This might help to understand Matthew Henry's comment:

"But 'the wilderness' here is no sandy or rocky desert, without herbage, the haunt of wild beasts or of wandering robber hoards; rather wide extended grassy plains, steppes or savannahs, called 'desert' because without habitations of men, but exactly the fittest place for the pasture of sheep. Thus we read in St. John (6:10) that 'there was much grass' in a place which by St. Matthew is called 'desert' (14:15)...Parts, it is true, of the larger deserts of Palestine or Arabia are as dreary and desolate as can be imagined, though as much from rock as from sandy levels; yet on the whole they offer far more variety of scenery, far more to refresh the eye, much wider extents of furtile or atleast grassy land, than is commonly supposed. We must understand then that the residue of the flock are left in their ordinary and safe pasturage, while the shepherd goes in search of the one which has strayed." Richard C. Trench, Notes on the Parables of Our Lord (Fleming H. Revell, 1953 --[page 377-8].

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Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
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"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk