John 21:11:  “Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to the land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three; and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.”

 

One can only wonder why the writer gave an exact count of the number of fish that were caught. As a rule the average person living in that day could only count to one hundred and I mean who is going to sit down and count every slimy little fish when they were ready to each breakfast? Having walked with Jesus, their rabbi, for three years they automatically knew Jesus did not tell them to cast their nets into the sea after having fished all night and then coming up with a load of fish just to help their business along.  When they discovered the man on the shore was Jesus they immediately went into their discipleship mode and they began wondering what spiritual lesson their master was trying to teach and probably saw some message hidden in this idea of 153 and their net not breaking.

 

There is something really curious as you read this passage. It seems Jesus had already gone fishing and had fish cooking on the seashore when the disciples made their haul of 153 fish.  It has been suggested that as a rabbi Jesus would have been creating a picture of the first fruits.  Having already established that our bodies are the temple of God and having commissioned His disciples to carrying out His message as the temple carried out the message of God’s coming redemption, the disciples were now going to take on the role of the priest. Indeed Jesus has made us priest and kings unto God (Revelation 1:6).  Jesus, of course, is the high priest. Now remember it was Jesus who caught the first fish, the first fruits.  He prepared the first fruits for his disciples as the disciples were now priest and were ready to receive the offering of the first fruit.  In other words Jesus was tithing to His disciples. The disciples would have discerned that now that the act of redemption portrayed by the priest in the temple over the previous hundreds of years was fulfilled in Jesus and that the temple was not built of stone but of the human body, the disciples could easily picture themselves as the priest of that temple called to carry this message of salvation to the world. Tithing to his disciples, giving them the first fruits  was Jesus’ rabbinical way of telling them they were now the temple and priest of God. So too, if Jesus is sending us out as a temple of the Holy Spirit serving in the role of a priest, he will regularly give His tithe to us. Do you ever consider the fact that Jesus is tithing to us?  This tithe of the first fruits is directed to maintain the temple, support the priest and assist the poor. When we go out to serve Jesus as priest and a temple, he will give us His tithe to maintain that temple, (food, clothing, health needs) and support us as priest and provide for us to assist the poor in spirit (the message of salvation to the lost of this world). In other words, just as He said in Philippians 4:19: “God will supply all your needs according to his richness.” Ten percent of His richness should pretty well cover our expenses as a temple, priest, and messenger to the poor.

 

Now back to the 153 fish. Many scholars feel that the symbol of the fish, which became the symbol to indicated that the Gentles was grafted into the Jewish blessing (Romans 11:17-18, has its origins in this story in John 21. As we all know the word fish in Greek is ichthys and became an acronym for Jesus Christ (Messiah), Son of God, Savior.  Using the Greek word rather than Hebrew word for fish which is dayag was a way to show that the Gentiles were also a part of the redemption of Jesus Christ.

 

In the Gematria 153 is the numerical value for the Hebrew word; yinchilena which literally means He will cause to inherit or in plainer English: All that the Lord has given to me. The Hebrew word for fish is dayag which has value of 17, it is the same numerical value of glory. Just so you know I am not the only one who does this crazy stuff, Shyam Suder Gupta, a Christian who is also a scientist/mathematician in India, took the numerical value of the Greek word for net (diktuon) which is something that I never do, but it is interesting, and found it had a value of 1224. 1224 begins in the prime number of 17 (the old boy is after all a mathematician).  Mathematically, so I am told, the number 17 is perfected in the triangle and 17 x 3 = 153, the number for the amount fish the disciples caught. Checking the Gematria for 153, I find it is the same numerical value for Passover and 17 is the numerical value for sacrifice. Somehow, Professor Gupta also came up with Blood/ Death and covenant being related to these numbers, but I am no mathematician, so don’t ask me to explain it.

 

The disciples were no mathematicians either but it would seem they understood enough of the Gematria to understand the message being sent by their rabbi and the message that is very clear to us today.  That are bodies are now the temple of God and we are His priest to carry the message of salvation to the poor in spirit (the lost of this world) and that He will provide all we need by giving us a regular tithe to carry this out.

 

What this has to do with the dialogue between Jesus and Peter that follows is quite interesting and I will share that at some later date.

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