The Fragments that Remain

Mark 6:35–43 KJV

35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. 37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. 39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. 41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42 And they did all eat, and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.

God’s Blessing and Abundance

Blessing is about making things bigger.

Ge 1.28 From the beginning, blessing was bound up with multiplication and fruitfulness.

Ps 34.1-4 to bless the Lord is to magnify him. In this case, it’s not that he gets bigger, but that we enlarge his presence in our estimation and so on.

So we can see how the idea of blessing becomes wrapped up with the idea of abundance

Abundant meal to thank God for his abundance

Living for God is a blessed life

Ps 68.19 “19 Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loadeth us with benefits, Even the God of our salvation. Selah.”

Mal 3.10 Test God with your tithes, and see if he doesn’t open up the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing that you don’t have room to receive

Pr 10.22 “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, And he addeth no sorrow with it.”

5,000 People Fed with a Little Boy’s Lunch

When you give to God, his blessings expand beyond all wildest possibilities

What’s Been Consumed

The Lord Gives and Takes Away

Jesus took the little boy’s lunch

There had to be a moment in that boy’s mind where he thought about his own hunger. His stomach may have growled, and he wondered whether it’s okay

Jb 1.21 says the Lord gives and takes away; blessed be his name.

We rejoice in what God gives

We struggle with the taking away

Wealth, health, loved ones, comfort, status

I have learned in whatever state I am to be content, to abound and suffer need, etc.

Sometimes We Do Our Own Taking

The Prodigal Had Nothing Left

Time

Ep 5.15-16 “15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Strength

Pr 31.3 “3 Give not thy strength unto women, Nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.”

Corollary to abundance is leftover (waste)

When abundant, choices are taken first - juiciest morsels, ripest fruit, etc.

Unwanted: Leftovers are what’s left when the choices and best has been skimmed, all has been satisfied, and nothing more is needed

Waste: nothing else required

But there is value in the leftovers

The Syro-Phoenician woman had a revelation that there was value in the leftovers when it comes to God and his blessings.

Mk 7.27-28 “27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.”

Even the dogs eat the crumbs:

Even the smallest things can be a blessing

Even the least of these can experience the blessing

What’s Left May Exceed What Was

God can stretch the fragments that remain

The widow of Zarephath (?) discovered that her leftover cruise of oil and bit of flour were far more than what she started with, when she let God use what she had left.

1 Ki 17.12-14 “12 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. 13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

The Fragments Exceed the Original

Mk 6.35-44 tells the story of the feeding of 5,000, and how Jesus could use a little boys lunch to feed that multitude, and by the end of it have 12 baskets of fragments, far more than the boy began with. When Jesus is done, the fragments of what’s left amount to more than what you started with

Job was blessed in the end with double what he had at the beginning.

God can take what’s left over, and turn it into something greater than what it was in the beginning . . . relationships, your life, wasted years