There are really four subjects in this chapter, namely, the feeding of the four thousand, the instruction at Dalmanutha, the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida, and the incident at Caesarea Philippi. I desire by God’s help to engage your attention with three of them, at this time.
First of all, with regard to the feeding of this multitude. You will observe one little word here that, I think, gives the key to the understanding of what was intended by the incident, and that is the word “seven,” for there are not only seven loaves multiplied, in the Lord’s grace, so as to meet the need of the four thousand, but the excess was seven baskets; therefore the word “seven” (though I do not desire to lay any unnecessary stress upon numbers), is, to my mind, deeply interesting in the incident. Elsewhere there were twelve, indeed the Lord alludes to it here Himself when He is instructing His disciples. He says, “When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.” Now I believe there is a divine intention in every word of scripture, and that the alteration from seven to twelve or from twelve to seven has a divine purport in it. I would therefore invite you to think for a moment of what is conveyed to us in it. If we study and search for ourselves and examine the scriptures where the words occur, I think we shall find that where it is a question of human instrumentality twelve is always the number used; twelve is always the completeness of man; whereas seven is certainly here, as I suppose it would be elsewhere in a bad sense, the perfection of what is superhuman, good or bad. Twelve is the human number and therefore it was seven here, because it is no question of what comes from man, or of the instrumentality which God is pleased to find and use in men, making them the subjects of it. But here, where the Lord is rejected (and that is what underlies the narrative in a very striking way), refused by the people as their Messiah, refused as the One who really had rights and claims over that nation—His own goodness and His own grace rose above all the need that was there, went beyond all the rejection which was in their hearts, finding the motives entirely in Himself, so that, rejected though He was, He still feeds them. Hence, I believe, the word “seven” is used because it is the perfection, fulness, and completeness of what is divine. And it is not contingent upon man’s reception at all; His own blessed goodness, that which was inherent in Himself, and found its springs entirely in Himself, rising triumphant beyond and above all the evil that was in man, acts in a grace and love entirely His own. How blessed to think of it, and to dwell upon it: rejected though He was, refused and cast out by that people, despised and disowned, still mark those words, they are precious words, “I have compassion.” Compassion for those that would not have Him; compassion for those that rejected Him; compassion, though He was an outcast and despised in the midst of His own! We in our littleness would have had the smallest of our compassions dried up; we could not have lived through the scorn that Jesus Christ received from men; however true the grace that was in us, feeble and small in itself it would have withered before the contempt of men. It shines out all the more blessed and more perfect in its own nature in Him. Do we enjoy the contrast? Do we respond to the blessedness that was seen only in Jesus Christ? Have our hearts dwelt on those words, “I have compassion on the multitude”? I will not send them empty to their homes, because they will faint by the way. Think of how He entered into everything! I do not think we take in sufficiently how the grace and kindness of Christ and of God come out even more in little things than in great things. And that is just where the contrast is with us. Somehow or other we rise up to great occasions, but very often little things unman us. Somehow we make a great effort and great attempts to match some great occasion that is upon us, but little circumstances, little difficulties, little besetments in ourselves, or else little things, little trials, little sorrows in others, seem to be so small that they are beneath us. But it was not so with God, it was not so with Christ, and therefore you observe the same thing exactly, not only in the Jehovah of the Old Testament, but in the One who was God manifest in flesh in the New. “I have compassion on the multitude.”
Notice the way in which that is met by the disciples; see how little it touched their hearts, how little they entered into it, how little they were set on fire by the goodness of Jesus Christ; how little they were really moved as He was pleased to express the boundlessness of the grace that was in His heart. Mark what they say: “From whence shall a man”? They never got beyond man; human resource measured all that was in their hearts. “From whence shall a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” They owned no source from whence anything could come but man they were tied and bound down to man. Is not the generation we are living in very like that? This is the day of human resource, the day when man brings into operation all that he can in connection with needs and wants, whether in the church or the world; the day in which the strength of man, the arm of man, the energy and wisdom and power of man, are all looked to; and the danger is that God is outside, and that faith is lost in Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, and in what is divine. I see it in connection even with the work of God. I gladly and willingly rejoice to own any desire there may be in the hearts of any to bring the truth of God to bear upon perishing men and women; but faith in the old testimony of this word, faith in the message itself, faith in the power that is behind this word to apply it, faith to make it palatable, faith in it itself because it is attractive and has sweetness in it that no human power can add to—that is lost, that does not exist in this day. It is attempted to make it attractive, to mix it with all the miserable ingredients that man brings to bear upon it And why? Because the simple, old, blessed truth itself, the naked power of that sword that is in our hands, and the almighty power of God the Holy Ghost in using it, is lost sight of or given up, and man is turned to, just as here, “From whence shall a man?”. It reminds me of the words of the poor impotent man in John 5; he was lying there round the pool of Bethesda with others, and he says, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool.” “I have no man.” Oh, how blessed it is to go back on these compassions, and on these resources which are here! How blessed to draw out of the fulness that is in Jesus Christ! And how easy it is for us to forget, as they did, past deliverances. Memory is but a poor help in the things of God, because memory fails and droops. There were past deliverances by Jesus Christ, and past interventions of power through Him, but yet the disciples had forgotten it all, lost sight of it, and turned to man.
