Food for Friday
And Simon answering said unto Him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing; nevertheless at Thy word, I will let down the net. Luke 5:5
I remember as a lad going with my father to catch smelts. In the spring, the smelts would make their way to the estuary of the Waugh River, and the water would be black with them as they would face into the current of the river. To catch the fish, we used a net made of a large hoop at the end of a long sturdy pole. The trick was not to sweep the net up behind them, because they could instantly dash away, but to sweep the net down in front of them, because their only way to escape was by swimming forward. One time, when we arrived, we saw a man using a similar net to ours, but the net itself was very small. As a result, he caught only a dozen or so of the tiny fish. As we waited for the smelt swarm in the river to regroup, we prepared our net. To catch as many smelt as possible, we used a large onion bag on the hoop. My father waited until the fish were densely packed in the river, and swung the net down into the middle of the swarm. The net was so full that he could not lift it, but had to drag it to shore. We had plenty of smelt because, unlike Peter in our text, we used as much net as possible.
The Lord Jesus had instructed Peter to let down his nets. Note the plural. And note the singular response from Peter. He had little confidence that anything would result from the effort, so he was merely going to humour the Preacher by making a token effort. It was almost as though he was telling the Lord, ‘Let me show you why I am the fisherman and You are the Preacher’. This of course was before Peter was fully convinced of Who Jesus of Nazareth was. He was still learning, and so we can excuse him to a certain extent for his lack of faith. But what about us? What is our excuse for failing to put out all of our nets, so to speak, in response to our Lord’s commands? Are we like those of whom the wise man said, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed’? We have the example of Peter’s experience, we have the record of the Gospels and their accounts of all the miracles of the Lord Jesus; we know what He can perform. So why do we do little more than make a token effort?
Our Lord has assured us of His presence when we meet. In expectation, do we prepare ourselves as thoroughly as we can, and participate as fully as we can? Or do we show up barely on time with little or no preparation, and contribute a token amount? Our Lord has commanded us to go with the Gospel to make disciples. Do we throw ourselves with all of our energies and resources and enthusiasm into Gospel work, and water it with hours of prayer? Or do we show up for most Gospel meetings if there is nothing else going on? Our Lord has commanded us to love each other. Is the welfare, comfort, and blessing of other saints more important than my own? Or do I limit my fellowship to those of my little clique?
If we think about it, we can see why we are not more blessed. One little hesitant net won’t catch many fish. -Jim MacIntosh