THE STORY OF
BENJI
Mother didn’t have to wake Benji up this morning. It was the first day of summer break from Hebrew school and he could hardly wait for morning.
He was up before the sunrise and trying to be quiet and not wake the rest of his family. Today was the big day. His family ran a fishing business and Grandpa Zebedee said that he could officially start work today at sunrise. He could hardly sit still to eat his breakfast.
He and his Abba would walk down to the dock together. His Abba built fishing boats and would be working in his shop nearby. His Grandpa Zebedee ran the overall family business and made all the decisions. Grandpa Zebedee, his four sons and two nephews, and all Benji’s older cousins worked there along with many hired helpers.
There was a boat building section that Benji’s Abba ran, a fish processing plant, a fish market, and the fishing division. He couldn’t wait to find out where he would be assigned, but he had told Grandpa that he would like to be a fisherman someday.
He was surprised to find Grandpa Zebedee fast asleep in his chair outside the shed that served as his office. There was no one else around. His Abba had already started work inside his shop. Benji wasn’t sure whether to wake Grandpa, or wait until he woke up, or to maybe go and ask his Abba.
“Hey squirt! So, you think you’re old enough to work with the big boys today?” Caleb whirled around to see his cousin Laban taunting him. Oh, no! I hadn’t thought about having to work with Laban. I thought I would be working with Grandpa. He rushed to wake Grandpa up, but Laban grabbed his arm and stopped him. “I wouldn’t advise doing that. He’s been out fishing all night and doesn’t need a snotty-nosed runt to deal with. Come on. I’m your boss, so get used to it.”
Benji once again couldn’t decide whether to wake Grandpa or run and find his Abba. Anything would be better than having 13-year-old Laban in charge of him. They had never gotten along, and Laban was just plain mean at times. But if Laban really was his boss, then he didn’t want to mess up on his first day. “Okay,” said Benji, “What’s my job?”
Laban led Benji over to a pile of tangled nets. “First assignment is to get these nets untangled and then I’ll show you what’s next.”
Both boys began to pull on the nets. They were indeed tangled. Each of these rectangular nets were about 200 feet long and 30 feet wide. Laban began pulling the nets toward the right and Benji decided to pull to the left to see if that would untangle the knots. Laban got angry and told him he would never learn the right way. He said he would never be a good fisherman. Tears welled up in Benji’s eyes and he could tell that that just made Laban meaner.
And that made Benji mad.
Next thing you know, it was more than just nets tangled into a tight knot.
Benji heard Grandpa Zebedee yelling for him to stop and he felt himself being lifted off the ground by his right ankle. He was being carried upside down over to Grandpa’s chair where he was dumped in the sand. The look on Grandpa’s face was not good. Benji was still mad and determined to make Grandpa understand that Laban was being mean and ugly.
Grandpa just sat and looked at him without saying a word. Benji could feel his heart rate beginning to slow down and he bit his lip to keep the tears from coming. “Go home, Benji. You are not ready to work for me.”
“But Grandpa, Laban called me names and said I was stupid!”
“Benji, go home. You need to decide whether you want to work for me and obey and respect the bosses I put over you — or whether you would rather do things your own way. Go home. You can come back tomorrow morning at sunrise, if you decide you want to follow my rules.”
“But Grandpa! What about Laban?”
“No, Benji. You’ve got to learn to follow the rules if you want to work for me. Go home.”
Benji decided not to bother his Abba and trudged home taking the longest route possible.
He got a little sympathy from his mother, but not what he expected. She just said that she felt he was too young to be starting to work anyway. She would be glad to let him spend the summer watching his younger brothers and sister. He dreaded telling his Abba what had happened.
At dinner, of course Abba wanted to hear all about his first day.
“Grandpa was asleep, and Laban was my boss. He was mean and unfair. He didn’t like how I did anything. And he said… he said…I would never be a fisherman, and I punched him, and Grandpa got mad at me and sent me home. It’s not fair! I wanted to work for Grandpa. I don’t want to work for Laban! He’s not my boss!”
Benji’s Abba wisely let him tell his story, and just sat and listened before making any comments.
“Benji, you’ve wanted to be a fisherman since you were a little tiny boy. You wanted to be just like Grandpa. You love your Grandpa. But loving Grandpa and working for Grandpa are two different things.
“You see, for any business to work well — especially a family business — everyone must do his part, and everyone has got to learn to trust the other fellow to do his.
“If you had decided to come to work for me and help me to build boats, I couldn’t just smile and be sweet to you if I asked you to bring me a 3-foot board and you brought me something different. It might look right to you, but you must learn to trust your boss to know what he needs.
“Now, I know that you and Laban don’t get along outside of work, but I want to remind you that he has worked for Grandpa for a couple of years now. He had a job that needed to be accomplished today. He was probably pretty upset that you weren’t listening to him and doing it the way he wanted it done.
