The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

310 THE FEEDING OF
seven baskets " (Mark viii. 8). Not the stout wicker
baskets (kocJ)li>oi) which were used on the occasion of
the first miracle, but soft, flexible " frails " (cr^vpiSes),
which were often, however, of considerable size (compare
Acts ix. 25, where Saul makes his escape in
one).
The number of men thus
ministered to was, as we
have already seen, four thousand, as compared with
the five thousand of the first miracle. And the
numbers have been interpreted symbolically, as
helping to establish that the multitude in the first
instance was largely Jewish in origin, and in the
second, composed chiefly of the semi-heathen inhabitants
of Decapolis. It may well have been so in any
case from the general surroundings of the two miracles,
and they are in consequence sometimes found typical
of the offer of Christ, the true Bread of Life, to the
Jew first, and then to the Gentile. But instead of
following out a line of interpretation, which is very
apt to become fanciful and unreal, it is safer to see
with most modern expositors, in the duplication of
the miracle, a proof, on the one hand, of the graciousness
of the Saviour, who did not shrink from repeating
a beneficent work, even on a lower level, out of regard
to human necessity, and a solemn rebuke, on the
other hand, to our own faithlessness in judging of the
Lord's
mercies.
Who does not know how fatally easy it is to forget
with the Twelve, in the hour of present difficulty, the
past deliverances which God has worked, or out of the
old experience, " The Lord hath been mindful of us,"
to fail to draw the comforting conclusion, " He will
bless us " (Psalm cxv. 12) When we are so tempted,