We Informed God?
I see in this passage something I had not seen before. I find it amusing how the disciples presumed to inform Christ of the situation as if He were unaware or needed advice. But we see no rebuke here. He responds with a task saying, "you give them something to eat." their attitude seems to change and they now seek His advice on the situation asking if they should go and buy them food. Then Christ reveals His plan.
Although I'm not here to establish doctrine I think that this is one way God interacts with us. Unbeknownst to the disciples their desire for the good of God's people was His doing. Christ knew what He would do and I don't think the situation caught Him off guard. He would use this to glorify God and grow His disciples in their faith. There are competing desires in our heart and God puts desires there for His glory and Kingdom. These are good and He uses them.
We often either strike out in our own strength or presume to instruct God on the state of His World. Like Christ He often entertains this for a while and then goes us our utter weakness without Him. "You go feed them" , He says. What a task! Even their best plan of raising money and buying food (which is what we might do too!) was meager in comparison to what He was planning. Now there is opportunity for Christ to work mightily. He would provide in such a way as to amaze and inspire faith as well as meet the needs the disciples saw. In our lives I do not think we could go wrong in following this pattern of placing our desires before God for His direction.
Created over 1 year ago
