Bible Discussion Thread

Why in Matt 14:25-26,29 Jesus walks on the sea and Peter walks on the water. Is there a significance?

Part 3:

In Matthew 14:31, we have the Catching of the Lord:

It says, "And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?"



Now the word "doubt" means to stand between two opinions, or two principles. Peter was trying to look at Jesus and trust Him, and yet looking at the circumstances at the same time.



You can only be occupied with one thing. But even if we do let ourselves get drawn into the circumstances, Jesus is there to pull us out!

In Matthew 14:32, we have the Calming of the Sea:

So now the wind stops! There is a lesson there as well.



You see, Jesus doesn't need to stop the storm. He doesn't need to stop the problem. He doesn't need to change anything because He is in charge of it. His message to us is that we need to trust Him. He's even in charge of the storm.



Notice the confession of the disciples in Matthew 14:33, " Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God."

I know this was a little long. If you read through it all, I say thank you. Bottom line is that no matter what our circumstances might be, we must trust in Jesus, and not let any outside distraction take our focus off Him.

Peter was not going to get out of the boat unless the Lord commanded him to do so. But once Peter got out of the boat, he began to waiver in his faith due to the storm.

Thanks brother Jesse for that great exposition of that passage. I feel a little silly now, maybe misunderstanding Dratliff's reason for asking the question. Yours reads much better & more accurate.

I usually put myself in Peter's position whenever I read this passage, and wonder how I would have behaved in that situation. I imagine that my great difficulty would be to first get out of the boat and if that was successful, once on the raging seas then my faith would become stronger to continue standing/walking on the water. Or, was it that Peter's eyes were so affixed on Jesus, and as you wrote, he obeyed Jesus' authoritative Command, that the question of sinking as he alighted the boat didn't enter his mind? His focus in complete faith was fully on his Savior until his flesh gave way to human reasoning. Even if the waters were calm, it would still take much faith to even step into the water, which certainly wasn't knee or waist deep.

My dear brother Chris,

No need to feel silly. I want you to know that when I read Dratliff's question, there were no replies. It wasn't until after I posted and hit the submit button that I saw 1 reply which was yours. Had I have seen that first, I probably would have acknowledged your post before adding mine. What you said was completely true.

Also, like you, I often read and put myself into those various situations and ask myself how would I have handled it.

Some of my favorite stories are in the gospels where many times Jesus put His disciples in situations that were humanly impossible for them to handle. But what did they do? They tried to solve things on their own. So many times they tried but failed.

Do you think Jesus was trying to prove something to them, that apart from Him, they can't do it? How often do we in our own lives get put into difficult situations where we try and fix it ourselves when in reality these things are laid before us in order to teach us to trust in the Lord?

Part 2:

So Matthew 14:27 says, But straightway, or immediately, Jesus spake unto them saying, be of good cheer, literally be of courage. He didn't mean be happy. He just meant, have some courage here guys!



But please notice this. Jesus says it is I, except in the Greek it doesn't say it is I. It says AYGO AYMI, or I Am, and that's the name of God, Jehovah God in the Old Testament. He says, be of courage, I Am! Do not be afraid!



So now in Verse 28, we see the proposal of Peter:

Peter answered and said unto him, Lord, if it be thou, and in the Greek text that is called the first-class condition assumed to be true.



What Peter is saying is "Since it's you." But as a side note, please know that the storm is still going. The storm has not stopped. Some people lose that as they read through it.



So here's Peter saying, Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come unto thee upon the water.



In order to walk on the water, you would have to first get out of the boat. And then you got to have faith like Peter if you want to walk on water.



But please notice that Peter said to Jesus "Command me to come out!" You see, Peter wasn't going out unless the Lord commanded him to. If you ask me, that is pretty smart!

And so we see the command of Jesus in Matthew 14:29. He says, Come!

And the capability of Peter:



It says when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked upon the water.



Now we're talking about the surging waves, we are taking about the middle of the storm, and that Jesus didn't stop the storm. He doesn't need to stop the storm.