Now mark the result for a moment. The Lord feeds them, blessed for ever be His name, and gratifies His own heart too. That is what is so comforting; He gratifies His heart in doing good to the poor, wretched people who would not have Him! But there is this remarkable word of the Spirit of God with regard to it; He feeds them and the need is met; but I desire we should get the sense of that little word, which expresses so much, “They did eat and were filled.” That is the result of having to do with Jesus Christ; here is the result of the opening out of His own blessed hand for us, whether temporally or spiritually.
In this we see the consequence of the bestowment of His grace when it is taken in, because it is said, “They did all eat”; and that is the word that is used in scripture for the appropriation of Christ by our souls. The very same word which we can understand in connection with taking in food for the body, is the word that is used for the appropriation of Christ in connection with our spiritual need. He says in John 6, for instance, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” “Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” That is to say, there must be the appropriation in faith of Christ. But when there is that, whether it be in the case of the bodily need, as here, or whether it be in the case of the soul’s need, wherever Christ is appropriated, there is fulness and satisfaction as the result of it. Have we proved that? Are we filled? Am I asked, What is meant by that? I mean this, are we satisfied? Has He in His infinite grace so met us, just as He satisfied the hungry bodies of these four thousand, that we can say in the words of Psa. 23, “He maketh me to lie down in pastures of tender grass”? That is because the soul is filled; it is the result of satisfaction; further, it is rest, repose. We know very well how that is just the crying need of God’s people at the present moment; there is but little rest or repose. It is all so like those instruments of two wheels, the only principle upon which they can go is motion, restless, often tumultuous, motion. And why is all this? Because the heart has not come to anchor, has not come to rest in the satisfaction that Jesus Christ alone can give to it. This sweet Test will never be found anywhere else; we may search and traverse the wide world round and over, but in vain, it never can be found in another. But, thank God, it is there in Him; thank God, there is rest there, satisfaction there. And it is not only in what He gives, but in what He can be to the soul. Here it was the bestowment of His grace and favor to meet the hungry bodies of men, and to satisfy their temporal needs; but what was true in bodily want is true spiritually. And therefore, having through grace to do with Him to-day, having personally appropriated Him for the wants and cravings and longings of the heart to-day, we can antedate that time that will come even for this earth, of which it is said, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountain of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” That will be a scene on this earth by-and-by; but that truth may be known spiritually in the soul to-day, in the midst of desolation and misery and wretchedness all round about. Let us then remember those two things, the seven loaves that were multiplied to feed the four thousand, and the seven baskets of excess over and above the necessity of the persons which were fed. I believe those two circumstances in the history give us the key to the understanding of the spiritual meaning of this incident, the fact that the provision was divinely perfect despite His rejection, and that the excess was perfect also. I love to think of the excess. We ought, when we bestow a favor, to do something further in the way of excess, to show that we are not exhausted by the gift. But I see that no one does that but God; when we show kindness we exhaust our resources, because our resources are finite; when He expresses His goodness, His resources are never exhausted, because the need could be no measure of the supply that comes from Him. We are finite, and our resources must fail; He is infinite, and finite need cannot exhaust infinite resources. The second subject we have here is the instruction by the Lord at Dalmanutha, which was based on this miracle, and on the audacious opposition of the Pharisees. The Pharisees came and got into conflict with Him, demanding a sign from heaven; That was audacious, bold unbelief, and He felt it, as He felt everything; “He sighed deeply in his spirit.” First of all, their hardened heart of unbelief touched Him; secondly, I believe there was also in it that He felt what, the influence on others would be of the religious leaders’ blindness and darkness. I have no doubt it was a forecast of His own cross and suffering. And then notice the words, “He left them and departed.” That is very solemn; it is final rejection; some one has called it “justas severitas” (hard justice); they rejected Him, He rejects them. And what makes it very solemn is that He never came back publicly there again; I do not say He never came back again; but as the great Prophet in works of mercy, He left them for ever, He never publicly appeared in the goodness and grace of His heart in that region any more. He instructs His disciples afterwards in connection with that incident in two ways. First of all, He says to them, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” Observe where they were when the Lord spoke those words. He had gone into the ship, the disciples were with Him, and they had forgotten to take bread; and He says to them, in connection with this terrible unbelief of the Pharisees, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” It is amazing that any person who has at all searched prayerfully the scriptures, should have any difficulty or doubt about the meaning of the word “leaven,” namely, that leaven in scripture is always and universally the symbol of what is evil. And yet you know the way it is used, and the extraordinary meaning that is put upon it, contrary to the whole tenor and teaching of God’s word. