Luke 5:2

And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, In our exposition of Matthew 4:18, we have shown, as it appears to us, that this was quite a different occasion from that, and consequently that the calling of the disciples there and here recorded were different callings. This one, as we take it, was neither their first call, recorded in John 1:35; nor their second, recorded in Matthew 4:18; but their third and last before their appointment to the apostleship. These calls are to be viewed as progressive stages in their preparation for the great work before them, and something similar is observable in the providential p...

1-11 When Christ had done preaching, he told Peter to apply to the business of his calling. Time spent on week days in public exercises of religion, need be but little hinderance in time, and may be great furtherance to us in temper of mind, as to our worldly business. With what cheerfulness may we go about the duties of our calling, when we have been with God, and thus have our worldly employments sanctified to us by the word and prayer! Though they had taken nothing, yet Christ told them to let down their nets again. We must not abruptly quit our callings because we have not the success in them we desire. We are likely to speed well, when we follow the guidance of Christ's word. The draught of fishes was by a miracle. We must all, like Peter, own ourselves to be sinful men, therefore Jesus Christ might justly depart from us. But we must beseech him that he would not depart; for woe un...

Verse Luke 5:2. _TWO SHIPS_] δυο πλοια, _Two vessels_, It is highly improper to term these _ships_. They appear to have been only such _small boats_ as are used to manage nets on flat smooth beaches: one end of the net is attached to the shore; the fishermen row out, and drop the net as they go, making a kind of semicircle from the shore; they return, and bring the rope attached to the other end with them, and then the net is hauled on shore; and, as it was sunk with weights to the bottom, and floated with corks at the top, all the fish in that compass were included, and drawn to shore....

TWO SHIPS - The ships used on so small a lake were probably no more than fishing-boats without decks, and easily drawn up on the beach. Josephus says there were 230 of them on the lake, attended by four or five men each. That they were small is also clear from the account commonly given of them. A single large draught of fishes endangered them and came near sinking them. STANDING BY THE LAKE - Anchored by the lake, or drawn up upon the beach....

EXPOSITION When St. Luke compiled his Gospel, many of the circumstances connected with the early relations of the leaders of Christianity with their Founder were so well known, and had been so often repeated, that it seemed unnecessary to rehearse them afresh; hence to us the seeming abruptness of the introduction of Simon (Peter), James, and John in the scene now about to be related. In the preceding, the healing of Simon's wife's mother of a great fever is related without any explanation, as though Simon Peter's connection with the Lord was a fact too well known to require any comment or explanation. The association of Jesus and these chosen men seems to have commenced as follows: Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew (sons of Jona), John and James (the sons of Zebedee and Salome), belonged to fisher families dwelling on the banks of the Lake of Gennesaret. They seemed to have been fas...

AND SAW TWO SHIPS STANDING BY THE LAKE,.... Or two fishing boats; which were, as the Arabic version renders it, "detained by anchors at the shore of the lake"; the one belonging to Peter and Andrew, and the other to Zebedee, and his two sons, James and John: BUT THE FISHERMEN WERE GONE OUT OF THEM; that is, either the above persons, or their servants: AND WERE WASHING THEIR NETS; on shore; they having gathered a great deal of soil and filthiness, but had caught no fish; and therefore were cleansing their nets, in order to lay them up, finding it to be in vain to make any further attempts with them at present; and which considered, makes the following miracle the more illustrious....

Luke 5:1. _And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets._ Before folding them up, as if they intended to do no more with them just then, as they had been working all night in vain. Luke 5:3. _And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land._ It is very difficult to speak effectively when the people come too close to the speaker; and, sometimes, a little inconvenience like that may interfere with the flow of the speaker's thoughts and words. Even the Saviour seems to have felt that he needed a little breathing space between himself an

CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The Miraculous Drought of Fishes. (Luke 5:1)_ 2. The Leper Healed. (Luke 5:12) 3. The Paralytic Healed. (Luke 5:17) 4. The Call of Matthew and the Feast (Luke 5:27) 5. The Scribes and Pharisees Answered (Luke 5:30) 6. The Parable of the Garment and the Bottle. (Luke 5:36 .) Luke 5:1 Two miraculous draughts of fishes are found in the Gospels. The one he

THE CALL OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES (_cf._ Mark 1:16 *, Matthew 4:18 *). The eager crowds that attend Jesus show His need of assistants. The simpler story of Mk. and Mt. is here replaced by one which introduces a miraculous catch of fish. The similarity with John 21 leads us to think that Lk. (who has no Galilean appearances of the Risen Jesus) may have used that incident here. Nor is it difficult to discern symbolism in the story; the deep water is the Gentile world, but Peter, though the preaching of the Gospel to the Jews had been a failure, is reluctant to enter on a wider mission (_cf._ Acts 11:1). The concentration of the narrative on Peter (James and John are only just mentioned, Andrew not at all), may be due to th

Jesus was standing on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret while the crowds pressed in upon him to listen to the word of God. He saw two boats riding close to the shore. the fishermen had disembarked from them and were washing their nets. He embarked on one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the land. He sat down and continued to teach the crowds from the boat. When he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, "Push out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have toiled all night long and we caught nothing; but, if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done so they enclosed a great crowd of fishes; their nets were torn with the numbers; so they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and they rifled both the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon...