Fishermen of the Lake of Galilee
ON a previous page (77) we gave a picture of the receipt of custom as managed in the olden days in Palestine; now we give one of a fisherman casting a net into the Sea of Galilee. How often did such scenes pass before the eye of the blessed Lord when He was a Man upon earth!
The fisherman was quite another character of man from the publican. He had learned by observation the ways of the fish and their habits, and how to catch them. He was a man, hardy and quick, ready for work by day or night. We portray him casting his net into the sea, flinging it out to compass the fish his tutored eye detects sunning themselves or asleep in the shallows of the lake. There are other fishermen in their boats, mending their drag nets.
On our own coasts the fishermen have various kinds of nets for the different sorts of fish they pursue at the changing seasons of the year. The meshes must be large or small, according to the size of the fish. On the Lake of Galilee, too, there were different kinds of nets in use, for those waters are wealthy in fish, and were once thronged with fishing boats. Now both the lake and its shores are almost forsaken.
As the Lord sat in the boat on the sea and taught the multitudes on the land, in order to illustrate His teaching to them He used the labor of the fishermen and the drag net, so familiar to their eyes―the “net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore.” (Matt. 13:47-48.) This you have probably seen on our own coasts―you have seen the fishermen shoot their net from the stern of the rowing boat, leaving one end of the net in the hand of a man on the shore, and then you have watched them row round in half a circle till they come to shore again. All the while the net has been dragging along the bottom, gathering of every kind―some good, some bad. Such is the work effected by the preached word―all sorts of men are enclosed by it, but not all are really saved. The good will be reserved for glory; the bad will be cast out.
The world at large is manifestly before us in the “sea,” and the Lord’s call of fishermen to become fishers of men―evangelists, we might say―opens up the thought of various emblems of their spiritual calling from their secular occupation.
As it was with Matthew the publican, so it was with the fishermen, the brothers Simon and Andrew, and the brothers James and John; they all left their occupation immediately at the call of Jesus, and followed Him. A distinct call each one had from Himself, and so they became His special followers.
Four of the Lord’s apostles were fishermen, and of these four Peter, James and John were the three who were the most prominent amongst the twelve. Matthew the publican wrote the first gospel, John the fisherman the last, also three epistles and the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Peter and James, both fishermen, wrote, the one two epistles; the other, one. These eye-witnesses of the Lord’s ways had Him with them in the circumstances of their daily life.
The fishermen were homely men. Zebedee, the father of James and John, had some hired servants, but they were all far from being rich; the fare they partook of, and the manner of life they led, was of the simplest and humblest kind.
Jesus, the Lord of all, shared with them, and He was frequently with them in their little ships. These great apostles were weather-beaten men who pulled the oars, and steered their boats over the lake, and toiled all the night for their fish. Once, we remember, on a stormy night, when the Lord was weary, He slept in the hinder part of the ship on a boat-cushion, and they awakened Him to save them from the waves, and He bade the sea be still. He chose for His apostles men who were neither great nor mighty, but plain and unlearned persons. Such was His way, such the purpose of God.
The apostle Peter returned to his fishing at the Lord’s death, and with him for that night’s work went Thomas and Nathaniel, James and John. Jesus, risen from the dead, stood on the shore and called them again from their nets to His service, and they became for His sake indeed fishers of men, and so fulfilled their apostolic mission.
How simple were the surroundings of an earthly kind that encompassed the Son of God! Little do we realize such things. His humbling Himself so as to become a man we in some measure apprehend, but His humbling Himself as a man is little in our thoughts. But what a voice to us may be heard in the few barley loaves His disciples had brought; in the Lord and Peter not having the small coin for the Temple tribute, which Peter, at His bidding, found in the fish’s mouth! How such things teach us of His poverty! If by picturing to ourselves the fishermen of Galilee we are enabled to conceive ever so little of the ways of Jesus on earth, we shall not have written or read these pages in vain.
Bible Subjects. Peace.
LET us look at the other passages in the Epistle to the Romans where the word peace occurs.
“To be spiritually-minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6); this is the happy contrast to the solemn statement, “To be carnally minded is death.” In the previous verses the human family had been divided into two classes― “after the flesh,” “after the Spirit”; and the characteristics of each had been stated―minding “the things of the flesh,” and minding “the things of the Spirit.” Now the end of the carnal, and of the spiritual courses is given; in the one case, death; in the other, life and peace. Life and peace are the sequence of being spiritually-minded. Fire ascends, since it is its nature so to do; so life and peace are attached to being spiritually-minded. The verse does not lead us to inquire how spiritual our minds are; it teaches us what belongs to spiritual mindedness―minding the things of the Holy Spirit.
In the verse, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (14:17), we have again a broad and general statement. God’s kingdom does not consist of external things, but of spiritual. If it consisted in what men eat and drink, any godless soul might be of it. But its foundation is laid in righteousness, and peace with God is our portion on the foundation of the righteousness He has established. After peace comes joy in the Holy Ghost. The character of God’s kingdom is joy; even as in the domain of evil grief and misery are found.
As we consider the kingdom of God, we delight in the beauty of the desire expressed in these words, “The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (15:13). Our God has given us exceeding great and precious promises; He has bidden us look on to the glory. Not one prospect He has given us shall ever fail. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And our God of hope fills us with joy in the prospect of what so soon shall arise, and with present peace, despite the roughness of the journey and the weariness of the circumstances. He fills us with these blessed things as, through grace, we believe His word.
We have our responsibilities as to peace as well as our privileges; we are to “follow after the things which make for peace” (14:19). This is not faith in God as to the glorious future, but patient work among men during the present hour; and, unless we do really follow such things, we shall be in a disturbed state of soul, and not in a peaceful condition. It will avail us little for our walk to know the certainty of the future if we do not devote ourselves to following after, with steady earnestness, the things which make for peace this very hour amongst our fellow-men. Fault-finding and judging one another must be abhorred, and, instead, we must seek to be like our Master, who pleased not Himself. We shall all be like Christ in glory by-and-by; let us seek to have Him, at He was on earth, as our daily example.
In the tenth chapter (vs. 15) we have this verse, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.” The swift messenger hastening to bring the glad tidings is presented to us. Beautiful, indeed, are such willing feet. The slow, heavy tread of him who works only because it is his duty has no beauty in it. When we rejoice in peace with God―are filled with the sense of what the life and the peace, which are ours by grace, really are―are living in the power of God’s kingdom, and in the prospect of the glory―are in communion with our God, following after the things which make for peace; we shall be ready and glad messengers of God’s peace to our fellow-men. May this be the way of the feet of each one of us!
As God’s messengers bring into the enemy’s land the word of peace from God to their fellow-men they rejoice in this triumphant word, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (16:20). At the first God said that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head; now He says He will bruise the adversary under our feet. He, the God of peace, who gave His Son to die for us, whose blood has made peace, will do this great work. The God of peace shall display His power by giving weak man, whom He has delivered from Satan’s power, to tread the might of the enemy down. Until that day of victory may our feet be beautiful in bringing the message of peace to the weary sons of men.