The BIG Questions

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The sun has past its zenith and the ground is filled with people as far as the eye can see; thousands and thousands of people who'd come to hear Jesus, hungry for truth and by now, just plain hungry.

Philip feels a nudge and Jesus asks "Where shall we buy bread for all these people to eat?" (John 6:5)

Philip, surveying the crowd turns to Jesus and replies incredulously "Eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" (vs. 7) or "it would take a small fortune!" 

Today he'd probably say "Seriously?!"

To their credit the disciples were examining their resources; Jesus had made them responsible by asking the question and they were assessing what little they had in the face of such a great need.  As you know they brought forward the small boy's lunch of five rolls and two fish and presented it to Jesus - in essence saying - "This is all we've got".

Then Jesus gave them instructions - and they followed them seating the people in groups, passing out baskets of food and we finish the passage seeing the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.
It's amazing!
It's incredible!
but it seems to have so little to do with life today as we know it...

Go back to verses 5 and 6 "Turning to Philip He asked ' Philip where can we buy bread to feed all these people?'  He was testing Philip because He already knew what He was going to do."

 Why did Jesus ask Philip what to do? Why did he lay that responsibility on him?
If He already knew what He was going to do and He already knew that Philip didn't have the resources to meet such a need; why did He ask?

Why are our lives full of BIG questions? Why are we overwhelmed with situations we do not have the resources for: the relationships, and financial hardships, the medical issues and soul-shattering problems that plague us?

I wouldn't doubt that every person reading this has a "I've only have five rolls and two fishes and five thousand people to feed" situation in their lives.

Why the BIG questions?

Because God wants to show us that He is a BIG God - bigger than our resources, greater than our abilities, able to do exceedingly abundant above all that we can ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)

I'm captivated by the line - "He already knew what He was going to do".  Whatever BIG questions are in my life God already knows the answer; already knows how all things will be worked out for my good so that I will be more like Jesus (Romans 8;28,29).

He knows, and I am learning, that when I am faced with a BIG overwhelming, no way my resources can even touch this problem kind of question, that the correct answer - every time- is to turn to Him.

Because He knows what He is going to do and all I need to do is follow His instructions.


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