Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - A Problem You Can't Solve | The Gospels | Mark 6:30-44

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Do you trust that God will provide? Why does God test us? Will you offer Jesus your loaves and fishes? In today's episode, Keith shares how Mark 6:30-44 encourages us to offer everything we have to Jesus. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Want to learn even more about the Gospels? Tune into Not Just Sunday. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 6:30-44

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Every couple divides up household responsibilities differently, and I'm pretty sure there's no right and wrong way to do that. It can look different for different couples. Once our kids got older, the way we divided up responsibilities in our house changed. When the kids were younger, my wife did the grocery shopping. Now that's something that I usually do.

But when I go, my wife always makes sure I have a really good, list, and that's probably because I'm prone to buying too much of everything, especially junk food. My motto is if something is good, then more is better. If I'm not sure whether we need it or not, I buy it just in case. But my wife also gives me a clear list because she's a brand loyalist, and I'm not. It took me years to convince her that generic ibuprofen was the same thing as Advil. After many conversations with medical professionals, she finally agreed, but she still buys Advil just in case it's better. And she created brand loyalists out of our children. One of my adult sons refuses to this day to eat Heinz ketchup, but only eats hunts. He claims he can taste the difference. I claim he's crazy.

And that brings us to the bread aisle. There are so many options of bread. My wife is particular about the kind of bread she eats. So when I go to the store, what are the chances of me finding the exact right kind of bread? Here's the point. We live in a completely different world. in Jesus. And because we do, it's hard for us to fully appreciate what's happening in Mark 6. If I asked you to describe American food, you'd be hard pressed to give an answer. Is it steak and potatoes? Is it lobster? There's so many options. But for most cultures through human history, and maybe even some cultures today, you might get one or two word of answers like rice, bread, chicken. Missionaries who serve in a remote part of the world often have a trouble returning to the

United States and all its wealth, and one of the main places they struggle is grocery stores, because the options are overwhelming. The diet in the part of the world that Jesus live consisted of bread and fish, and there wasn't a lot of either one of those. Most of us have multiple meals a day, and since that isn't enough, we create snacks for in-between meals. Snacks are something you only get in the age of abundance. Most of us don't truly know hunger. But where Jesus lived, even well-off people, went 60 days a year without enough food. 85% of people's wages were spent on food. So all of that serving as historical context for the feeding of the 5,000.

And I'm sure you know there were more than 5,000 people there. The Gospels say it was 5,000 men. And of course, that didn't count women and children. We pick it up in verse 30. The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. So Jesus is trying to get the disciples some downtime, some time away from the crowds,

which is a good reminder that we all need rest, even if, like the disciples, we're busy doing ministry. So Jesus sends the disciples on a boat to a solitary place, but the crowds see where they're headed, and they get around on the land so that they are there when the boat shows up. Mark tells us that Jesus had compassion on the crowds, and so he'd be able to. began to teach them. We picked back up in verse 35. By this time, it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. This is a remote place, they said, and it's already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. So the disciples realize that the people who have been listening to Jesus are going to be hungry,

and it's going to take them a while to travel back to their homes for dinner, so they encourage Jesus to stop teaching and send them home. But Jesus has a completely different idea. idea. He answered the disciples, you give them something to eat. So Jesus has put a challenge in front of his disciples. What will they do? How will they respond? How will they solve this problem of trying to feed thousands of people? I think Jesus was testing them, but of course they didn't know that. But I wonder if we might think about our challenges in life differently, if we thought of them as tests that God puts in front of us to see how we will respond. Verse 37, they said, to him, that would take more than a half years wages. Are we to go and spend that much on bread

and give it to them to eat? The disciples respond to the challenge by turning to human solutions, and those human solutions don't seem adequate. They tell Jesus it will take more than a half years wages to give them some bread. I mean, this is a huge problem. It's not as if they have almost enough food and they just need a little bit more, and if they share it will all work out. No, no, no. they don't have close to enough food. Verse 38, Jesus asks them, how many loaves do you have? When the disciples look,

they find that they have five loaves of bread and two fish. Now we know that those loaves of bread and fish came from a young boy in the crowd. But we know this isn't going to be enough to feed a crowd of 5,000 men and maybe as many as 15 or 20,000 once everyone is counted. But Jesus takes the bread and he takes the fish,

he thinks God for the food, and then he starts handing it to the disciples to distribute it to the crowd. Verse 42. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of men who had eaten was 5,000.

Did you hear that? They all had enough. The hungry people were full. And there were 12 basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. Each disciple had a basket full of food to carry home. So what can we learn?

Well, first, that God can do the impossible. When Jesus multiplied the bread and fish to feed the crowd, he was doing what was humanly impossible. What problem do you have that's too big for you to handle? You know what? The problem that's too big for you is not too big for God. Second, God generously meets our needs. The disciples start with five loaves of bread and two fish. They end up with 12 basketfuls of bread and fish. And God does more than we can ask or imagine. So don't limit God. Don't put him in a box that limits what he can do. Third, we learn that Jesus tests us by putting us in positions that we can't handle on our own. He gives us problems we can't solve on our own. He wants to

teach us that we must rely on him, not on ourselves. So much of our problem solving leaves God out of the picture. There's an old saying that God doesn't give you more than you can handle, but I think that's exactly backwards. God is constantly calling you to do things. that in your own power, with your own wisdom, you can't do. Again, he does that to teach us to rely on him, not on ourselves. And then fourth and last, don't forget the boy. We know that the five loaves and two fish came from an unnamed boy in the crowd. God uses small and seemingly insignificant people to do great things. Are you a nobody in the world's eyes? Are you unimportant? Are you overlooked? Well, you just might be the person that God wants to use if you will offer him the little that you have.

This boy could have kept his food for himself, but he was willing to share. He could have been too intimidated to step forward, but he offered what he had to the disciples and to Jesus. And Jesus didn't call the food into existence. He didn't just speak and create it. He could have, but he didn't. No, Jesus fed the crowds with what the boy offered. I think that's really significant for us, because Jesus could change your office, or he could change your office. Or he could change family or your church without you, but he chooses to do it through you, through your service, through your love, through your prayers, through your giving. Jesus can meet the needs of the poor without you, but he chooses to use your small but sacrificial gift to feed the hungry.

Jesus works through people who are willing to offer themselves to him. Father, we come before you and offer our small fish and bread, our little talents, our wisdom, our lives, our lives, our resources. They're all yours. Use them however you want. Say in Jesus' team we pray. Amen.