Reading for Aug 3: John 6:8-10

8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 9 "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"
10 Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

Comments:

In verses 8 and 9, we see another futile attempt by a disciple to fix the problem that had been presented to them. Andrew did at least put forth an effort, unlike Phillip who just dismissed the whole idea all together. Andrew had followed Jesus' command to go and look to see how much food was available [see Mark 6:38], but when he (Andrew) determined that only five barley loaves and two small fish were available to feed the huge crowd, he became discouraged and pessimistic. He thought that the problem was too big; even too big for Jesus. So, Andrew complained: "what are they (the five loaves and two fish) among so many?"

It is at that point that Jesus took over. He had seen both Phillip and Andrew and very likely the rest of the disciples lose faith when presented with a task by Jesus. Jesus gave the disciples a job to do and they put their trust in the physical instead of in Him. Therefore, Jesus takes charge of the situation by putting the disciples to work. He gives them a specific job sitting the people, that by itself may have seemed unrelated to the ultimate goal of feeding the crowd. I can hear them now: "how is having these people sit in the grass, in these groups [see Mark 6:40] going to get them fed." Sometimes I fall into the same trap, wondering what the jobs that God has lead me into has to do with His ultimate plan of building up His Kingdom. Just like the disciples I have trouble seeing the big picture.