Pretty day out today, bright sun, semi-clear skies (partly cloudy?) and a comfortable temperature.

Nothing else much happening around here today, just usual getting ready for winter.

Mathew 15:29-39 And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.

³⁰ And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:

³¹ Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

³² Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

³³ And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

³⁴ And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.

³⁵ And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

³⁶ And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.

³⁷ And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.

³⁸ And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.

³⁹ And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.

We know this story and the one where 5000+ were fed by Jesus performing the miracle of taking a few fish and loaves of bread and feeding all that were there.  It, of course, was a miracle – but not the only one.

These people had been following Jesus for three days.  In His compassion for them He wanted to make sure they were fed before they left, from reading this it would appear that, for the most part they had not eaten – or at least very much - during that time. 

have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

As I thought of these verses this morning, I began to think of how we would handle such crowds today – I love logistics and handling this many people requires planning.

We would have to have a venue large enough to handle this many people – and remember the numbers do not include women and children.  Jesus had that it would seem, He was probably higher up on the mountain than they so they could see and hear Him.

Today, if this venue was not in an established area for such meetings and sometimes even when it is, a permit must be obtained to allow that many people to get together for a period of time.

The permitting system is to make sure that there are adequate services to handle that many people.

If it was outside, we would have to have permission from either the private land owner – or the governmental entity that has control of the land.

Once the permit is obtained we would have to have enough restroom facilities to handle that many people – if outside that would mean obtaining a sufficient number of port-a-pottis for them to use.  Set up ahead of time – how many 15, 20, 30?  I am sure that the Health department has a formula for it.

It would mean that there would have to be security provided to make sure that people were ushered in safely and that they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone taking advantage of them.

Now, that could be any number depending on the type of crowd coming into the meeting – obviously those that are coming to a religious service are not going to be the same as those coming to a rock concert.  The 12 disciples were probably sufficient to handle the crowd gathered there, we might need a few more for services, but that is easily determined for today’s meetings.

We would have to have a good sound system, we want everyone to hear what the speaker says – Since Jesus is quite capable of making Himself heard, I am sure His voice carried to every person in the group – but, we aren’t Jesus, we would have to have microphones and speakers.

Of, course the way we do things today, we would have to have musical instruments and musicians.  A song leader, or praise team.

Children would be restless so we would have to make sure there was enough room for them to work out their wiggles.

We would have to make it easy for people to come and go – especially when they make it down to the altar to meet with Jesus.  So, we would have to have aisles for them to get in and out.

We would have to satisfy the fire marshal that exits and proper extinguishers were available.

Then in today’s world we would have to have sufficient parking for the participants.

If we are going to have a three day event, we want to have a means to feed the people – which requires strict standards demanded by the health department – including proper handling techniques of the food, proper means to prepare and serve it, make sure that temperatures were correctly maintained so bacteria and/or one food could not contaminate another.  There would have to be proper disposal of waste – the list goes on.

All of this would take time and energy by someone(s).  It couldn’t be done over the space of the three days; it would have to be done far enough in advance to be able to get all the legal requirements out of the way.

It is something that is done all the time and while it can be cumbersome it isn’t that difficult to do.

BUT, Jesus didn’t have to go through all those hoops.  He didn’t have to have microphones to be heard.  He didn’t have to have musicians to lead the worship – performance of the miracles was sufficient enough, and they glorified the God of Israel.

I have no idea about restroom facilities – nor, do I know how restless children were accommodated – we know the disciples were not enamored with them.  However, I have no doubt it was taken care of – after all it was Jesus who was the center of attention.

He didn’t even have an offering time – He was able to make enough food for the multitudes How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.

And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.

I have always wondered what they did with the extra food; MY thoughts are they probably sent it home with those who had to go the farthest.

Today, we are required by law to go through the process.  But even without those requirements common sense says these events have to have planning involved.

Jesus is God.  We sometimes have to remind oursevles that God created all the things in this world by His Word, - with the exception of Adam and Eve who He molded from the earth – all from the plans in His mind in six days. 

Every detail of everything in the universe was planned by Him; it didn’t just happen by happenstance.  The more science learns about the complexity of those things created, the more in awe we should be of our God.

Feeding 4000+ people was ‘nothing’ for Him.  While He used the few items they gave Him, had there been none, He would still have created enough food to feed them.

We are limited by our abilities – even though God given – He is limited by nothing.

He wants to perform the same kinds of miracles in the lives of His followers today that He did back then.  We just need to accept the fact He can do it – and then let Him.

He will not only take care of us – but there will be enough left over to give others.