Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 15:33

"And the disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so many loaves in a desert place as to fill so great a multitude?" — Matthew 15:33 (ASV)

His disciples said to him — On the assumption that this is a true record, we encounter a difficulty. We might ask how the disciples, with the memory of the first miracle still fresh in their minds, could answer with the same childlike perplexity as before. Why did they not immediately assume that the same divine power could be exercised to meet a similar need now?

The answers to that question can be grouped as follows:

1. It is not easy for us to put ourselves in the position of those who witnessed these workings of supernatural power. We think of the Power as inherent and therefore permanent. To them, it might have seemed intermittent—a gift that came and went. Their daily necessities had been supplied, before and after the great event, in the ordinary way of gift or purchase. The gathering of the fragments (Matthew 14:20; John 6:12) seemed to imply that they were not to rely on a repetition of the miracle.
2. The fact that three days had passed, and that their hunger had been allowed to reach the point of exhaustion, might well have led them to think that the power was not going to be exerted this time.
3. Our Lord’s implied question—though, as before, He Himself knew what he would do (John 6:6)—must have seemed to them to exclude the thought that He was about to use that reserve of power again. They would have felt they were simply following His lead by answering the question on the level He Himself seemed to choose.