The Story

After the feeding of the multitude, when the people wished to make the Lord a King, He had sent the disciples in the boat without Him back toward Capernaum. It was night and they were rowing hard against the wind and waves. The Sea of Galilee is deeply sunk among the hills, with valleys running down to the water. Through these valleys the wind often comes sweeping down, and without any warning at all the waves rise.

Such a storm as this came down upon the sea after the disciples had started for the other side. The Lord was alone upon the mountain praying, and He saw the disciples' little boat struggling with the tempest. And then a most wonderful thing happened. The tired disciples looking out anxiously into the night, the fierce wind blowing, and the angry waves tossing them about, saw what seemed to them a spirit walking on the water, and they were frightened and cried out. But the well-loved voice came to them over the water, "It is I; be not afraid." The disciples knew that it was the Lord who had come to help them in their trouble, and they gladly received Him into their ship. Then two more wonderful things happened: the wind immediately stopped blowing, and when they looked out, the boat was at the shore just where they wanted to land.

That night on the sea showed the disciples the Lord's great power, and His loving care of them. And He is just as near to each one of us to help us in our troubles. He is just as near and just as powerful, and cares just as much to help us, as He did to help the, twelve disciples. If only we will hear His voice and take Him into our hearts.

1. Where do we go if we follow the Lord after the feeding of the five thousand? Where do we go if we follow the disciples?

2. What trouble were the disciples in when they were without the Lord?

3. What help did His coming bring?

4. To what land did the ship come? (See Matthew and Mark.)

Spiritual Study

We may connect the Lord's praying in the mountain with the excitement of the people and the hopes of a great earthly kingdom, which followed the feeding of the multitude. The thought of the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them had been one of the Lord's temptations after His baptism. It must have been one purpose of His prayer to quiet these excited thoughts and the natural desire for power. He must do this in Himself, then He could have power to overcome the same excited natural ambitions in the minds of men. Why did the Lord choose a mountain for His prayer? It pictures His effort to rise above natural, worldly thoughts to the perfect humility of Divine love and service. The Lord's praying always expresses the effort of His human nature to come into harmony and union with the Divine. (A. 2535, 2580)

Meantime the disciples were on the sea, toiling in the darkness and the storm, trying to come again to the shore where they had shared so many blessed labors with the Lord. So they needed to return to the state of willing and modest disciples and helpers of the Lord; but the excited thoughts of a kingdom and worldly greatness kept them from it. The darkness about them pictured the darkness in their minds. The storm pictured the storm of excited thought and feeling. The sea represents the lower atmosphere of worldly thought, and the stormy sea represents such thought excited and threatening destruction to the spiritual life. The winds which raise the waves are the influences of hell which arouse the commotion in the mind. You find a state of temptation described as a storm of wind and waves in Psalm 107:23-30, and in Jonah 1; also in Matthew 7:24-28; 8:23-27. (E. 419, 518)

And now the point of greatest interest in the story: the Lord came to the disciples walking on the sea; they received Him into the ship, and immediately the wind ceased and the ship was at the land whither they went. The Lord walking on the sea! Did it not picture exactly what He had accomplished in His prayer on the mountain - the overcoming of excited worldly thoughts, and the hells from which they come, putting them under His feet? And did not His help to the disciples in the storm represent His power to deliver them and us in all times of temptation from worldly thoughts? The twenty-five or thirty furlongs which the disciples had rowed seems to represent a degree of effort in temptation, which makes it possible for the Lord to help. His coming in the fourth watch, which is the dawn, means that with His coming the darkness ends. (Notice the close connection of the words, "It was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.")

"Immediately the ship was at the land whither they went." It represented the return of the disciples to the state of willing and modest service, in which they could keep near to the Lord and help Him in His work. In a broader sense this coming to the land may be thought of as representing the Lord's deliverance from all the storms of natural life, and the safe coming to the heavenly home. Notice the very similar ending to the storm in the Psalm: "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them to their desired haven." (Psalm 107:29, 30) Find much help in E. 514; T. 123.

To Next Chapter