In 15:29-31 we have a record of healing for the glorification of God. Due to the rejection of the Jewish religion, the Lord remained in Galilee of the nations as the healing light. He would not go to Jerusalem, the religious center of the Jews, for them to be healed (13:15). According to the doctrinal arrangement of the record of chapter fifteen, healing comes after eating. In other words, the proper healing comes from inward eating. Dieticians say that if one eats properly, he will not have illness. Illness comes from improper eating, but healing comes from adequate, proper eating. This is the doctrinal point regarding healing in this portion of the Word.
In 15:32-39 we have the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand. Because the Lord had compassion on the multitude in the wilderness, He would not send them away fasting (v. 32). Christ will not allow His followers to hunger and faint in the way while following Him.
When the disciples learned that the Lord intended to provide food for the people, they said to Him, “Where in a desert are there so many loaves for us as to satisfy so great a crowd?” (v. 33). Even in the barren desert the Lord was able to feed His followers and satisfy them, no matter how many there were. The disciples experienced this before, in 14:15-21; however, it seems that they had not learned the lesson of faith. They set their eyes on the environment instead of on the Lord. Yet the Lord’s presence was better than a rich store.
The Lord asked the disciples, “How many loaves do you have?” This indicates that the Lord always wants to use what we have to bless others. Verse 36 says, “He took the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.” If we offer all we have to the Lord, He will take it, break it, and give it back to us for distribution to others, to whom it will become the satisfying and overflowing blessing (v. 37). Whatever we offer to the Lord, however little it is, will be multiplied by His blessing hand to meet the need of a great multitude (v. 38).
In 15:32-39 we see the corporate eating. When I was young, I was bothered by the fact that Matthew gives us two accounts that are almost the same (14:14-21; 15:32-39). However, if you read these two sections carefully, you will see that the purpose of each is different. The purpose of the section about the feeding of the five thousand is to show us that as we are following our rejected King on the pathway to glory, He is able to take care of us. But the purpose of the record of the feeding of the four thousand is to show that we should not simply eat Jesus as crumbs individually as dirty dogs. We also need to eat Him in a corporate way together with many others. Let us all eat Him together. In this corporate eating we do not eat the crumbs, but the whole bread, and a surplus remains. Today in the church life we are no longer dirty dogs eating. Rather, we are proper men eating Him in a corporate way. Every church meeting is a time of corporate eating. When we first came into the church life, we came as dirty dogs, and we ate under the table. But now we are no longer under the table; we are sitting at the table. Although we are in the desert, we are nevertheless at the table. This is the corporate eating, an eating that is complete. The full bread is on the table of the saved ones.