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Gates of Nehemiah — The Fish Gate
“The fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build” (Nehemiah 3:3).
This gate reminds us of when the Lord called Peter and Andrew from mending their nets by the sea of Galilee: “And He saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Every believer can have a part in the work of spreading the gospel. Timothy was told, “Do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5). We read of another incident in Peter’s life, when after the Lord rose from the dead some of the disciples followed him back to their old job of fishing. Catching nothing all night they finally, under the Lord’s direction, have a great haul. “Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken” (John 21:11). We often refer to this as the “gospel net” and the number of fish is significant. One hundred is the number of complete salvation (like in the parable in Luke 15:3-7). Fifty denotes Pentecost, and three reminds us of death and resurrection. Are we building the fish gate by spreading the gospel as fishers of men? How much fishing will you do today?
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