Fishers of Men

What fun we had as children singing and doing the motions to songs about Jesus, faith, and living a Christian life! One song I will never forget is "I Will Make You Fishers of Men". I can remember standing in front of the church with other kids in our Sunday School class, singing this song complete with the "fishing" motions.

Those were such sweet times! As often as we sang this song and as often as I've read the words in Mark 1 and Luke 5, it never occurred to me that there was more to learn from Jesus' words. For the most part, we see a calling to spread the Gospel, but the fishermen at that time saw more. To the fishermen, Jesus' invitation further confirmed His Messiahship and reflected the teachings of Old Testament prophets. Very likely, some dots were quickly connected in their minds because they had been raised in the Torah and Tanakh and were familiar with the words of the prophets.

We can gain some insight as we approach this topic based on the ancient Israel context.

Sea of Galilee

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.  

The Sea of Galilee goes by a number of different names. Sometimes it's called the Lake of Chinaret or Kineret in Hebrew (Numbers 34:11; Josh 12:3). In Luke it is referred to as the Sea of Gnesserat (Greek). The Jewish historian Josephus describes it that way because there's an area that's close to Capernaum on the northwest shore of the Sea that's called Gnesserat. It's a fertile, heavily populated area and sometimes the area right next to a body of water was attached to the body of water as well. It's also called the Sea of Tiberias by John in his Gospel and also by Josephus in the book "Jewish Wars".

Did you know it is actually small and considered a lake? It's the lowest freshwater lake in the world, 700 feet below sea level. It's 7-1/2 miles wide at its widest point and about 13 miles in length. Although a relatively small body of water mentioned a few times in the Old Testament, the Sea of Galilee becomes highly significant in the New Testament as we find Jesus teaching by the water.

The lake is fed partly by underground springs, but its main source is the Jordan River, which flows through it from north to south with the outflow controlled by the Degania Dam. It has both religious and cultural significance.

Storms on the Sea of Galilee result from differences in temperatures between the seacoast and the mountains beyond. The Sea of Galilee lies 700 feet below sea level. It is bounded by hills, especially on the east side where they reach 2000 feet high. These heights are a source of cool, dry air.

In contrast, directly around the sea, the climate is semi-tropical with warm, moist air. The large difference in height between surrounding land and the sea causes large temperature and pressure changes. This results in strong winds dropping to the sea, funneling through the hills.

The Sea of Galilee is small, and these winds may descend directly to the center of the lake with violent results. When the contrasting air masses meet, a storm can arise quickly and without warning. Small boats caught out on the sea are in immediate danger.

Lake Erie provides somewhat similar to the Sea of Galilee. Erie is more than a hundred times larger, but it has the same 200 feet maximum depth, the shallowest of the Great Lakes. Lake Erie is especially well known as the stormy, moody member of the Great Lake system. It is easily stirred up by west winds to produce violent waves and even the largest fishing boats are put at risk.

The Net

Look at Luke Chapter 5:

"And when Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.' And Simon answered, 'Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word, I will let down the nets.'" (v.4-5)

I absolutely love Peter's response: "But at your word, I will let down the nets." What an example for us to follow! And, don't neglect to notice that obedience brought miraculous results.

Read the first chapter in Mark, verses 16-20:

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”  And immediately they left their nets and followed him.  And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets.  And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. (Mark 1:16–20) [emphasis added]

We have a tendency to focus on the nets, bringing in a great harvest. But we often forget that Jesus' invitation to become fishers of men was prefaced with a command: FOLLOW ME.

It's important to note that Jesus didn't command them to fish for men or to be fishers of men. He commanded them to follow Him ... and HE would MAKE them fishers of men.

Following Jesus made them fishers of men! Jesus Himself told us how to be the net that brings in a multitude of fish: He would make us fishers of men if we follow Him ... if we obey Him, leaving our world behind and following Him.

The Greek word for make (ποιέω) relates to God's action, denoting the activity of Yahweh in the creation of the world. In this context, Yahweh brings help and salvation to His people by His miraculous, creative, and transformative action.

Jesus told the disciples to focus on Him, learn from Him, follow Him, walk with Him, and know Him. And, by so doing, they would become fishers of men. By following Him, they would be a unique people whose willingness to follow Jesus at all costs was visible; this would cause people to inquire why they were so different and desiring to know Him. It is because of their obedience that the Holy Spirit would draw men to them as fish drawn to bait. The disciples weren't required to learn a pre-scripted invitation to share with the one or the many. Their dedicated and sacrificial lifestyle of deeply (to the fullest extent) following Jesus would be the net that brought in the harvest!

Of course, following Jesus, in the eyes of the Jewish disciples, meant loving God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving their neighbor as themselves. The foundation of Jesus' ministry was motivated by love.

Jesus told Peter, after telling the disciples to follow Me, to "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch".

The Greek word for deep is bathos meaning the full extent downward or backward or inward of something. It refers, in many senses, to the inscrutability or hiddenness as well as the vastness or greatness of something. (See Matt 13:5; Mark 4:5; Luke 5:4; Eph 3:18; Rev 2:24.)

In other words, being a fisher of men means both to follow Him even into the dark places, the hard to reach regions and to follow Him to the fullest extent ... to go beyond casual Christianity. They were to go to the very bottom of the deep waters as they followed Him deeply.

