Luke 4:42-5:11 :

When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place, and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn’t go away from them. But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.” He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

Now it happened, while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, that he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets. He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.”

Simon answered him, “Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.” When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking. They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”

When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.

Here we have the story of the time when Jesus, the teacher (and Messiah), tells the professional fisherman where to fish and ends up being right. Sometimes when we don’t believe the power of God and we witness it, it is shocking to us. That appears to be what happened to Peter. It must have been pretty amazing to have so many fish in a single catch that the nets started to break and filled two boats to the sinking point.

This was real money to a fisherman and this example tells us something about how we should do our work. God knows “where the money is.” Even though we may be seasoned professionals, God is still the one that we should trust to bring in “the fish.” The thing is that when we hear His voice, we should obey. God knows what we need and in many cases He will supply more than what we need as He did here.

I’m not sure if those fish helped pay for the “education” that they started on that day, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it at least paid their father so that they could be on paid leave to follow the teacher. I used to think that this idea of following someone around was kind of strange until I found out that this was a common practice with teachers in that day. You would follow them and learn their ways. I am told it was kind of like going to college or being a part of an internship. It was a great honor and a form of higher education. This may explain one reason why they started fighting over who was the greatest later, but Jesus knew that they were all sinners and were only something because He chose to make something out of them just like He chose Peter’s boat that day.