The Way Forward: A 5-Day Devotional by Phil DooleySample

Day 5: Washing nets

Jesus encounters some commercial fishermen at the lake of Gennesaret in Luke 5:1–11. The guys have been out fishing all night but have nothing to show for their efforts. When Jesus finds them, they’re washing their nets on the beach. Washing nets is a potent metaphor for several admirable qualities. It represents preparedness, perseverance, purposefulness, consistency, faithfulness, and good stewardship. The fishermen are doing the hard, thankless work that happens behind the scenes (which precedes all good success), and they’re doing it even when there is no immediate reward.

It’s easy to give up when conditions aren’t in our favour, but that’s not what the fishermen do. They don’t fling down their nets and storm off; they don’t question if they were cut out to be fishermen; they don’t chuck it all in. Instead, they diligently scrub their nets in preparation for going out to sea again.

The daily routines of disciplined, hard work – the symbolic washing of nets – really matter to God. Here, Jesus notices. After borrowing Simon Peter’s boat to teach the assembled crowd gathered on the shore, Jesus tells Simon Peter: ‘Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.’ (Luke 5:4 MSG). We know what happens next (in verses 5–6 NLT): ‘“Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!’

Simon Peter is awestruck by the size of the catch and by the fact that Jesus is interested in helping him and his partners, James and John, with their everyday work. Yet God has far greater plans for Simon Peter’s life and tells him (in verse 10 NLT): ‘From now on you’ll be fishing for people.’ Simon Peter became the apostle Peter, who is central in establishing the Church of Jesus Christ across the earth (see Matthew 16:18). Peter was also the first to take the gospel to the Gentiles, and his legacy lives on in every healthy, thriving Christian church today.

How amazing that one of the first pictures we have of him is of an ordinary fisherman engaged in the mundane task of washing his nets. Yet Simon Peter’s diligence prepares him for the huge catch Jesus had for him and his fishing partners that day and positions him for the far greater soul-winning future that the Lord spoke over him afterward.