What do fish represent in the Bible?

It may be—we do not dogmatise—that the peopling of the seas sets forth God’s way in blessing man. It is remarkable that the Lord made the disciples to be fishers of men and that the Lord Himself was the only One who performed miracles with fish—one a hook and line miracle, illustrating the present methods of the Gospel, when God is calling out of the nations a people for His name; and the drag net miracle, illustrating the blessing of the Jewish and Gentile nations in the day to come when they will be brought into national and earthly blessing. When Peter enclosed a great multitude of fishes, where previously all night toilsome fishing had drawn a blank, two ships were filled with the harvest of the sea, setting forth doubtless Jew and Gentile coming into blessing in a future day. The fish in the sea may thus set forth the subjects of the Gospel.

Greater differences are seen in the last parable. A net is Cast into the sea, and fish of every kind gathered. If the sea speaks of the nations (Rev.17:15), then the fish speak of the individuals in them. The kingdom of heaven, in God's counsels, has not only to do with Israel and the assembly, but also with Gentile nations. Their part in this will be seen only at the end of the tribulation period. Matthew 25:31-46 gives a different view of this selective judgment of nations, when the Son of Man comes in His glory. This is plainly not what is taking place now, as similar to the wheat and tares, for these last three parables were spoken in the house, and refer to what has God's future counsels in view.

314 But the Lord had fish already; He had got the remnant with Him on shore, and then you get the millennial haul. It is all purposely mysterious. Where did He get the fish He had? It does not say. But "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." Now when the gospel haul was depicted (Luke 5:6), the net was broken; but here, the Lord being there, the net did not break. The gospel net gathered fishes, and does now; but as a whole, the net broke, and they began to sink. Here they haul them in, and the Spirit of God notices that the thing is complete. The fishes gathered out of the sea are the nations; but the Jewish remnant is on the shore already.

The Greek word for 'fish' is ichthus: (The ch, and the th are each only one letter in Greek). The word used in this story in both Matthew and Mark isichthudion, only used in these two places in the New Testament, and is the diminutive of ichthus, fish: literally meaning "little fish." Now let us arrange the word for fish, ichthus, in a vertical line, thus: i is for Iesous = Jesus ch is for Christos = Christ th is for Theou = of God u is for Uios = Son s is for Soter = Saviour So the Greek word for 'fish' meant to a Greek Christian:

"JESUS CHRIST GOD'S SON (the) SAVIOUR." Because of this meaning the Christians often used the picture of a fish to mark the graves of Christian friends who were buried in the catacombs under Rome. So the "two little fishes" tell us of our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Saviour. The bread on which the people fed to keep them from fainting told of our Lord Jesus as the Man come down from Heaven: the fish tell us of Him as the Son of God, our Saviour, glorified in Heaven. If we feed on our Lord Jesus Christ in these two ways we need never fear that we will grow slack.

They feel (and so should we) the poverty of their resources for such a crowd, only five loaves and two fishes. But we look in the wrong direction. If we look to Him we are lightened and our faces are not ashamed (Ps.34:5). Though we feel how little we have, yet having Christ, in Him there is more than sufficient for all mankind. The loaves speak of Him as the bread of life, the way it is made implying suffering and death in various ways; the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying, growing up, then cut down, threshed, then ground in the mill, mixed with other ingredients, kneaded, and finally exposed to the heat of the fire. The fishes too speak of Him as the 0ne who has passed through the waters of judgment for us. When these are brought to Him and He blesses them, their sufficiency is miraculously abundant. The crowd simply sits down in the attitude of receiving: nothing must infer their work.

The result for Jonah was far different from what any man could have expected: "And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." Jehovah's eye was on that parting scene on the deck of that little vessel amidst the storm. Jehovah's eye (an eye and a heart of love and grace) was on His erring servant as he sank under those angry waves; and there where he least expected it, he found a place of refuge — in the belly of the fish. If those dark and stormy waters spoke of death, surely the belly of the fish tells us of the grave. We know that this is so, for our Lord Jesus Christ tells us plainly that Jonah at this time was a type of Himself. "Even as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights thus shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." (Matt. 12:40) Little did Jonah know the honor that was being put upon him at this moment, in that he was for ever after to be a sign of how his Lord and Master would later on go down voluntarily into death and the grave, in order to save others.

