The northern kingdom, Israel/Samaria, comes to an end under
the reign of Hoshea. Hoshea essentially
ruled under the authority of the king of Assyria. In return for payment of tribute, he was
allowed to keep his position as king of Israel until he decided to reach out to
the king of Egypt and stop paying the tribute to Assyria. The Assyrian king chose to show who was
actually king and imprisoned Hoshea and besieged the land for three years prior
to taking over entirely. The chronicler gives the litany we expect to hear of
the sins of the people which caused the Lord to bring judgment against the
nation. The worshiped the gods of the
surrounding nations, forsaking the One who brought them up from Egypt and gave
them the land. They set up idol worship
of the Baals, the Asherah poles, they made golden calves (what was the
obsession with golden calves?) and not only did they do these things, they
refused to hear and repent when the Lord sent prophets to them. We are familiar with all these things but then
we read, “And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings…” When we begin worshipping false gods, there
is no end to the depravity we are willing to commit, we lose touch with the
notion of being created in the image of God and filled with His breath of life.
Peter and the others have fished all night and caught
nothing at all. They are now washing
their nets so that the next evening they can go out and do it all again. When you’ve toiled for nothing at all the
work of cleaning and prepping is all the more difficult and into this comes
Jesus to say, take me out a little ways in the boat so that I can teach more
effectively. When Jesus had finished
teaching, He tells Peter to go further out, into the deep water, and let down
his nets for a catch. Peter, probably
feeling incredibly weary after a long night and knowing that if he obeys in
letting down his nets he will also have to clean them again, and with little
expectation of success, lets down the nets into the deep water, which will also
mean a lot of hauling of nets back up.
Incredibly, they caught so many fish that the nets were in danger of
breaking and when they got the catch on board, both boats were sinking. Peter saw in this something holy, something
fearful, something like Isaiah saw and he reacted similarly, “Go away from me
Lord, I am a sinful man.” At that, Jesus
called and, based on what he had seen, Peter proved he really believed and
followed. There was something more
important than fishing.
Tabitha or Dorcas, was truly a disciple and a saint, she was
full of good works and charity. Why did
the disciples implore Peter to come to them without delay? Tabitha had already died and they had already
begun the work of preparation for her death.
Did they believe Peter could resurrect her from the dead? When he came, out of respect for this
extraordinary woman, they began to show him all she had done, the tunics she
had woven for the widows in that place.
Peter, moved to pray, even in this hopeless situation, apparently received
word from the Lord that he was to speak life, in words very similar to what
Jesus said at the home of the synagogue ruler, calling her to arise and, rise
she does, in a glorious act of resurrection.
Peter, the sinful man who begged Jesus to go away from him, now does as
Jesus Himself had done, a true disciple.
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