First, one group of fifty men and their captain go to get Elijah, and the prophet calls fire from heaven to consume them (verses 9-10). Baal-Zebub means "the lord of flies" or "the lord of death." Because of the king's idolatrous inquiry, God tells Elijah to intercept the messengers and relay God's message that, because Ahaziah had sought a false god, he would not recover (verses 3-4).Īhaziah sends soldiers to capture Elijah, and it is in their number that we find 153 people. But instead of seeking the true God, Ahaziah sends messengers to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron (verse 2). Having fallen through a lattice, he had been injured badly enough to question whether he would recover. II Kings 1:2-16 tells the story of King Ahaziah and his literal and metaphorical fall.
Ahaziah was an evil king-a Baal-worshipper who provoked God to anger and reigned only for two years ( I Kings 22:51-53). The Bible presents only one occurrence of 153 people, which exposes the spiritually derelict state of the nation, particularly in the person of Ahaziah, the king of Israel. In this way, the 153 fish represent God's judgment in bringing about His perfect spiritual order. In the Bible, the number nine signifies divine judgment, and seventeen indicates the perfection of spiritual order.
However, one relevant observation is that 153 is the product of nine and seventeen. Why did Jesus provide precisely 153 fish? What about this unusual number impressed the apostle John enough to remember it decades later?įew commentaries suggest any explanation for the number, and fewer still advance a theory of any substance. The good fish are stored, and the bad are thrown away ( Matthew 13:47-50). Similarly, in the Parable of the Dragnet, a net is cast, and all kinds of fish are drawn in. As a symbol, fish typically represent people, such as when Jesus initially called some of His disciples, promising to make them "fishers of men" ( Matthew 4:19 Mark 1:17). The eighth sign of Christ's Messiahship in John's gospel contains the curious feature of 153 fish, which Jesus miraculously provided. Printer-Friendly | Share This Why 153 Fish? (Part Three)