Jesus and the Feeding of the Five Thousand
We see the working of miracles in the New Testament when Jesus took the little boy's lunch
and fed five thousand with it (John 6:5-14). I am sometimes amazed at the way some folks —
even educated folks — try to explain away the Bible.
For example, I was reading after a fellow once who had all kinds of initials on the end of his
name — X, Y, Z, Ph.D., and so on! Please understand that I am not against education. But
sometimes people can educate their heads at the expense of educating their hearts.
This particular intellectual I was reading after was trying to explain away the miracles in the
Bible. He explained the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand with the little boy's loaves of
bread by saying, "The loaves of bread in those days were bigger than they are now"!
If he had really read this account in the Bible, he would have noticed that it was a little boy's
lunch (John 6:9). In the first place, it is difficult to imagine that a little boy could have carried
enough bread out there to have fed five thousand. In the second place, it is difficult to imagine
that he had planned to eat alt of that for lunch himself!
No, it was the working of a miracle that fed five thousand with just a little boy's lunch. The
disciples even gathered up twelve remaining basketfuls when they were finished eating (John
6:13)!
Ananias and Sapphira
This working of miracles was also used to carry out divine judgment, as in the case of Ananias
and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10), because this was an example of divine intervention into the
ordinary course of nature.
At one time, the Christians in the Early Church had sold all of their possessions and brought
the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. They owned everything in common. God didn't tell
them to do it.
They evidently felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to do this, and it proved to be a wise move
because within a few years the city was overrun, and they would have eventually lost
everything they owned.
Ananias and Sapphira had sold their land, but kept part of the money they received. It would
have been perfectly all right for them to have said to the disciples, "This is half of the money
we received from the sale of our property."
God wasn't requiring them to give all their money to the disciples. There is nothing in the
Scriptures that even infers that. It would have been fine if they had been honest and had said,
"Here is half the money. We are going to keep the other half."
Ananias came in and laid his money at the apostles' feet, seemingly making the same
consecration and dedication that the others had made. Peter asked, "Is that the price of the
land?"
"Yes, that is the total price," Ananias answered in effect, but he was telling a lie because he
had kept back part of it.