Luke 5:1-11

Pastorpher preached from Luke 5:1-11 today, as a message of Advent to prepare us to preach the Good News of Christmas to those around us. People need to know about the Lord and his love that gave us Jesus Christ, He is Immanuel, God with us. And he personally came to us as a baby in Bethlehem.

Luke 5:1-11 (NASB)
1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. 4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" 9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men." 11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

Lake Gennesaret, also known as Lake of Galilee is 13 miles long and 7 miles wide. At its deepest point the lake is only 150 feet deep. It is especially rich in edible fish. At the time of the Gospels and of Josephus it was covered with countless fishing-boats and ships, which at times were in serious danger on account of the violent winds to which the lake was subject.*

I had a question about this passage: Is there a non-allegorical significance to Jesus' command for them to put out into deep water?

At first, I thought it odd that Simon replied that they had tried all night but had caught nothing but later was amazed at the bountiful catch. I had assumed that they had been fishing in the shallow areas and now Jesus had asked them to fish in the deep waters. If it is so, then Simon respond would not flow in the account.

What I now think happened was that they had fished in the deep waters in the night, when there were plenty of fish, but had caught nothing. In the morning, Jesus saw them back at the shore and got into their boats to teach, and then asked them to return to the deep waters to fish, and the result was a big catch.

God is capable of providing us with abundance in the work that we do, if we are obedient to him, but more importantly we are to minister to the people, to bring his good news to all around us. That is our duty as his disciples. Let us fulfil that this Christmas.

pearlie
*Source: Bibleplaces.com and JewishEncyclopedia.com
Photo from Bibleplaces.com