This simple narrative almost duplicates the amazing feeding of 5,000 (Mark 6:35-44), only this time there were 4,000 people.  Instead of five loaves and two fish there were seven loaves and some small fish.  Instead of twelve baskets full of leftovers there were seven.  The numbers changed but Jesus did not. His heart was still of compassion, His priority was to feed their souls, but His love wanted to meet their human hunger too.  Once again, when Jesus fed people they were satisfied (soul and body), and once again there were plenty of leftovers for the disciples.

Mark could have saved space by ignoring this story, but it is included to point to the stunning blindness of the trainee apostles and the hardness of their hearts (Mark 8:17-21).  But with Jesus in command, He chooses to rehearse the same miracles to emphasise to the disciples that God provides.  It was a lesson they needed to learn before persecution came to the Early Church.  They would be in many difficult situations in the future with no prospect of any help – except from the Lord.

When Mark says, "He broke them [the loaves] and gave them to His disciples …", the word 'gave' is in the imperfect tense - meaning that He kept on giving more and more for His team to distribute.  That was also a parable of how the Lord would supply the infant church as it stepped forwards in faith.  His grace and physical provision would be always enough for every need.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus said so in Luke 6:38, "'Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.'"   It was the experience of Elijah at Cherith (1 Kings 17:2-6) and Zarephath (1 Kings 17:9) and of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:19 -  "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."

Jesus was teaching the same lesson twice because the disciples did not really understand it the first time.  In every age the challenge is the same, 'Is the Lord able to meet the needs of the needy?'  When Jesus taught the disciples to pray for their daily bread, it was with the expectation that their need would be satisfied because the Lord would (Genesis 22:8,14).  In the same way that He provided Manna [the word means, ‘what is it?’] in the wilderness (Exodus 16:14-18), the Lord is more than able to provide all we need to enable us to survive and thrive.  We may not have all we want but we can trust Him to provide all that we need so that we can do what He wants of us, and have plenty to share with others (1 Timothy 6:17-18).  So, do not be hard or grumbling, trust the Lord to keep on giving so that we can share with others.