God has mastery over quantity. He knows how to take the tiny bit we have and make it run and last for precisely as long as it needs to. These miracles are different than the miracles of controlling weather where God is simply able to direct the natural causes. These miracles are among those that seem to defy nature.
The First Law of Thermodynamics states that in a closed system, matter cannot be created or destroyed. In a closed system, what you start with must match what you end with, even if it changes form. However, in an open system you are able to add energy and matter into a given system. When God demonstrates mastery over quantity, He controls the amount of stuff in that given system.
How has God shown mastery over quantity? The one miracle reported in all four Gospels aside from the Resurrection is the feeding of the 5000. Jesus took a boy’s lunch, consisting of five loaves of bread and two fish, and fed 5000 men, not including women and children, an estimated total of about 20,000 altogether. The skeptic will say that is a violation of the laws of physics, however God intervening is a case of an open system, not a closed system. We don’t know exactly what God did to multiply the food. Some have suggested he used the multi-verse to bring in food from multiple universes to combine them together. That’s far-fetched. What we know is that Jesus had little to work with, knew what He was going to do anyway, and multiplied food. The disciples didn’t grasp the significance of this miracle, but the people noticed. That’s why they followed Him and the great discourse of John 6 took place, leading to many people departing from Him. Jesus did this miracle again when a crowd of 4000 gathered around Him. He showed mastery over quantity.
This miracle is not just found here, but two notable cases in the Old Testament too: one by Elijah and one by his successor Elisha. In the first case, Elijah fled to Sidon from the drought in Israel while Ahab was surely hunting him down because no rain would come until Elijah’s word. He came to a widow who was getting ready to bake a final cake for her and her son before they starved to death. Elijah asked for the cake and promised that her flour and oil would never run out until rain returned. And what he said came to pass.
Elisha came across another widow whose sons were being targeted for slavery by a man to whom she owed a debt due to her deceased husband. He told her to gather as many pots and pans as she could and the jar of oil she had would not run out until all the jars were full. Her miracle was limited to the number of jars she collected because as soon as the last jar was full, the oil stopped. She was able to pay off the debt and live for a number of years beyond that with the sales.
I love these types of miracles in part because I have been personal witness to a number of them. The most stand-out example in which I recognized the miracle as it was happening took place in March 2010. I was with another mission team at a tiny children’s home on the far back side of the desert of Juarez, Mexico. We brought a Sloppy Joe meal for them, and planned for the team, the staff, the kids to need to feed about 40 people. So, we brought 40 plates, 40 buns, and 40 apples, along with fruit salad and corn. What we didn’t know was that the colonia (neighborhood) would show up here for lunch time. We had over 75 people to feed, not including the team. We chose to feed them all and we’d use our snack box as needed for the team. As we served, the food kept coming. We served seconds and had leftovers. As I helped with behind the scenes stuff, I know full well that no one left to buy more food (Juarez didn’t even have what we had in terms of brands and such anyway) nor was any brought in. It was a miracle.
We had seen these types of miracles numerous times. Every time we did a feeding in Juarez, we were careful to plan wisely, but we often had more people show up than expected. Yet in every case, no one left hungry. Sometimes we had more food than needed. In other cases, the last bite went to the very last person. In some cases, it was serving ham; in others, it was serving apples or hotdogs. But God never let us run out of food while feeding the people. That said, we were never presumptuous about Him delivering on multiplying food. We knew the day we did that would be the day God didn’t do it.
I was too young to remember or take notice directly, by my mom described one such mission group where we brought an eye doctor and did a city-wide announced eye-check at a children’s home ran by another doctor. We brought all sorts of donated eyeglasses that day. What was unique about this one was that the last person got the last pair of glasses with matching prescriptions. That’s more unique than mere food. What’s more is that the home’s director hadn’t gotten his done, but the eye doctor checked him anyway. But the director’s eyes matched perfectly with the eye doctor’s, so he took off his glasses and gave them to the director. God came through.
God will multiply our resources as we need them. This goes for food, eyeglasses, gasoline, or anything. In 2005, my parents helped with Hurricane Katrina relief and my dad was driving a bus with storm refugees trying to evacuate from Hurricane Rita. They were out of gas with nothing open, yet that tank went for miles on empty beyond what it ever should have. We’ve had appliances and cars and other things last far longer than they should have, enabling us to save the money we would have needed to use on those for better purposes.
I cannot remotely begin to describe how many times God provided financially when the math doesn’t work. My mom worked as the bookkeeper for the mission organization we were with, and as a math person she knew there was far more money going out than coming in, yet the bills were always paid. We called it “God Math.” He took care of us. Nearly every mission organization in the world who has depended upon God for their resources could testify to this.
But let me give a warning. God can multiply resources, but He can also cut them short. God can bless our wallets or he can curse them. Ever come across someone who is always short of money? That may not be merely because they constantly spend, but it could be because they are under a curse. It may be due to sin, due to pursuing money, or whatever. But a curse without a cause cannot alight. If you think you are under a curse in your resources and that God has had to cut them off, go to Him to find out why. It may be to test you and to prove your faithfulness. But if there is a problem, He will point it out. If the devil is stealing your resources, God will make sure you are repaid. But if your shortcoming is your own doing, ask God to reveal it to you and repent of it.
Let me throw in a word of caution too. In absolutely no way am I encouraging that we go after God’s blessings so we can be wealthy. I am firmly against Prosperity Gospel preaching of pursuing wealth. I am teaching that God knows how to take care of us and provides, even if in ways we can’t really grasp. He will multiply as He sees fit, but He will also cut short if necessary. God has mastery over quantity no matter what the substance is.
Next week, we’ll look at how God has mastery over physical health.
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