“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. Jeremiah 16:16
“The apostles were fishers of men; we have to be hunters of men.
Let us toil away, brothers and sisters, without ceasing, doing all we can, whatever the sweat, with loving sentiments toward God, toward them, among ourselves. It would never do, after all, for us to create new rifts among ourselves, while wishing to allay their old quarrel.
And above all let us be very careful to hold on to the most steadfast love among ourselves. They are frozen stiff in their iniquities; how will you thaw the ice of iniquity in them, if you are not on fire with the flame of charity?
Nor should we worry about appearing to be troublesome to them by driving and prodding them.” Let us consider where we are driving them to; that should reassure us. Is it to death, after all, and not rather away from death? Altogether, in whatever ways we can, let us treat these old wounds, but discreetly.
And let us take care that the person being treated doesn’t pass away in the hands of the doctor. So why should we care that the boy is crying when taken to school? Do we have to bother about the person who’s being lanced pushing away the surgeon’s hand?
The apostles were fishermen, and the Lord said to them, I will make you fishers of men (Mark 1:17). It was said by the prophet [Jeremiah], however, that God was first going to send fishers, later on hunters.”
First he sent fishers, later on he sends hunters. Why fishers, why hunters? Believers were fished with the nets of faith from the bottomless depths of the sea of superstition and idolatry. But where were the hunters sent to? When believers were wandering through mountains and hills, that is through the proud elevations of men, through the swollen elements of different countries.
Donatus was one mountain, and Arius another; another mountain was Photinus, another mountain Novatus. These were the mountains they were straying through; their straying, their errors, called for hunters.
And that’s why the offices of fishers and hunters were distributed to different times; in case perhaps these people should say to us, “Why did the apostles not apply force or compulsion to anybody?”
Because he’s a fisherman, he casts his nets into the sea, hauls in whatever has got caught in it. But the hunter surrounds the woods, beats the thickets, drives animals into the nets by multiplying terror on every side: “Don’t let it go this way, don’t let it go that way; confront it on this side, beat it on that, frighten it on the other; don’t let it get out, don’t let it escape.”
But our nets mean life; only let love be maintained. And don’t consider how irksome you are to him, but how lovable he is to you. What sort of loving care are you showing, if you spare him, and he dies?”
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in Sermon 400.11.
I took the new header photo on a beautiful autumn morning while walking my son’s dogs in Colorado. It was a crisp, cool, and peaceful morning.
Today, I am driving from Colorado to North Dakota to hunt pheasant with my German Shorthaired Pointer, Grace, and meet up with my friend John Roswech and his dogs. It’s a long drive so Grace and I will enjoy some solitude.
Yesterday, while packing and getting ready to go, I asked myself this question: “I wonder if one of my favorite preachers in Church history, Augustine of Hippo, ever preached on hunting?”
Sure enough, I located this excerpt from Sermon 400. The theme comes from Jeremiah 16. God declares that the wickedness of his people had exceeded their ancestors.
As a result he would search and hunt for them. So what does hunting for men really mean and what does it have to do with generosity?
Perhaps the best word picture I can think of comes from Jesus when he references the 99 sheep and the 1 that wandered away. See Luke 15:3-7. He goes and hunts for the sheep.
We can easily think of people who make poor choices as stupid and deserving of their demise. When we pause and think honestly, we realize, that speaks of all of us.
Today, I give thanks for how I saw my parents do this with their siblings. The last surviving one, Uncle Jim Gregg, went home to be with the Lord over the weekend.
Like all of us at times, Uncle Jim did not always follow Jesus. But I have many memories how my parents hunted for him. Eventually, he made his way back into the fold by the grace of God.
Each of us needs to discover the importance of hunting for people. Generosity comes into view as hunting for wayward folks and bringing them into the proverbial fold.