Multiplying Bread

Two Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha, both miraculously expanded food supplies.

• During a drought, Elijah promised a widow that if she would feed him first, her barrel of meal and cruse of oil would not fail until rain returned. She performed that act of faith, “and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah” (1 Kings 17:13-16).
• Elisha instructed a widow to gather as many containers as she could and pour oil from her single pot into all of them. She did so and filled many containers of oil, which allowed her to pay her debts and keep her sons free (2 Kings 4:1-8).
• On one occasion, Elisha instructed his servant to feed a multitude with only twenty loaves of barley bread. The servant asked, “What, should I set this before an hundred men?” and Elisha responded, “Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.” After everyone had eaten, there was still food left over (2 Kings 4:42-44).

Jesus was certainly aware of these miracles. He referenced the first in a sermon (Luke 4:25-26), and He replicated the second twice: once in a multitude of 5,000 people, and once with 4,000 (Matthew 14:15-21; 15:32-38; Mark 6:35-44; 8:1-9; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:5-14). He taught His disciples at least two lessons based on these miracles. First, don’t worry unduly about food. He is capable of providing. (See Matthew 16:6-11; Mark 8:14-21.) Second, just as He can provide an abundance of physical food, He is our source of spiritual sustenance. When some people in the first multitude found Him and asked for another miracle, He called Himself “the bread of life,” declaring:

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

John 6:54-55

There is another instance in the scriptures of food being miraculously multiplied, or on this occasion, providentially provided. After the Savior’s resurrection, He introduced the ordinance of the sacrament to a group of disciples on the American continent. On that occasion, His disciples procured bread and wine sufficient for about 2,500 people (3 Nephi 18:1-4; 17:25). But the following day, He administered the sacrament again with no such assistance:

Now, there had been no bread, neither wine, brought by the disciples, neither by the multitude;
But he truly gave unto them bread to eat, and also wine to drink.
And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.

3 Nephi 20:6-8

It’s fitting that He provided the bread and wine that symbolized His body and His blood. The disciples did not have to provide it on this occasion; they had only to partake.

Today I will trust God to provide my physical and spiritual necessities. I will remember that His grace, like the food He provided to the multitude, will never run out. There will always be enough.