It was a notable day in the history of Simon Peter when the Saviour requested the loan of his boat on the lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1-11). It was not His first acquaintance with Him. Some time before he had been introduced to the Lord by his brother Andrew, and it had resulted in a heart-attachment to Him which was abiding and eternal (John 1:40-42). But, like many another truly converted soul, Simon had much to learn concerning the evil of his own heart, and the remarkable incident upon the lake was an immense blessing to him in this direction.
It happened on this wise. The Saviour was being hard pressed by multitudes eager to hear the Word of God. Being by the lake shore, and observing two boats nearby, He asked for the use of one that He might teach the people therefrom. Simon, who was washing his nets with his partners, responded with alacrity, and the preaching was continued under these exceptional conditions. When the speaking was finished, the Lord bade Simon launch out into the deep and let down his net for a draft. Though he had toiled all night in vain he obeyed the injunction, with the result that so great a multitude of fishes was hauled up that the net brake. The second boat was requisitioned, and both were so heavily freighted that they began to sink.
Never had Simon and his companions known such an experience. In Simon’s own case, it yielded deep spiritual blessing. It so brought home to him the reality of having to do with God that all the evil of his heart became naked and bare before him, and he fell at Jesus’ knees, saying: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Such was his soul-distress that he was completely oblivious to the dangerous condition of the sinking boat. This was not his conversion. He had been converted at his first meeting with the Saviour; this was simply a deepening of the work of God in his soul. Job had such an experience (42:6); Isaiah also (6:5); and Paul. The latter was reduced to confess: “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). “No confidence in the flesh” was henceforth one of the mottoes of his life (Phil. 3:3). When a man reaches this point he learns that nothing counts with God but Christ, and his whole confidence becomes centered in Him Who died and rose again. Happy position in which to stand, involving, as it does, complete deliverance from one’s old self with all its pretensions and claims.
The poor conscience-stricken fisherman was soon graciously encouraged by the Lord. “Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” Accordingly Simon and his partners abandoned their boats and nets forever and followed the Saviour in His mission of love to the souls of men. Singularly, Luke omits all mention of Andrew in his narrative, while he alone tells us of the special work in the conscience of his brother. Catching men by means of the Gospel became the happy occupation of Simon and Andrew, James and John from that moment. An instance of fishing with the net is given in Acts 2, when three thousand converts were safely landed; and an instance of fishing with the hook is recorded in Acts 8, when an individual soul was savingly blessed by a desert road.