Post by Mark on Oct 30, 2008 3:53:05 GMT -8
An hour’s drive from the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by a number of water-ways and several lakes, fishing is not just a casual passtime; but a significant industry here. Yet, one fishing guide winked at me and said, "…that’s why it’s called ‘fishing’ and not ‘catching." There are no guarantees. When we read Messiah’s invitation to His disciples, we are easily jaded by our own fishing experiences. We throw the hook and line into the water and wait.
The disciples knew this experience well. "Master, we have toiled all the night and caught nothing…" Peter reported in Luke 5:5. These were professional fishermen who understood the trade. "That’s why it’s called ‘fishing" and not ‘catching." There is always the plausibility of coming home empty-handed when you set out. We, thus read the Messiah’s call with some skepticism. Fishing doesn’t mean success by any means.
Some evangelists meet this analogy as a challenge. "The ‘fish’ are out there. You just have to know what bait to choose. You just have to know how a fish thinks." Yet, while this is good advice for the fisherman, it is a lousy foundation for understanding the theology of our Messiah. It is our tendancy to grab the words of the Text out of their context and insert them into our own, not realizing that, by now, the discliples understood Messiah Yeshua’s words to be always deeply rooted in their known Scriptures (the Tanakh, or Old Testament). They knew that He was not talking about sitting on the banks of life, hoping for prospects to bite. He was talking about reeling ‘em in!
In John 5:30, Messiah Yeshua explains, "I can do nothing of Myself: as I hear, I judge: and My judgment is just because I don’t seek My own will; but the will of the Father which has sent Me." In context, His hearers would understand the will of "the Father" to be the will of the God of Israel, the God described and defined by the Hebrew Tanakh. Applying this statement to Messiah Yeshua’s fishing invitation, we find that it is more than just an analogy that could readily be understood by his fishermen friends. It was an reference to the Old Testament which held incredible implications.
We find the idea of "fishers of men" in the book of Jeremiah. Driven and scattered throughout the northern kingdoms of Persia and Assyria, Israel had no corporate identity. At best the people existed as ethnic pockets, trying to retain their Jewish identity as individuals, barely hoping for a repatriotation of their promised land.
But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
(Jeremiah 16:15-16)
In this context, the fisher’s of men are not waiting on the banks for the fish to hopefully come to them. The fishermen are in control and are gathering in their catch. The fish couldn’t even hide if they wanted. Everything that these fishers come to get, they get. Peter and John must have swallowed hard at such expectation.
Yet, the prophecy of Jeremiah doesn’t end there. The fishermen of Adonai are reeling in all the Jews who are scattered throughout the world; but it is having a powerful affect on the gentile world in which they had been scattered.
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.
(Jeremiah 16:19-21)
While the scattering of the Jewish people was judgment upon them for their disobedience and insincerity, it was grace and hope to the rest of us who would never have been exposed to the God who is Lord over all creation. Had we not seen the Jewish people being Jewish in our midst, we would have never have understood that our pagan and lawless ways were wrong. He scattered them among us so that we could be drawn along with them.
Just as the mixed multitude saw the power of Adonai in the Jewish people in Egypt, the gentiles now are beginning to see the hollowness of pagan worship without the relationship of Adon Adonai (the Lord of Lords) in His Hebraic identity.
The prophecy of Jeremiah 16 is not yet fulfilled. The Jewish people remain scattered throughout the nations of the world, though many are coming home. This means that the prophecy concerning the gentiles is also underway. The current Christian doctrine that the gentile Church is now afforded her time as "the people of God" does not hold. According to Jeremiah, gentiles will see the hollowness of their pagan perspective and come into the Jewish understanding of who is Adonai Elohim (the Lord God).
Many Christians do not realize that dominant Christian teaching has dismissed the Jewish perspective of their faith and replaced it with Greek paganism. The method of worship and understanding is consistent with Greek ideology, replacing the terms of Greek dieties with New Testament euphemisms; but worshiping according to the pattern of their pagan forefathers.
