Devotional John 21: The Miraculous Catch of Fish and God's Timing Reflection on John 21: the miraculous catch after obeying Jesus, the importance of trusting God's timing, and how to avoid misinterpreting the Bible. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional John 21: The Miraculous Catch of Fish and God’s Timing

Today’s devotional was on chapter 21 of the book of John. And this was the synopsis.

Synopsis: In this chapter, Jesus appeared again after His resurrection to seven of His disciples. Simon Peter and his fishing companions went fishing at night; they tried all night, but failed to catch any fish. However, later in the morning, when they had already given up, Jesus appeared and provided the fish for them when He asked Simon Peter to cast the net on the right side of the water.

Observations

These were my observations:

1. Things only happen in God’s timing. At night, when Simon Peter and his friends went fishing according to their own will, they couldn’t catch any fish. They tried all night until daybreak, and yet they didn’t succeed. Only when Jesus told Simon Peter to try again, but this time on the right side of the water, were they able to not only catch fish, but also take in an enormous and surreal quantity. That is to say, when we do things on our own, according to our own will, we often do not achieve what we want or we get a mediocre version of what was expected. But when we do God’s will, not only do we get what we want, but we achieve it at the right moment, in a much more abundant, surreal, and effortless way.
2. We must be careful not to interpret the word without proper context so as not to draw wrong conclusions. This happened in this chapter when Simon Peter asked Jesus what would happen to the other disciple, who was with Peter and whom Jesus loved so much, and Jesus said to him: “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” (John 21:22). However, Simon Peter spread the information interpreting that his companion would not die until Jesus returned. This was not the correct interpretation, because he did not know exactly what Jesus was talking about when He referred to the other disciple. Jesus might have simply been talking about going with Peter to do something while the other disciple stayed behind, since He told Peter to follow Him right after answering his question. Thus, Peter’s misinterpretation led the other apostles to believe that one of them would not die until Jesus returned. This also happens today when we try to interpret biblical passages without proper context. We see this a lot on social media and when people want to use bible verses they’ve heard because it favors their point of view. We must be very careful with that. That is why scriptures cannot simply be interpreted in isolation without adequate context. Only in this way, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, can we know that we are interpreting the word correctly.