They were fed from the same source as their descendants by the sea of Galilee. Yet the lesson was not learned. From the wilderness of Sin they journeyed "according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. ... And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" (Exodus 17:1,3)
But they did not die. Water was provided for them in abundance, for: "the fountain of living waters," (Jeremiah 2:13) was with them, and, "they drank of that Spiritual Rock." (1 Corinthians 10:4)
As we read these narratives, we read them in the light of the result, and so have not the sympathy with the murmurers that our own experience would warrant us in having. We do not realize what apparently good reason they had for complaint.
One of the first qualifications of a good general is that he shall be able to provide for those in his charge; and a prime necessity for a camp is plenty of good water. If we were in the same position that the Israelites were, we should most likely say, "Anybody who doesn't know better than to choose a camping place in a dry desert, ought to give up his place to somebody else; a child would know enough to pitch by the side of water."
But how did they happen to be there? Was it accidental or lack of judgment that brought them into that difficulty, for which they had to be extricated? Not by any means. They pitched there "according to the commandment of the Lord." (Exodus 17:1)
And what was more, it was God himself who led them there, for, as Moses said to the people, "You did not believe the Lord your God, Who went in the way before you, to search out a place to pitch your tents in." (Deuteronomy 1:32-33)
And did God lead them into a place where there was no water? No; for He himself was with them, and He is "the fountain of living waters." (Jeremiah 2:13)
All the time, "He himself knew what He would do." (John 6:6) "He knows the way that I take," (Job 23:10) for He himself is the Way. "Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
Yea, "Known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world." (Acts 15:18)
We get into difficult places, and know not what to do, and we fancy that because we are at our wits end, the case is hopeless. But God is not taken by surprise. Instead of having abandoned us to our fate, it is He who has led us in the difficulty, in order to show us His salvation.
And He led us there because it was the very best way. He always knows what to do next, because He saw the situation long beforehand.
Then since we are in the hands of Him who knows us, our needs, and the way, and who always knows what He will do, and whose will is always for deliverance, let us rest in the knowledge that: "All things work together for good to them that love God." (Romans 8:28)
No way can be so dark and difficult but that He knows it and the way of escape. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." (Psalm 103:2)--Present Truth, March 17, 1898--Timeline: IV-38 (Feeding the Five Thousand)--John 6:5-6.