# 422 - Today's Living Word comes from Mr 6:43,44 And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
When one considers that the figure of 5000 people just includes the men, one has to wonder how many women and children were also fed! They all must've done a good job of cleaning off their plates because out of those thousands of people only twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered!
But why twelve? The answer is fairly simple. The disciples were distributing the food. They had nothing to eat, and so Jesus provided for them as well. Here's a lesson for the church.
Who provided for the 5,000 plus people? The answer of course is Jesus. Who provided for the twelve with what Jesus had provided for them? The people. The number twelve is symbolic of the church and here we see the principle of giving a percentage of what the Lord has given you back to Him. (He is the embodiment of the church.)
Unfortunately, we miss the point if we think in terms of the disciples gathering leftovers. That's what's wrong with most church giving today. The church gets what's left over.
These weren't leftovers, these were fragments, and fragments speak of percentages, and a good percentage to start with is the tithe. God has provided for you and I, and we should thankfully give a fragment (a tithe) of His provision back to His church.
I'm Duane Matz and that's Today's Living Word.
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