“The fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build” (v. 3). And right substantially did they perform their task, for they laid the beams, and set up the doors and locks and bars thereof. Again we are not told what relation fish had to this gate beyond its name. But the connection between fish (the word being used in a symbolic way) and evangelism is very clear in Scripture. Our Lord walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the sea. He called them, saying, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). They straightway left their nets and followed Him. Such was the power of His word. And surely it is the echo of that call throughout the ages that has been heard in ten thousand hearts, and has proved the urge for world-wide evangelism. It called forth Andrew and Peter, Paul, Timothy, the early Fathers, Calvin, Farel, Luther, Zwingli, Wesley, Whitefield, Spurgeon, and a list too long to enumerate. It led Carey and Marshman to India; Moffatt and Livingstone and Arnott to Africa; Hudson Taylor to China; Judson to Burmah; Martyn to Persia; Brainerd to the Red Indians roaming over the prairies of America; Gardner to inclement Patagonia; Paton to the New Hebrides. It has called forth the indomitable labours of hundreds of missionaries in producing the Scriptures in whole or in part in over seven hundred languages and dialects, so that the Word of God is a veritable tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

Verses 9 to 12 deal with creatures of the waters. Fish with fins and scales, whether from the rivers or the seas, were allowed in Israel's diet. They are in an element where progress is impeded, the water being much heavier than air. This would speak of the conflict of believers, having to expend energy in order to progress at all. For this conflict we need fins, the means of movement, which is virtually our offensive weapon, while the scales are for protection or defense. All true Christians are enlisted in God's army (2 Tim. 2:3-4), therefore one who has no spiritual defense and no spiritual energy is not a fit companion for a believer. How can we have spiritual fellowship with one who has no spiritual qualities? These are in fact called an "abomination," therefore to be repulsive to a believer.

The Saviour came upon the scene as morning dawned. His presence changed everything for the discouraged fishermen. In reply to His enquiry they dismally acknowledged that they had nothing to eat (picture of the present barrenness of disobedient Israel); then at His command they lowered the net on the right side of the boat, and forthwith enclosed 153 great fishes. "And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken." If the sea, which is here described by its Gentile name (Tiberias, after Tiberius Casar) represents the nations, as we believe, then we have in this haul a striking picture of the great universal ingathering when Israel is once more in relationship with God (Ps. 67). This will not be until the Saviour's feet again stand upon the Mount of Olives.

This is the last of the series of parables that were uttered by our Lord on the memorable day of Matt. 13: "The Kingdom of heaven is like to a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away" (Matt 13:47-48). Here we have the final results of the operations of God, man, and Satan during the period called Christianity. As a net cast into the sea the Gospel has gone forth into all the world, with its touching appeal to men of every nation. It has achieved results which are manifest to the eyes of all. Both good and bad have been gathered in: the good fish representing those who, having humbly acknowledged their guilt and ruin, have been cleansed from their sins by the Saviour's precious blood; the bad being those (alas! how many) who "profess and call themselves Christians," with no love for the Saviour's person, and no living faith in the Gospel. It is vain to urge that we must not judge. How is it possible for the Christian to obey the injunction to love the brethren if he cannot distinguish between "the brethren" and all others? (1 John 3:14). How refuse fellowship to an unbeliever if it is impossible to define such (2 Cor. 6:15). Or how avoid false teachers who bring in damnable heresies, if none can tell who are false and who are true (2 Peter 2:1). Although mistakes in discernment are only too possible, all those to whom Christ is something more than a mere name are solemnly responsible to distinguish, in godly fear, between those who are good and those who are bad, companying with the one, and eschewing the other.