Throughout the Old Testament, fish, great sea creatures, the sea, and raging rivers were all emblematic of the Gentile world. It was understood by the Hebrews that the waters, the oceans of the deep or the sea, were the place of chaos, of confusion; it's often spoken of in very negative evil terms as the abode of death, the abode of sin. The place of the Gentiles is often metaphorically described as the sea or the oceans.

• Deliverance from "the waters" is deliverance from "foreigners" (Ps 144:7).
• The thundering of the Gentiles is like the thundering and roaring of the seas (Isaiah 17:12).
• Gentile kingdoms and their rulers were likened to great oceanic creatures such as legendary Rahab (Dan 7; Isa 51:9).
• Even in the New Testament, John echoes this imagery when he says "the waters" are "the peoples and multitudes and nations and languages" (Rev. 17:15).

Spawn Like Fish

Jesus called these men to an exceedingly great harvest and very specifically told them how to become fishers of men. The nets becoming miraculously full to overflowing refers us all the way back to Genesis 48:16:

May they multiply to a multitude in the midst of the land

The word multiply is dagah in Hebrew, meaning to multiply or spawn like fish. It comes from the root word dag meaning fish. Jacob follows that blessing by saying Ephraim will become the fullness of the Gentiles. Ephraim became the predominant tribe of the northern kingdom when taken captive by Assyria and dispersed among the nations – the lost sheep of Israel.

He [Jesus] answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

While Jesus Himself was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He called the disciples to the deep waters – the Jews who had rejected Him and the Gentile nations, the abode of chaos and confusion.

Consider the pre-disciples or newly chosen disciples. What would they have known or taken reference from in their "TaNaK" studies to give credence to what Jesus was saying to them? Jesus was referring to something in a prophetic form from the Old Testament.

Another commentator suggested that Jesus used specific language so that they (the disciples) would comprehend their responsibility as fishers of men, which would bring a great harvest.

Jeremiah 16:14-16, 19-20:

"Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors. I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them ...” [emphasis added]

Who were they to "catch"? The lost children of Israel – those tribes driven out of the land of the north and beyond (see Deuteronomy 32). This shows dramatically that Jesus came for Israel and to Israel, first and foremost, but would later include all who believe in Him – a job for the fishers of men.

Jesus used many allusions referring to Old Testament scripture that most, if not all, of His very Jewish audience would have recognized.

Jeremiah's use of the "fishing" analogy is certainly how God intended for the exiled tribes of Israel to return to Him, even if He had to drag them back for His glory (like one who drags nets heavy with fish into the boat). Jesus knew that verse in Jeremiah; He may have applied it as a fulfillment of a specific prophecy, especially since He came first to the Jews. It's entirely possible, at that time, that the reunification of all physical Israel was priority enough for the Jewish people.

The NET Bible has an interesting note on this verse:

"The kind of fishing envisioned was net—not line—fishing which involved a circular net that had heavy weights around its perimeter. The occupation of fisherman was labor-intensive. The imagery of using a lure and a line (and waiting for the fish to strike) is thus foreign to this text. Rather, the imagery of a fisherman involved much strain, long hours, and often little results. Jesus’ point may have been one or more of the following: the strenuousness of evangelism, the work ethic that it required, persistence and dedication to the task (often in spite of minimal results), the infinite value of the new “catch” (viz., people), and perhaps an eschatological theme of snatching people from judgment (W. L. Lane). If this last motif is in view, then catching people is the opposite of catching fish: The fish would be caught, killed, cooked, and eaten; people would be caught so as to remove them from eternal destruction and to give them new life." (Davies, W. D., & Allison, D. C., Jr.)"

The Second Boat

When Jesus first meets the disciples, they are fishing. He tells Peter to cast his net again, and they pull in a miraculous load of fish so big that the net couldn’t hold them. Neither could their boat bear the load; they needed the help of a nearby boat (Luke 4:7).

The first boat represents a type of the Old Covenant. It’s insufficient to get the job done. People will always sin and require a means of cleansing from their impurities (sin). Mankind needed a Second Covenant just as the disciples needed a second boat. The Second (New) Covenant is strong enough to hold the complete number of fish (all who would come to salvation), the same as Jesus' sacrifice was enough, once and for all – both believing Jew and Gentile.

Summary

Consider some key points:

• The Sea of Galilee wasn't large but an immeasurable work of God took place both on the shore and on the water.
• Becoming fishers of men is transformative, a work of God in the life of a follower of Jesus.
• Being a fisher of men means both to follow Him even into the dark places, the hard to reach regions, and to follow Him to the fullest extent ... to go beyond casual Christianity. They were to go to the very bottom of the deep waters as they followed Him deeply.
• The responsibility of followers of Jesus as fishers of men was to bring a great harvest, to multiply to a multitude.
• The need for the second boat can easily relate to the need for a New Covenant when the Old was insufficient.

This only touches the surface of Jesus' call to the disciples, His teaching, His commission, etc. Can you think of more details to be considered as Jesus called these men to become fishers of men?

For Further Study

In what way does this call to be fishers of men relate to Pentecost?

• Who were gathered in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost?
• Why were so many different languages heard that day?
• How does Acts 2 relate to Deuteronomy 32 and what is the connection to Mark 1 and Luke 5 discussed above?

If you'd like to examine this topic further, check out Reclaiming the Nations.