Today’s Passage – Jeremiah 4 – 6
For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. (Jeremiah 5:26)
And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. (Luke 5:10)
As I was reading through this passage my attention was drawn to the little phrase, “catch men”. I knew that I had heard it before, so I did a little search and found that it was only used one other time in the Bible by the Lord in a conversation with Peter. The Lord told Peter that his life would no longer be about catching fish; but about catching men. The context of the passage in Jeremiah that we are currently reading has to do with the imminent judgement that is facing the southern kingdom of Judah, particularly the city of Jerusalem. There were many reasons for the coming judgement, but, in a nutshell you could say that as a nation they had forsaken God and had become like the heathen nations around them. One of the reasons that this had happened was because the devil was busy, using wicked men and women to lure the people away from a right relationship with God. These wicked people were also catching men.
Let’s fast forward now to present day America. The devil is still very busy: perhaps even busier than back in Jeremiah’s day. He may have changed some of his lures; but he is still using his servants to “catch men”. Now God has given us a commission to “catch men” as well. We are supposed to be very busy going out into the highways and hedges, the streets and the lanes of the city: with the power of the Spirit of God, and with the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be busy and bold in communicating the Truth of salvation. The question is: Are you and I more concerned about catching men than the devil’s crowd is? If we would be honest, we would have to admit that the New Testament churches have put soul winning on the back burner; but has Satan let up on his program? I don’t think so. As a result, Satan’s kingdom is advancing while the number of blood washed Christians seems to be shrinking. All because we who have the Truth have abandoned catching men.
Why don’t we get back out there in our community with some gospel tracts in one hand, a New Testament in the other; and start winning people to the Lord. Let’s stop letting Satan catch more men than the people of God. There are plenty of people out there that need to be saved and will be saved if we would simply obey God’s Great Commission.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30)
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I do not like to fish. I find it boring, messy and way too difficult. I'd rather just go to the store to get fish. But people who fish all the time tell me that it is relaxing. They say that catching a fish is exciting. A few years back I went deep sea fishing out at the baltimore Canyon to fish for swordfish. We packed the boat full of essentials, special lures, poles, fish finding equipment and much, much more. The ride out was long all through the night. I tried to sleep but the excitment wouldn't let me, not to mention the occasional prank that left me wet and stinky. In the morning we drifted a while and put fish guts and blood into the water, we set our lines and set them into the blood sheen on the water and then we waited. "FISH ON!!!" everybody jumped up in excitment and the one who had the fish got the chair as the rest hurried to help him reel this massive fish in. We talked about our excitment as the Captian moved the boat so that the fish could be reeled in closer to us. In an effort to fight the hook this beautiful fish revealed itself from it's watery home. As the excitment grew we all marveled at the beauty of the catch. The struggle to bring in such a catch lasted for many hours, sometimes the fish won and sometimes we won but in the end our Captian had the victory. It took 4 men to pull this fish into the boat. the captian left the helm and told us to hold the fish on the deck as he removed the hook. Then he did something that I'll never forget he slid the fish back into the water and in amazement we all watched as this fish just stood still and looked at us and we looked at it and then in a flash it was gone. The Captian never said a word and went back to the bridge and we headed home. Just a thought about fishing and catching the Big One!!!