Fishers and Hunters of Men
I am reading a chapter a day in Luke during the days leading up to Christmas. Thus the 15th Chapter is today! Luke asks, “What man having a hundred sheep, if he lose 1 of them, doth not leave the 99 and goes into the wilderness after that 1 until he finds it?” We all envision The Good Shepherd with that sheep as a lamb probably because he carries it on his shoulders. It very well could have been an older sheep, even one that has been hurt.
I've had this print since 1978 of an Eskimo who has been both fishing and hunting. It symbolizes both a culture that is not my own, but also the dual nature of fishing and hunting. It's more complex than you'd first think. Just ask any Eskimo. He will have to do a lot of hunting to find one seal or walrus. The fishing part is cut a hole in the ice and have patience. So how does this relate to Luke.
How do Luke 15 and Isaiah 41 relate to Lost Sheep?
Since my study of Isaiah 41:18-19 where the Holy One of Israel (v 14) makes a “pool of water” in the wilderness! I have considered the wilderness to be not only the gentile world like the Eskimo above, but also the cyberspace of the Internet. Wow, is that a leap or what? Not so much… since I spend hours every day on FamilySearch.org, Ancestry, and MyHeritage researching my ancestors. Where… on my laptop, in my living room on the internet.
How Does My Mind’s Eye See That World?This image of a binary world is how I see the world, blue and filled with Living water, or in other words Jesus Christ and his teachings of the gospel that will flow across the globe via missionary work, as well as on the other side of the veil, where it is preached to those who sit in spirit prison awaiting their release.
In Isaiah 41:19 the Lord plants the cedar, acacia, myrtle and olive trees in the wilderness. Then He goes on to set in the desert, the fir, pine and box trees TOGETHER. And God did this so that ALL would see and know that HE had done this.
All the different trees in this verse represent to me the wide variety of FAMILY TREES from the various countries in the world. On MyHeritage they are even now translating their records into 6 or 7 different languages to facilitate researchers understanding names, places, etc. The Book of Mormon is available in dozens of languages now so that missionaries, our “Fishers and Hunters” of men can find people. We have a young man from our ward serving in Cambodia and a returned missionary sister who served in the Ukraine.
But, about this Cyberspace idea…
This image reminds me of a waterfall or streams. isn't that what do via the net and call it streaming?The Lord says He “will make a NEW sharp threshing instrument having teeth.” (see Isa 41: 14) Perhaps reading this as our digital technology or COMPUTER that uses BYTES as basic units, will help you to see what I see.
In verse 17 the poor and needy seek water. The God of Israel won’t forsake or forget a single one of them. He will go searching for the ONE! (v 19) tells us He will do a new thing, even “make a way in the wilderness and rivers (of living water) in the desert.
Desert means something to me! He entreats us all, “Ye men of Israel, my servants,” to go out into the world and use the internet to find the ONE.
Now back to Luke 15:6 when the young son, comes back home, his father invites friends and neighbors to celebrate his homecoming. How many of you have gone to the airport when “your young missionary son” returns home? or attended their homecoming talk in sacrament meeting. Think how God and our ancestors will also rejoice at our “finding” our lost ancestors and performing for them a work they cannot do for themselves?
“Likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth” more than the 99 just persons needing no repentance. (Luke 15:7)
We Have Become the Fishers and Hunters of Men!
Jeremiah 16:16 says “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.”
First the Lord sends fishers who gather men into the gospel net by our missionaries. Then he asks those they find to become hunters of men, their ancestors. Now that takes the Internet, in our modern world. When Jeremiah talks about out of the holes of the rocks he is referring to the graves, or tombs, like where Jesus’ body was laid. Now, when we bury someone, the rock is over their grave. We use FindaGrave and Billion Graves to search or to hunt them.
We find them one by one! Whether we fish with the Net, the living or the dead by the Internet, or from the mountains and hills of records threshed as chaff by our computers.