Peter's walking on top of the storm, walking to Jesus! And then in Matthew 14:30, we see the call to the Lord. When Peter saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and began to sink; and he cried out, calling, Lord save me.

I'll need to send a part 3

Dratliff,

I think the significance of this section in Matthew is that we are to trust in Jesus, no matter what our circumstances are. Matthew 14:22-33 is the section that talks about Peter walking upon the water.

I'll share this with you from my study in the hope that it might shed some light on what was taking place there.

First of all in Matthew 14:22, it says that straightway (or immediately) Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the ship.



Please notice here in Verses 22 and 23 that everything that's going to happen now is because Jesus designed it to happen. He constrained them, meaning He forced them into the ship.



So in Verse 22, we have the providence of Jesus. He forced the disciples into the ship and told them to go to the other side of the sea while He stayed behind and sent the multitudes away.

In Matthew 14:23, we see the prayer of Jesus. But notice the incident in Verse 24. Notice the peril of the disciples. They are in this ship in the middle of the sea, and they are being tossed around by the waves. They are in the middle of this huge storm.



And then the presence of Jesus in Matthew 24:25. It says that in the fourth watch of the night (which would be somewhere between three and six a.m.) that they are out there in their boat with hurricane force winds, and Jesus came to them walking upon the sea.

In Matthew 14:26, we see the perception of the disciples. The word spirit in Greek is PHANTASMA, and it where we get our English word phantom from. They thought He was a ghost. It is not the word for spirit. It is the word for ghost. They thought He was a ghost and they cried out.

Please notice here the personal word of Jesus in Matthew 14:27. It says, "But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."

I am running out of space so I will need to send a part 2.

Hi Dratliff. I don't believe there's any particular significance in that passage. In the Matthew reference you gave, the sea that Jesus came walking on was the Sea of Galilee (as John refers to it in John 6:17, where Capernaum was on the other side of it). Therefore, referring to it as 'the sea' is correct, whereas when Peter, wanting to affirm that it was indeed Jesus walking on water, then himself walked on the water (of that sea) towards Jesus - at least until his faith held out.

This is an account of an actual incident , it was starting to get dark ( the fourth watch, does anyone know what time of day that means ? ) And the disciples weren't able to recognise that it really was Jesus walking towards them . Peter thinks of a way to know for sure if it really is Jesus , if it is , then he can make it so I can walk on the water also . Peter starts out ok but , when he sees the waves and feels the strong wind , he is AFRAID , he looses faith in Jesus's ability to keep him safe and he begins to sink . He cries out to Jesus , who saves him instantly . Peter payed to much attention to what was going on around him , the physical world , the wind and the waves scared him , he took his eyes off Jesus . He started to walk by the sight of his eyes and not by his faith in Jesus and his worldly fears started to overwhelm him . Although this is a literal incident , the message is there for all of us so it's also parabolic .

Sammi,

6pm to 9pm would be first watch. 9pm to midnight is second watch. Midnight to 3am is third watch. So fourth watch would be 3am to 6am.

Thanks for that , I've written it down and it will be helpful info for me in my future readings I know for sure , sure others will appreciate that info also .

Hello Sammi

Just to add some details to Jesse's response. In ancient times people couldn't measure the time with accuracy. So they divided the day in 12 hours and the night in 4 "watches". But the length of the hours varried according to the season. i.e in winter time the hours when it was daytime were shorter than the hours of the day in summer time since the day in winter is shorter. At night since their solar watches couldnt work they divided the night in 3 and later in 4 watches of roughly 3 night hours each. Those watches were the time intervals the guards in military camps spent quarding or the shephers spent watching their flock. They could realize roughly in which "watch" they were by watching the stars in the sky(if the sky was clear), but there was no way they knew exactly the time like nowadays. It was always an approximation. GBU

Thanks for that further clarification , i shall keep it in mind, it's good enough for me to just have some kind of idea about the timing of events , thanks again .