THE KING’S BUSINESS
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the Lord, little dreamed how great a part he would have in that day’s working. But Jesus took him into partnership with Him self, and Jesus and the lad fed the multi tude. A small boy with very meager means is of vast account if he puts what he has at our Lord’s disposal, even though the Andrews think they do not amount to much. Jesus left His question to work all day in the minds o f Andrew and Philip. As evening drew on the disciples had not yet settled the problem how to feed the vast crowd, and came to Jesus and* told Him He had better send the people away, for they certainly could not entertain them. ■They gave it up, and then Jesus came to the rescue (cf. Matt. 14:15; Luke 9:12; Mark 6 :35). v. 10. “And ('omit, And) Jesus said, Make the men (people) sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down in number about five thou sand.” Jesus’ words here recorded are His answer to a perplexed question put to Him by the disciples, which is recorded in Mark 6:37. It is interesting to compare the four accounts of this miracle (for it is given by each one of the four evangelists), and see how the different accounts play into one another, and how one account explains what is recorded in some other account. The answer that Jesus is here recorded as giving, “Make the men' sit down,’’ must have startled Philip and Andrew, but they stood the test better this time than the test earlier in the day, for they did exactly as they were- bidden, perplexed as they may have been as to what was done. We always do well to do exactly as the Lord bids us do, even though we cannot see any way out of the difficulties that confront us if we take the line of action Iwhich He commands, Doubt less Philip and Andrew did their part with a good deal of misgiving, for they knew there were thousands of mouths to feed and they knew there were only five insignificant barley crackers and two pitiably small fish to do it with. Common sense would have suggested that it would
, have been better to tell the people to walk than to sit down, but Jesus’ disciples had the uncommon sense to cast their erring reason to the wind and do just as,1 thé unerring Lord told them. The multitude, too, did as they were bidden, they “sat down.” Two different Greek words are translated “men” in this verse. Where “men” occurs first the Greek word is the generic word for men and may include women as well as men. It means a human, being whether male or female. The second place where it occurs it is the word “men” with a reference to sex, and used to dis tinguish a man from a woman. It is some times also used with reference to age, to distinguish an adult man from a boy (see Matt. 14:21). The Revised Version Seeks to make this distinction by translating the word “men” in the first instance “people.” It is the men, i.e., the adult males, whom Jesus especially notes as sitting down in this instance, though we know from Mat thew’s account that the women and children were also fed (Matt. 14:21). Notice how minute is John’s account : he recalls the fact that “there was much grass in the place.” It is evidently the account of an eye-witness. Mark adds another detail which shows that his account, too, was derived from an eye-witness ; he says, or rather the Authorized Versions record him as saying, “They sat down in ranks.” But the Greek word which Mark uses means rather a garden bed than a rank (Mark 6 :40). Peter, for whom Mark really wrote, recalling* the scene, remembered how they looked with all their varied hues of oriental garb, like garden beds set out in regular order, and Mark adds another picturesque detail that shows how vividly the scene had impressed itself upon Peter’s memory; he tells us that they sat down “upon the green grass.” The brilliant green of the grass came before Peter’s memory as he cfictated the account to Mark. It was the season of the year (v. 4) when the grass would be a brilliant green. It is one of the little details that so convincingly prove that we have here an accurate account of an
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