Miracle #5-
“…we
have toiled
all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word
I will
let down the net.” (Luke 5:5)
Israel’s
history
is knee deep in fish … Exodus 7:18; Numbers 11:5;
2 Chronicles 33:14; Nehemiah 13:16; Isaiah 50:2; Jonah 1:17 … and so on.
Men get
eaten by fish, and fish get eaten by men.
Jonah
gets eaten by a great fish, called a whale. Some King James
Bible hating
Biologist, Carl Linnaeus in the 1800’s, re-classified animals, and
birds, and
said the whale is not a fish … thereby hoping to discredit the Bible.
Jesus,
having shown his power over creation with water into wine at Cana,
Christ now extends
his power to the things that live in the water.
So
much so, he has the power for a particular fish to find a coin
under the
water, swallow it, then have it swim by to be caught by one of the
disciples, in order that a tax may be paid (Matthew 17:27). Now that’s
some
God.
Dear
Reader, Christ created the water, and all things in it, and so it is no
big
deal for Christ to command the fish to fill Peter’s nets and so on.
Here is Christ
re-enacting God’s fish miracles of the Old Testament. Surely this
would
have had Israel put two and two together … Christ was God in the flesh.
We
notice the order in this miracle:
1.
Christ
first preaches and teaches
first before fishing takes place.
“And
he entered into one of the ships, which was
Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the
land. And he
sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when
he had left
speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and
let down
your nets for a draught.” (Luke 5:3-4)
In
the
spiritual, there is the foolishness of preaching first so that souls
can then be
saved.
“For the
preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of
God.” (1Corinthians 1:18, 21; Romans 1:16)
2.
Peter answers with hesitation, unbelief and lack
of obedience.
“…
Master, we
have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless
at
thy word I will let down the net. (Luke 5:5)
Peter
shows
a reluctance and is hesitant with an explanation … as if the Lord
didn’t know
they had been failures with catching any fish. Lagging
obedience needs
repentance.
3.
Confession
of unbelief
“When
Simon
Peter saw it, (the
draught
of fish caught) he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from
me; for I
am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8)
The
man of God can waste his time in fishing for souls should he do this
under his
own strength. First repentance is needed followed by instant obedience.
Harley
Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
www.
“JESUS
CHRIST - A MAN APPROVED OF GOD (Acts 2:22)”
Miracle #6-
(Matthew
8:2-4; Mark 1:40-43,44-45; Luke 5:12-14)