Jesus raised the problem, and the disciples saw only wilderness. Their question is an honest one about where bread could come from in such a place. But it is surprising, because they had already seen Him feed five thousand (Mark 6:41-44). Gill says they were "forgetting the late miracle of feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes," even though "they had now a less number, and more provisions." Matthew Henry puts it simply: "The disciples could not imagine whence so many men should be satisfied with bread here in the wilderness." On the parallel in Matthew 15:33, Gill describes the question as "big with objections" and asked "with some vehemency and astonishment."

Jesus did not scold them. He asked, "How many loaves have ye?" and they said, "Seven" (Mark 8:5). He had the people sit on the ground, took the seven loaves, "gave thanks, and brake," and gave them to His disciples to set before the people, and He blessed a few small fishes as well (Mark 8:6-7). "So they did eat, and were filled," seven baskets of broken meat were left, and about four thousand had eaten (Mark 8:8-9).

The crowd had been with Jesus "three days" (Mark 8:2). Barnes explains that they had nothing to eat because they had come "unprovided, or having consumed what they had brought." Jesus' worry was practical: "they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far" (Mark 8:3).

The word "satisfy" translates chortazo. Thayer explains that in earlier Greek it was used of feeding animals with grass or fodder, and later came to mean to fill or satisfy people with food. "Wilderness" translates eremia, a solitary, desolate place, which is why the ESV reads "this desolate place."

This time Jesus Himself raised the need. In the first feeding, the disciples came to Him about the hungry crowd (Mark 6:35-36). Here He called them and said, "I have compassion on the multitude" (Mark 8:2). His care for people's bodies, not only their souls, starts the whole story.

The disciples' question, though slow, became the setting for His power. Matthew Henry writes, "The doubts of Christians are sometimes made to work for the magnifying of the power of Christ," and "Christ's time to act for the relief of his people, is, when things are brought to the last extremity." A few verses later, Jesus would ask them to remember both feedings: "do ye not remember?" (Mark 8:18-20).