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” What was the leaven of the Pharisees? It was that hypocritical, two-faced appearance of holy zeal for God, with desperate unreality in their hearts; externally the appearance of great zeal, but inwardly the very opposite, yea the contrast of it in every sense. That was the leaven of the Pharisees. What was the leaven of Herod? Servile cringing to the world: Herod was the very creature of worldliness and worldly circumstances. And there is another leaven spoken of that is not noticed here, and that is the leaven of the Sadducees, which is what is called at the present moment rationalism. The Sadducees were the rationalists of that day, and the Pharisees were the ritualists of that day, and the Herodians the worldly party. You get the three things, fleshly religion; occupation of mind with the things of God, as if the mind could grasp them; and the deep-seated, deep-rooted love of the world which marked the Herodians; those are the three. But the Sadducees are left out in Mark: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” I desire particularly to call your attention to one thing in connection with this, namely, that when the Lord used those words they were not in a position to profit by the meaning. Was He to be blamed for using the word “leaven” to them? God forbid the thought in any heart, or that He ever used any word or expression save what was absolutely perfect and blessed, as coming from the lips of Him who was perfect God as He was truly and really Man. Yet He uses this word “leaven,” and He impresses the great truth of it upon them, and tells them to beware of it, puts them upon their guard, and yet they cannot profit. Here was the greatest of all teachers, here was by preeminence the great Prophet, yet His disciples, who were round Him and with Him, and were familiar with His utterances, were unable to profit by His language. Why? Just for the very reason many are oftentimes unable to profit by good, sound, wholesome words to-day. Why? They were not wilfully blind, but they were in fact blind; There is a great difference between a certain position in fact, and the will entering into it, so that the will as it were gathers it up to itself. The disciples were not wilfully blind, but they were in fact blind, because they took in so little of His Person, and of who He was and what He was. And hence we can see it is not enough to have good words, sound words, and words easily to be understood. But further, there is a moral condition and a moral state necessary to profit by the clearest words. There is a positive absolute necessity for a moral state, and condition, to be able to take in the instruction that comes from the clearest words. One of the most important things in this chapter is how they totally misunderstood the word “leaven.” How did they interpret it? Even that they had forgotten to take bread; they were in a ship at sea, and no bread; they connected the word “leaven” with the literal fact of the absence of bread from the ship, and therefore mistook altogether, and lost His instruction. But then this very position they were in here was the very suited one for this instruction; and I have no doubt in His blessed grace He had designed it all to lead them into the under- standing of the great lesson He had for them at that moment What was it? Why He was really leading them to understand what the heart would have in having Him. Oh that I had a better conception of it, so as to be able to convey it to others; but yet how blessed to be so led by Him, and to be so in circumstances for Him to lead, that we find out the absolute sufficiency and the absolute fulness there is in Himself, without anything else beside. How often we say, “That is indispensable.” But He would teach us there is nothing “indispensable” but Himself. He is the alone indispensable:
“Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
All in all in Thee I find.”
That, I believe, is the lesson here; they were at sea, had no bread, no provision; were utterly resourceless and utterly destitute, and the Lord brings before them one little, word, “I,” “I.” This is the emphatic word in the narrative. He brings Himself before them. What then if they had no bread? If the Maker of the bread was there, had they not all? What if no provision were there, if the One who did supply the need of four thousand and five thousand was there Himself? It is a wonderful moment when the heart is led into this great reality, the utter resourcelessness of man on the one hand, the entire completeness and fulness that there is in Christ on the other; “Jesus, Thou art enough.” Another has truly said that what the Lord brings out here is that continent of blessing on which the heart of old Simeon found its rest in days before, when he had the child Jesus in his arms; it is the shore the dying thief landed on; it is the place, far better than all else, that the apostle speaks of. And it is that unknown region to which every one of us, every Christian, must come sooner or later, either on a death-bed, or else as Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. We know if death were to knock at our door tonight, if we had Christ we should not want anything else, beside Himself and His work.
