It looks like the fisherman who caught these fish had a good day of fishing. He fished patiently with his rod and line, probably using a worm or minnow for bait. Several times during the day he felt the exciting tug on his line that signaled another fish had taken the bait.
Now that the fishing day is over, the fisherman must prepare the fish before they can be eaten. He will clean them by removing the fins and scales and maybe the head and tail, and then they are ready for the frying pan.
The fins and scales have to be removed, because they are not good to eat. But these were very important to the fish.
God told the children of Israel, in the Bible, that they could not eat anything that lived in the water that did not have fins and scales. Frogs, crabs and lobsters do not have scales and fins, so they could not eat them.
Do you know why God made this law and what lessons it has for us today? Fins enable the fish to swim against the current, so that it doesn’t just move along with the current. The scales of the fish are like a coat of armor. They give the fish protection from the things around which might injure it. God calls any fish “clean” that has fins and scales. The ones without these He calls “unclean.”
God shows us many examples like this in the Bible. Fish remind us that He wants us to swim against the current. It is very easy to do what other children are doing and just go along with them. But it takes energy to “swim upstream” and say “no” and not go along with the rest or do wrong things that they are doing, because you want to please the Lord Jesus.
Have you ever heard of the salmon which swims long distances and even leaps up over waterfalls to get back to the stream where it hatched from a tiny egg? God gave it the strength and energy to do this. He will give you the strength and energy to go against any force of evil, if you are one of His “clean” (saved) ones and ask for His help.
When other children do things that are wrong and unkind, remember that you don’t have to go along with what they do. Going upstream against their ways may be very hard and a real struggle. The Bible gives us a very good example in our blessed Lord Jesus’ dying for us, with all the people against Him. His life and His death were “against the current.” Now those of us who have been saved, because He has washed away our sins in His precious blood, find that the world has not changed over 2,000 years later. The world is still against the Lord Jesus, and we can expect its ridicule when we try to please Him.
ML-11/09/2003