Response Of Andrew And Peter To Christs Call

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Hi J____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

The answer to your question is, perhaps Peter and Andrew his brother and James and John, Peter’s business partners, did understand the meaning of the covenant of salt that God had with King David, but at this point it would have taken much more than that to have convinced these carnal men that this neighbor of theirs was the Messiah connected to the covenant of salt that God had with King David.
Before I give you the scriptures which show the real reasons they “forsook all and followed Him,” I want to demonstrate for you why we must always allow “the sum of Thy Word” to be our guide.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.

As a friend of mine told me, “It says ‘the sum of Thy Word is Truth,’ not ‘ some of Thy Word is Truth.’ I know you already know this, but I will take this letter of yours as an opportunity to demonstrate how helpful it is to be careful to always apply this principle as we seek the mind of God through our studies.
Let’s start with Matthew’s account of this event:

Mat 4:18 And walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers.
Mat 4:19 And he saith unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Mat 4:20 And they straightway left the nets, and followed him.
Mat 4:21 And going on from thence he saw two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
Mat 4:22 And they straightway left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Mark’s account is very similar:

Mar 1:16& Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
Mar 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Mar 1:18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
Mar 1:19 And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the [ son] of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.
Mar 1:20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

If all we had were these two accounts of this event concerning the calling of Christ’s disciples, we might well think that four complete strangers were summoned by Christ to become His disciples and they just blithely left everything and everyone they had ever known, their families and their livelihood, with no concern for the consequences, and followed Christ.
But look at what actually led up to this day:

Joh 1:29 The next day John [ the baptist] seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Joh 1:30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
Joh 1:31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
Joh 1:32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
Joh 1:33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Joh 1:34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
Joh 1:35 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;
Joh 1:36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
Joh 1:37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Joh 1:38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?
Joh 1:39 He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.
Joh 1:40 One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
Joh 1:41 He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
Joh 1:42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
Joh 1:43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
Joh 1:44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Joh 1:45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
Joh 1:46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

So now we have a much clearer picture of what led up to Christ telling Peter and Andrew and James and John “follow Me.”
Andrew and another unnamed disciple heard the biggest star of their day, John the baptist, declare Christ to be “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
Now we know that all of these disciples, Phillip, Andrew, Peter, James and John and apparently Nathaniel too, were all of the city of Bethsaida, “the city of Andrew and Peter.” The fact that we are told that Christ “finds Phillip and says to him, “follow Me” indicates that Christ already knew Phillip and went and ‘found him’ and told him to come and be His disciple.
But there is one more very interesting reason why Andrew, Peter, James and John in particular, would be willing to forsake their nets to follow Christ. Here is that story:

Luk 5:1 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, [ The Latin, Roman name for the Sea of Galilee]
Luk 5:2 And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. [ Just as we are told in Matthew and Mark]
Luk 5:3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Luk 5:4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
Luk 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
Luk 5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
Luk 5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
Luk 5:8 When Simon Peter saw [ it], he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Luk 5:9 For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken:
Luk 5:10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
Luk 5:11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

We know from John’s account of this calling of the disciples, that this all happened in the city of Bethsaida, and we know that Andrew and Peter were partners in their fishing business with James and John. Since Phillip apparently already knew Christ, and since Phillip lived in the same city as Andrew and Peter, he very likely knew about the miracle of the loading down of the two ships with fish.
Two ships full of fish was enough to supply the needs of all these families for a long time. I’m not saying they were not exercising a degree of faith, but it is very obvious that Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts of Christ calling His disciples needs to inculcate Luke’s account of this event, as well as John’s.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

I would love to know what you have learned about the covenant of salt, and I hope this helps to give you a fuller view of why Andrew, Peter, James and John, were willing to forsake their nets and follow Christ. We all demand a sign at the beginning of our walk because we are all without faith to begin with.

Mat 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Mar 8:12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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