It is an immense thing for the conscience that the work of Christ should be before the soul. The work that was done on Calvary’s cross, and nothing else, it is this which alone gives title to the soul; but the heart wants something as well as the conscience, and it is not only that I am entitled in the work, but I have a new footing and sufficiency in Himself. That instance of Simeon is a beautiful one. There was a man with prospects, and it is said that prospects are far more dangerous and have far greater effect upon us than possessions, because you know the value of possessions, but you cannot tell what a prospect is. Simeon, the earthly man, had prospects, and he comes into the place where the child Jesus was brought in by His parents, and when he saw Him, he took Him up in his arms, and when he had Him in his arms, he just said what in principle poor old Jacob said when his eyes rested upon his long-lost son, Joseph, “Now let me die; since I have seen thy face”: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” His cup of happiness was full; he wanted no more; he had Christ. Have we? We know something of His work: have we got Himself, and got Himself in such present possession, that though we are in the poorest human circumstances, without a loaf, without a meal, destitute of what people call the indispensables of life, we can give thanks, and say, “I have all and abound, I am full.” That is what comes out here; that is the instruction that was conveyed, and this was the very place to convey it to them.
One word more in connection with it. We are passing through a critical moment, a moment of deep trial. I have no doubt there is a sort of sifting and shaking all around and about in every circle—domestically, commercially, politically, ecclesiastically, wherever you go you must be arrested by it: it is a peculiar moment we are in. But I treat now of what relates to us ecclesiastically, of what belongs to us as Christians, members of Christ’s body. If there is one sphere in which the power of evil has shown itself with a freer hand than in another at the present moment it is in the church of God. Alas! it is there the devil has wrought with tremendous virulence and created the most solemn confusion, scattering on all sides like the wolf that he is. We have stormy waters and elements lashed into fury by the rage of the enemy of God and man; the rolling tide terrifies many a timid mind, and the tendency is to forget the One who is in the boat: we think He is asleep, and, rudely oftentimes, we go to Him and say, “Master, carest thou not that we perish” This lesson comes to us wonderfully in this way; the person that in his own circumstances and history as a solitary individual is walking the highway of this world, has learnt this great lesson, Christ is enough for me, Christ is sufficient for my heart and soul, the person that has learnt His friendship, and His company, and the fulness there is in Him, that can say through grace, Well, thank God, Christ is all I want here, that is the person that will, stand for Him in the midst of present departure. It was so with Paul; he was forsaken by everybody: “At my first answer no man stood with me”; he was actually left alone; he had not a companion, he had not a friend, he had not one to stand by his side at that moment: yet he could face the most dreadful tribunal in the whole world, and did not quake before the thought of Nero’s judgment-seat. Why? Because in his soul he had found out for himself the sufficiency of Christ. That is the reason. Thank God Christ abides and is sufficient. And therefore amid the general departure and giving up of truth on all sides the heart finds its rest in Him who is ever the same, and its delight is the word, “Thou remainest.” Christ remains, the Holy Ghost remains, and the supreme authority of scripture remains; and as long as we have that trinity, as it were, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and scripture, may God keep us holding fast for Him.
You will find the sufficiency of Christ comes in in that way; it is Christ Himself in all His own blessedness. This is what the disciples learnt; they were brought into circumstances, into that very position most suitable, in His perfect wisdom and grace, to find out this, that having Him they had enough. Oh, what a charm to the heart to find out that Christ is enough! What a reality! It is nothing that we can see, we cannot show it to anybody; but it is a treasure that only our own heart knows; a secret, if we like to call it so, of our own souls with Him, with which a stranger intermeddleth not. This keeps the heart, this steadies the soul; this is divine anchorage for the present moment.
May God in His infinite grace above all things lead us to know what Christ is. I feel it to be the pressing demand of the moment. How little we think about it! May our hearts more and more find out what He can be to us; and though destitute of everything in this world, without a loaf, without bread, may we be able to say, Thank God, He is there, and all sufficient as well. This is resurrection ground in figure; and when we reach resurrection ground there is nothing but Christ; and this is a large place, a wealthy place; Christ makes it this, and here we are outside of all else. It is possible had everything. And so now, there are those that truly love Him, but they have not found out Christ enough, Christ sufficient, Christ all. As the apostle expresses it when he says, “I have all and abound,” again,”Christ is all,” again, “I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ.”
This simple incident at Dalmanutha is full of the most blessed instruction in this way, teaching us what there is in His dear Son, of fulness, sufficiency for every want and need of the heart.
(Notes of an Address.)