Chapter 25—The Call by the Sea
This chapter is based on
Matthew 4:18-22
;
Mark 1:16-20
;
Luke
5:1-11
.
Day was breaking over the Sea of Galilee. The disciples, weary
with a night of fruitless toil, were still in their fishing boats on the lake.
Jesus had come to spend a quiet hour by the waterside. In the early
morning He hoped for a little season of rest from the multitude that
followed Him day after day. But soon the people began to gather about
Him. Their numbers rapidly increased, so that He was pressed upon
all sides. Meanwhile the disciples had come to land. In order to escape
the pressure of the multitude, Jesus stepped into Peter’s boat, and bade
him pull out a little from the shore. Here Jesus could be better seen
and heard by all, and from the boat He taught the multitude on the
beach.
What a scene was this for angels to contemplate; their glorious
Commander, sitting in a fisherman’s boat, swayed to and fro by the
restless waves, and proclaiming the good news of salvation to the
listening throng that were pressing down to the water’s edge! He
who was the Honored of heaven was declaring the great things of His
kingdom in the open air, to the common people. Yet He could have
had no more fitting scene for His labors. The lake, the mountains, the
spreading fields, the sunlight flooding the earth, all furnished objects
[245]
to illustrate His lessons and impress them upon the mind. And no
lesson of Christ’s fell fruitless. Every message from His lips came to
some soul as the word of eternal life.
Every moment added to the multitude upon the shore. Aged men
leaning upon their staffs, hardy peasants from the hills, fishermen from
their toil on the lake, merchants and rabbis, the rich and learned, old
and young, bringing their sick and suffering ones, pressed to hear the
words of the divine Teacher. To such scenes as this the prophets had
looked forward, and they wrote:
197