Mark 1:16-18 commentary: we are like fish in the sea

16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. 18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

God calls you right where you are. These men were called into full time service to the Lord. Most of us, though, are called to serve right where we are in our job.

But, in these verses, the literal God of the literal universe is literally calling these self-employed fishermen to leave their work and follow Him in faith to do His purpose. And that is exactly what they do. Would you walk away from your nets, from your family business, to follow Christ?

Note the “fishers of men” reference.

Habakkuk 1:14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

And another interesting reference in the same book.

Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Do you remember the book of Genesis, chapter 1?

1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

In the 1990’s a European International Space Observatory detected enough water being produced in the far reaches of space in the Orion Nebula (Job 9:9; 8:1; Amos 5:8) to replace the Earth’s oceans sixty times a day. Lot of water out there, wouldn’t you say?

By the way, as a side note, remember the next verse?

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Sound traveling through water can produce a phenomenon called SONOLUMINESCENCE. That was detected in 1934 while developing sonar. Of course, a phenomenon has been known since the 1960’s called Gamma Ray Bursts where the most luminous electromagnetic event in the universe takes place “billions of light years away.” Not all light in the universe comes from the stars. However, I am certain this is, spiritually, a reference to the light of Christ as compared with John, chapter 1, the first 18 verses of which are great memory material for witnessing.

Genesis 1:16 ……he made the stars also.

There is also a theory, unproven and in some circles considered discredited, entitled SONOFUSION where sound passing through water might nuclear fusion.

Okay, back to Mark. I think it’s interesting how we can view ourselves as being at the bottom of a vast ocean and Christ pulls us up like fish in a net. Just an intriguing thought to me. One day, when Christ returns, the people of the earth will swim in the knowledge of God.