The Great Fisherman

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.”  Matthew 13:47-48

In case you haven’t noticed, a good bit of the Bible is about good and evil.  In our world, I would have to say that right now evil is overpowering any good that folks try to accomplish.  The above verses represent the seventh parable of Chapter 13 which describes the kingdom of heaven as a fishing net that was cast out into the ocean to gather fish.  Because the net was large, it did not discriminate as to what kind of fish it caught.  When the net was full, it was brought to shore and each fish was examined for quality.  The good fish were placed in vessels for future use, but the bad fish were cast away probably to a garbage dump.  They were not thrown back into the sea.  Since several of the disciples had been fishermen by trade, this would be a very familiar scene to them.

The net represents the gospel of Jesus Christ which has and is being cast over the whole earth, a sea filled with sin, pride, and wickedness.  The fish are symbolic of all people, all races and nationalities.  When God deems the net is full, that is, when “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations“, the drawing in will occur, and “then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).  God does have a “cut-off” point, a time when every soul that is going to be saved is saved and then comes the final judgment.  The “good fish”, those who are the blood-bought, redeemed souls of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, will be safely placed into vessels of honor.  In II Timothy 2:20-21, Paul described a vessel of honor as one that is “sanctified” (set apart for God’s use) “and meet (qualified) for the Master’s use, and prepared (by the leading of the Holy Spirit) unto every good work“.  God is not through with the “good fish”.  He has eternity planned for them to be in His presence and experience the joy of His kingdom.

But not so for the “bad fish”, the wicked, all those who made the choice to eliminate God from their lives.  Actually, their desire for a godless life will be fulfilled–eternal separation from God and everything that is holy and righteous.  Even those who claimed to be Christians, but never displayed any evidence that they truly belonged to the Lord, will also suffer eternal punishment–the professors but not the possessors.  Jesus described it as a “furnace of fire” where there is “wailing and gnashing of teeth“.  Some folks do not believe in a literal hell, but Jesus didn’t say it is “like” a furnace of fire; He said it is a furnace of fire.  Whatever a person believes about hell, it would be in his or her eternally best interest not to go there.  As the old saying goes, “eternity is too long to be wrong”.

At this point, Jesus had just about finished presenting parables for the day, and then asked His disciples if they had understood what He was saying to them.  They replied that they did.  However, as they continued on with Jesus, they made statements and asked many questions which suggested that they didn’t have a really firm grasp upon all of His revelations to them.  Even after His resurrection, but before the disciples had received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), they asked Jesus if He was going to restore the kingdom of Israel at that time (Acts 1:6) indicating that their mindset was still on matters of earthly living.  We do the same thing when engaged in conversation.   Sometimes, someone will tell us something, and we reply that we understand when we really don’t because we don’t want to appear ignorant, or perhaps we weren’t really listening because the subject matter wasn’t something in which we were interested.  We should just be honest and say either, “I don’t really understand” or “Sorry, I wasn’t really listening” rather than pretending that we were listening.  I will admit that it is difficult to follow another’s speech if he or she never “comes up for air”.  The disciples were human and so are we with our many flaws.  Besides, the truths of God’s mission was revealed to the disciples on an “as needed” basis.

What truths the disciples did understand, though, was sufficient for the time being.  At least they did understand much more than the scribes and Pharisees.  When they received the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ ascension back to the Father, everything that He had taught them became crystal clear (John 2:22; 12:16; 14:26; and 16:4).  We all start out as beginners, learning and building upon foundational truths.  The Christian’s goal should be Christlike maturity in the faith.  In Ephesians 2:19-22, Paul describes believers as being built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets with Jesus being the chief Cornerstone.  As each stone is laid, the building comes together as a holy temple in the Lord.  Just as there are no shortcuts to building a strong and sturdy structure, there are no shortcuts to a strong and mature faith.