“If you decide you want to work with Grandpa this summer — and that’s totally up to you — you’ll have to do things his way. If you decide you want to work with me this summer, you’ll discover that you’ll have to do things the way I want them done, too. I don’t know any other way to say it. You may not like your boss, but he is your boss, and your job is obedience.
“Finish your dinner, and then take some time to think about what you want to do with your summer. You are still awfully young, and you may decide to stay home and help Mother again this year. That’s up to you. Good night, Son.”
Benji didn’t need to think about it. He knew what he wanted to do. He just didn’t plan on it including Laban. He knew he needed to figure out how to be obedient to his cousin — who was intent on making his life miserable.
Benji took a little longer over his breakfast on Monday morning, and he and his Abba walked to the dock together. Abba didn’t ask questions, and Benji didn’t want to make conversation, so they walked in silence. “Have a good day, Benji,” is all Abba said as he headed to the boat shop.
Grandpa was asleep in his chair and Benji knew to leave him alone. Soon, Laban showed up and the taunting began again. He called Benji a “quitter” and a “crybaby”. But Benji managed to hold his temper. He asked questions and tried to do everything that Laban requested. They managed to get one of the nets untangled and stretched out on the sand.
Laban showed Benji how to check the threads of the flax to make sure there were no weak spots that could break. When Benji saw torn threads, he was to mark it by tying a red piece of cloth around the spot so that the net repairers could mend it.
Laban eased up on the taunting when he realized that Benji was not going to fight back. But he continued to say nasty things to Benji at every chance.
When Benji finished a 10-foot section, Laban assigned him a new section and began to check Benji’s work. Laban showed him a couple of loose threads that he had missed, and Benji felt his face turn red and his stomach tighten. He wanted to make excuses, but he reminded himself that he was here to learn the work — not fight about it. So, he apologized and promised to be more careful. Laban said he probably would never learn to be careful — but Benji was able to ignore it and keep working. He was determined to be more careful than ever.
It was hard work. Both boys were down on their hands and knees in the hot sand checking every single thread in the huge net. It was easy to become distracted, and Benji felt like every muscle in his neck was going to explode before Laban suggested that they take a break.
“Race you to the water!” And off they went. Of course, Laban, who was three years older won and called Benji a loser. But the cold water felt great on their hot bodies and tight muscles.
By the time they got back to work, Grandpa Zebedee was awake and checking their work. “Good work, boys. You should be able to finish this one today. There’s four or five more nets that need to be checked, so that will keep you busy for a few days.”
Laban and Benji went back to work and continued to check one section at a time until sundown. They occasionally took breaks to cool off, and mid-afternoon, Grandpa Zebedee brought them some juice to drink.
When Abba was ready to start home, he found Benji and Laban finishing the last section. Laban was trying to fold the net without re-tangling it. But Abba told Laban to lay it back out on the sand. Then he showed the boys how to roll it instead of folding it. This would keep it from getting so tangled. Benji was so proud of his Abba.
As they walked home, Benji asked, “Abba, how do you know how to roll the nets?”
“Don’t forget, I worked for your Grandpa, too. Everybody starts at the bottom and works their way up.”
It made Benji feel proud that he was following in his Abba’s footsteps. And he had just completed his first whole day at work without losing his temper.
The next day, Laban and Benji found the net that they had marked yesterday already mended by the net repairers and ready for the next step. The men had removed the red ties and repaired each loose thread. Laban and Benji once again unrolled the net across the sand. But this time it was easier because it wasn’t tangled.
Laban brought Benji a large bucket of rocks with holes drilled in them. He showed Benji how to carefully tie the rocks to the bottom of the net. All day long, Benji checked to make sure that the rocks were securely tied and replaced any broken ones. Laban worked on the top side of the net, tying pieces of lightweight wood to the top of the net.
It would take all day to finish this task since the net was over 200 feet long. Benji was grateful that Laban wasn’t working right beside him, so there was less bickering. But Laban still took every opportunity to call Benji slow or careless or hopeless. Benji worked hard and didn’t ask for breaks until Laban said it was time. Benji tried hard to let Laban be the boss and tried not to cross him.
As Benji walked home with his Abba, he had some questions. “Abba, today I tied rocks to the net along the bottom. I think that was to make it sink. But Laban was tying wooden pieces around the top, was that to help the fishermen get a better grip?”
“Well, it might help them to hold on better, but it’s primarily to keep the net from sinking. The wood he was tying onto the top of the net floats and holds the net up close to the surface of the water. That way, you don’t lose the net if the men have to let go for some reason. It will float near the surface. I would think that Laban should be teaching you these things.”
“Laban really doesn’t talk to me, except to tell me what to do and tell me what a failure I am.”
“I’m sorry, Benji. Sometimes we all get bosses like that. I’m sorry it’s your first one. But Grandpa tells me that you are doing good work, so I know that he’s pleased.”
“Thanks, Abba, that helps.”