Messiah called His disciples to be fishers of men: calling the Jews home. They had little idea as to what this would really mean, nor the affect that it would have upon the world. Yet, one thing was certain. They recognized Him to be their Messiah, the Jewish Messiah that was prophecied of old. They were anxious and ready to be part of this unfolding of Adonai’s promises to them.
The disciples knew this experience well. "Master, we have toiled all the night and caught nothing…" Peter reported in Luke 5:5. These were professional fishermen who understood the trade. "That’s why it’s called ‘fishing" and not ‘catching." There is always the plausibility of coming home empty-handed when you set out. We, thus read the Messiah’s call with some skepticism. Fishing doesn’t mean success by any means.
Some evangelists meet this analogy as a challenge. "The ‘fish’ are out there. You just have to know what bait to choose. You just have to know how a fish thinks." Yet, while this is good advice for the fisherman, it is a lousy foundation for understanding the theology of our Messiah. It is our tendancy to grab the words of the Text out of their context and insert them into our own, not realizing that, by now, the discliples understood Messiah Yeshua’s words to be always deeply rooted in their known Scriptures (the Tanakh, or Old Testament). They knew that He was not talking about sitting on the banks of life, hoping for prospects to bite. He was talking about reeling ‘em in!
In John 5:30, Messiah Yeshua explains, "I can do nothing of Myself: as I hear, I judge: and My judgment is just because I don’t seek My own will; but the will of the Father which has sent Me." In context, His hearers would understand the will of "the Father" to be the will of the God of Israel, the God described and defined by the Hebrew Tanakh. Applying this statement to Messiah Yeshua’s fishing invitation, we find that it is more than just an analogy that could readily be understood by his fishermen friends. It was an reference to the Old Testament which held incredible implications.
We find the idea of "fishers of men" in the book of Jeremiah. Driven and scattered throughout the northern kingdoms of Persia and Assyria, Israel had no corporate identity. At best the people existed as ethnic pockets, trying to retain their Jewish identity as individuals, barely hoping for a repatriotation of their promised land.
But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
(Jeremiah 16:15-16)
In this context, the fisher’s of men are not waiting on the banks for the fish to hopefully come to them. The fishermen are in control and are gathering in their catch. The fish couldn’t even hide if they wanted. Everything that these fishers come to get, they get. Peter and John must have swallowed hard at such expectation.
Yet, the prophecy of Jeremiah doesn’t end there. The fishermen of Adonai are reeling in all the Jews who are scattered throughout the world; but it is having a powerful affect on the gentile world in which they had been scattered.
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.
(Jeremiah 16:19-21)
While the scattering of the Jewish people was judgment upon them for their disobedience and insincerity, it was grace and hope to the rest of us who would never have been exposed to the God who is Lord over all creation. Had we not seen the Jewish people being Jewish in our midst, we would have never have understood that our pagan and lawless ways were wrong. He scattered them among us so that we could be drawn along with them.
Just as the mixed multitude saw the power of Adonai in the Jewish people in Egypt, the gentiles now are beginning to see the hollowness of pagan worship without the relationship of Adon Adonai (the Lord of Lords) in His Hebraic identity.
The prophecy of Jeremiah 16 is not yet fulfilled. The Jewish people remain scattered throughout the nations of the world, though many are coming home. This means that the prophecy concerning the gentiles is also underway. The current Christian doctrine that the gentile Church is now afforded her time as "the people of God" does not hold. According to Jeremiah, gentiles will see the hollowness of their pagan perspective and come into the Jewish understanding of who is Adonai Elohim (the Lord God).
Many Christians do not realize that dominant Christian teaching has dismissed the Jewish perspective of their faith and replaced it with Greek paganism. The method of worship and understanding is consistent with Greek ideology, replacing the terms of Greek dieties with New Testament euphemisms; but worshiping according to the pattern of their pagan forefathers.
Messiah called His disciples to be fishers of men: calling the Jews home. They had little idea as to what this would really mean, nor the affect that it would have upon the world. Yet, one thing was certain. They recognized Him to be their Messiah, the Jewish Messiah that was prophecied of old. They were anxious and ready to be part of this unfolding of Adonai’s promises to them.
