Since Men’s Ministry is having a Fishin’ & Fellowship event this week, I thought I’d do a fishing-themed blog[1]. Despite my extensive research, I’ve never been able to find a Bible verse that explicitly gives me permission to fish every day, but there ARE several places in the bible that talk about fish/fishing. Christ’s ministry is a good example. Peter (Simon) and Andrew were famously called to be “fishers of men” by Jesus after he encountered them by the Sea of Galilee[2].
The calling of Peter and Andrew (National Art Gallery)
James and John were also fishermen[3] - meaning a third of the disciples, and all of His “inner circle”, were anglers. Jesus’ miracles include two miraculous catches of fish[4] and twice feeding the multitudes with just a few loaves and fish[5]. One of His most overlooked, and most interesting miracles, was the coin in the fish’s mouth[6]. Jesus’s ministry[7], and the Christian church as a whole, become further associated with fish by the early church’s use of the fish symbol, possibly as a symbol to identify fellow believers at times when the church was being oppressed[8].
But for the purposes of this blog, I wanted to go back and look at one of many references to fish/fishing in the Old Testament[9]- Job chapter 41. God is speaking to Job and begins talking about Leviathan- “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?”[10] So what is Leviathan?
Leviathan??? (The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Dore)
Honestly, I have no idea. In fact, there doesn’t even seem to be a solid consensus of what it is among scholars, which may have to do with the term being used in different ways in different parts of the bible[11]. Over the years, guesses and translations have been a sea dragon, a great whale, an early gigantic crocodile, a dinosaur, a metaphor for the enemies of God’s people, or some type of creature we don’t even know existed. It is a mystery. But regardless of what it is specifically, it IS something massive and scary. Something we can barely comprehend, much less contend with[12]. And this is the part that I think is important: there are times in life we face things that seem overwhelming. Problems so big and enemies so powerful it seems hopeless. Pits so deep, addictions so strong and feelings so intense that despair and giving up seem like the only options. That is certainly how Job felt. He experienced unimaginable tragedy[13]. His troubles were so great that his friends barely recognized him when they saw him and sat, silently, with him for a whole week because his suffering was so intense[14]. Not surprisingly, when Job finally spoke, he cursed the day he was born and pours out his grief[15]. Dealing with his pain, Job questions God and even throws accusations at Him[16]. Job, like many of us, asks God why these things happen and where is God at when they are happening. And eventually, God speaks of Leviathan. If God can create something like Leviathan, and the world it is in, how could we possibly understand His purpose or ways? If he can control the unfathomable, can’t we rely on His providence for our lives? If we, and “everything under heaven”[17] belong to a God who loves us, shouldn’t we trust that He will see us through it and will keep His promises to us? Job realizes this, and comes to the conclusion that “I know you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”[18]
One of the things you often hear from anglers is “Sometimes I don’t even care if I catch a fish, I just love fishing”. There really is something relaxing about fishing- throwing a line in the water, sitting back and letting the time pass. Sometimes you catch them left and right and other times you come up empty, but you are always going to be content. And life is like that- sometimes we are on the mountaintop and sometimes we are in the valley, but a powerful, loving God IS in control and we should find peace in that.
Here's hoping that we don’t catch any Leviathans tonight, but still manage to pull some big cats out of the lake. Have a great week -FCC Men's Ministry
[1] And I’m using footnotes this time. Not trying to be fancy, but in the last blog I wrote, I had so many scripture references within the text that I thought it almost made it hard to read; this time I’ll put them down here so those who are interested can follow them in their own bible.
[2] Matt 4.19-20
[3] Mark 1.19-20
[4] Luke 5.1-11 & John 21.1-14
[5] The first, the “Feeding of the 5,000”, is found in all the gospels (Matthew 14:13–21, Mark 6:31–44, Luke 9:12–17 & John 6:1–14). The second, the “Feeding of the 4,000”, is in Matthew (15:32–39) and Mark (8:1–9). Out of curiosity I tried to find what type of fish these might have been, with most speculation falling on Galilean Tilapia (also commonly called “St Peter’s Fish”) or sardines. In either case they would have possibly been smaller fish, heavily salted for preservation.
[6] Matthew 17.24-27
[7] For those interested, also see Luke 24:41–43 & Matthew 13:47–50
[8] The “Jesus Fish” symbol was pretty popular when I was younger, often on car bumpers and even mentioned in an episode of Seinfeld. The word Ichthys (Koine Greek for fish) was used as an acrostic with contemporary Greek words which translated to “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior”.
[9] I went down a “How many times are fish/fishing talked about in the OT” rabbit hole. I knew I’d find some, but I was kinda shocked by how many actual references there were. Just some examples: it was used in prophecy (Amos 4.2; Ezekiel 29.4&5, 38.20, 47.9&10; Isiah 19.8), the story of Jonah, the creation story, etc. Ironically, since we are fishing for catfish this week, Leviticus warns against eating fish without scales (11.9) as they were considered “unclean” at the time.
[10] Job 41.1
[11] See Ps 74.14 & Isa 27.1 (maybe also the creature in Rev 13?) where it seems to be some sort of mythological sea dragon, but in Job and Psalm 104.26 (and possibly in Gen 1.21) it appears more as a sea beast/monster
[12] 41.9 “Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering”
[13] Job 1.1-2.8
[14] 2.12 & 13
[15] 3.1-26
[16] See 9.17, 9.22 and 16.9-14, for example
[17] 41.11
[18] 42.2. Job is a hard book to read, but I always take comfort in the last part, where we see God restoring Job and blessing him even more than He had in the first part of Job’s life. And while we know that God is always watching over us in this life, sometimes I think it is helpful to read Rev chap 7 and remember what is waiting for us in the next.
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