Jesus told His disciples to feed 5000

Matthew 14:16 (ESV)

16But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

Mark 6:37 (ESV)

37But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”

Luke 9:13 (ESV)

13But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”

Jesus gave them a problem that required a miraculous solution. The miraculous powers He had recently given them, healing and exorcism, had nothing to do with creating food. Perhaps Jesus wanted them to apply the principle that they could accomplish anything Jesus empowered them to accomplish, and so ask Jesus to empower them to create food. Alternately perhaps Jesus expected them to acknowledge their inability but to ask Jesus to create the food, which He ultimately did after they failed His test. There are likely other nuances of why Jesus gave this problem, but it seems clear all approaches would require the apostles to stop trying to solve the problem by natural means and by faith depend on God’s supernatural power to solve it.