Monday, November 4, 2013
Cast The Net On The Right Side
There have been a number of times in my own walk with God that my efforts seemed as though they were not being very fruitful. In times like those I try to remember the story of the disciples fishing in the last chapter of John. First we set the story by saying Jesus (Yeshua) has died and He rose again by this point. He had shown Himself by walking through doors and doing many signs in the presence of the disciples since His resurrection. Then we get to John 21 and Peter makes a comment.
John 21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
There are two interesting points here. After all these things, it seems as if Peter is fed up and going to take off to go fishing, back to his old profession, back to what was comfortable. It raises a question for me. If he had left all he had to follow Jesus (Yeshua), where did he get the boat? Maybe he did not quite leave everything behind. Also, the other disciples that were with him could have encouraged him to stay the course. What did they do? They said, “Me too.” It is interesting what happens as they do not catch any fish, fishing all night.
John 21:4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
So a stranger appears (they did not know it was the Messiah) and tells them to cast their net to the right side of the boat. They act in faith and throw the net in and they get so many fish they have to drag the net to shore. From this they realize it is Jesus (Yeshua) and they eat fish and bread with Him, which He prepared for them. I get several things from this. Jesus (Yeshua) is always trying to provide for us, even to the point of actual preparation of what we take in. Sometimes we may not even know it is Him, but if we act in faith, trying to walk things out with God, we will get there and He will provide. I also found this interesting in the light of a couple Psalms.
Psalms 109:30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.
Psalms 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
In Psalms 109 we see that the Lord stands at our right side to defend us and to save us, just like the fish were on the right side of the boat when the disciples needed something to eat. We can be like Moses if we have faith like he did, and we will see God’s ways, His paths, that get us to the end. The children of Israel only saw things as they unfolded, never really participating in the unfolding and always living in doubt, unbelief, and fear. But God wants to show us His ways. He wants to stand at our right side to defend and deliver His people from all that attempts to oppress us. For me, that is very encouraging!
Prayer
Father, we praise and exalt You. Thank You for always being there to defend us and to provide for us. Help us to be like Moses who had faith to trust You and who got to see Your ways. We want to be able to do that Father. Please help us when we fall into fear and unbelief. Please help us to escape these things, and to be close to You. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.