Mark 8:1-9 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him, and said to them,… In the desert of this world he is in continual want, hungering and thirsting in the midst of its transitory delights, and longing to be filled with food. Sin offers itself, and the world tempts him with its barren show, but these cannot satisfy. Only when he follows Christ, knowing that he is sick, and owning that he is blind in soul, and maimed in will, and attesting by his stedfastness in continuing with his Saviour the earnestness of his desire for the help which comes from above, will Christ give him that water which whosoever drinketh thereof shall never thirst, and that bread, even Himself, which came down from heaven. In this miracle we are taught — 1. The promptness with which Christ succours us. We see this in His providing bread before the multitude hungered, and in His care lest afterwards they should faint by the way. 2. The motive causes for all God's mercies to us, viz., our needs and our dangers. 3. The true effects of God's mercy — what He gives us is that true food which really satisfies, and which alone can satisfy, the whole nature of man. (W. Denton, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, |
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