Luke 5:10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Fear not… The design of this miracle was twofold. It was intended — 1. To produce an immediate effect upon the minds of Peter and the rest, to deepen their faith in the Master who had called them, and to set forth His power, His watchfulness, His love. But still more — 2. To take effect in the future; it was emphatically a prophetic miracle — to be looked back to and to yield inexhaustible comfort again and again amid the heavy cares and discouraging tasks of the years to come, when the gospel-net had been finally put into their hands, and they had become "fishers of men." St. Peter was to translate into spiritual language all that belonged to his old fisherman's life. He was to understand that it had been in a homely, but still most real, way a preparation for the new unearthly service to which Christ was calling him. So you may remember the simple shepherd-life of David is set forth in the seventy-eighth Psalm as a preparatory discipline for kingly rule. And so, according to the fancy of an early writer, the trade of tentmaker followed by Saul of Tarsus prefigured the work which lay in store for Paul the apostle, as the maker of tabernacles for the people of God, the founder of Churches all over the known world. (Canon Duckworth.)The promise that Peter should become a fisher of men was made still more impressive by a great symbolical miracle. 1. The number of fish caught at Jesus' word represented the men he should some day take. 2. As he fished all night and caught nothing, so had he afterwards to labour long in Israel without winning a single human soul. 3. So, too, at Jesus' word, he put further out into the deep of the great Gentile world, and drew there a great draught. 4. Last of all, there were two boats to fill — the Gentile-Christian and the Jewish Christian Churches. Then the net began to tear, and the opposition of these two sections threatened the Church with a grievous schism. But the draught was brought safely to land, to the confounding of the circumcised Jew, through whose instrumentality this Divine action had been brought about. (B. Weiss.) Parallel Verses KJV: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. |
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