Most nights the fishermen left about sundown to start their fishing with the giant rectangular net. There were three boats, each with a captain and four oarsmen. The three captains directed the rowers to keep the boats in line to drop the giant net down into the water and then pull it slowly and carefully toward the shore. When they were close enough to the shore, the 12 oarsmen would jump into the water and haul the net full of fish up on to the sand.
Another crew of workers would sort the fish into barrels of water to keep them fresh. Depending on how many fish they caught on each trip out, they would do five to seven trips per night. They usually caught about 500 pounds of fish before morning.
But some nights, if they were not being very successful with catching the coastal fish, the three boats would spread out and each use a round net that one boat’s crew could handle by itself.
Benji had learned how to check and repair both kinds of nets. It seemed that the better and faster Benji became, the meaner and more hateful Laban became. Benji was beginning to wish this summer was over!
It was on a morning near the end of the summer when Benji arrived at work and found all in disarray. Instead of the large rectangular net being laid out and ready to check, it was still dirty and filled with plants and sea creatures that were not fit to eat. The fishermen were all upset and Benji wasn’t sure what to do.
Grandpa Zebedee looked exhausted as he spoke to the fishermen. “Rinse out the net so that the boys can get started checking it. Then meet me at the shed and I’ll pay you for your night’s labor even though we didn’t catch anything.”
Benji ran to Laban to see what was going on. Customers who had lined up to buy fresh fish were leaving. Usually, they sold fresh fish all morning and anything that was left over was sent to the processing plant where it was either smoked, dried or pickled.
They primarily caught four kinds of fish in the Sea of Galilee: Musht, which was usually about three pounds apiece, was their best-seller; biny, which could be between 20 and 50 pounds apiece and was used for feasts or large celebrations; catfish, which was considered unclean for the Jews, but was loved by the Greeks and Romans; and sardines. The sardines were only about three to six inches long and were usually sent straight to the processing plant.
But last night, they had caught nothing — not one single fish. The men were scared. This was their livelihood. They had to have fish, or they wouldn’t have jobs. And the townspeople were upset at the fishermen for not bringing fresh fish for their families.
Grandpa Zebedee was trying to calm everyone down and maintain order. The men got the net rinsed and the boys set to work. Uncle John and Uncle James were double checking the boys’ work to make sure they hadn’t missed a rip that might have allowed the fish to escape.
Benji was determined to not miss a single torn thread and was concentrating so hard that he didn’t notice a crowd gathering on the shore. When he looked up, there were over 100 people standing around a man who was teaching.
The teacher walked over to the fishermen and asked if he could use one of their boats. Benji’s cousins Simon Peter and Andrew walked with the man out to their boat which was still floating not far from shore and pushed off a few feet. This allowed the teacher to be heard because the water magnified his voice. It also kept him from being crushed by people who wanted to meet him and touch him.
“Who is that man?” Benji asked.
“Jesus. He’s a prophet and has been teaching around here,” one of the fishermen replied.
“I heard that he can also heal people and make blind people see,” another chimed in.
"I heard that he made a deaf man hear — and he had been deaf since birth!” said another.
“Shhhh! I wanna hear what he’s saying!” said another.
Benji continued his work, but he began to listen.
“… I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; …. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?1
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’…. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”2
That was good news. If the fish had disappeared there were going to be a lot of hungry people. Benji was just finishing checking all the rocks at the bottom of the net when he realized that Mr. Jesus had stopped teaching.
“Elias! Isaac! Abner!” Simon Peter called, “Jesus wants us to make one more quick run. Come on. Let’s go fishing!”
Benji noted that none of his older cousins were very eager to get up and go back to the boat. But just like Benji, they had learned to obey their bosses whether they wanted to or not. Benji wished he was big enough to work the oars, but that would take a few more years.
Jesus waded back to the shore and stood watching as the men readied the boat and began rowing to the place that Jesus had indicated. It was a place where they had fished all night long and caught nothing.
It didn’t take long for the men to row there. Instead of the rectangular net that was still drying, the men threw out the round net. The round net didn’t need three boats to pull it to shore. It was about 25 feet in diameter. The fishermen dropped it into the water and let it sink to the bottom. Then using ropes, they pulled it quickly back to the surface. Any fish that couldn’t swim away fast enough would be caught and brought to the surface.
Benji had forgotten his work and was watching just like all the other fishermen, workers, and the rest of the crowd. Benji watched as they dropped the round net and waited a few minutes to let the water calm down. Then the men began to pull up the ropes — except something seemed to be wrong.
Benji watched as they struggled to pull up the ropes. It was like they were hung on the bottom. Maybe they had snagged on something. The men pulled and strained. Grandpa Zebedee began to run toward his boat and yelled for his crew to join him.
Benji watched helplessly as the two boats tried to lift the net. Then they seemed to be taking smaller nets and dipping fish out of the larger one. They were dumping the fish in the floor of the boats, and the boats were sinking deeper and deeper into the water. Both boats were in danger of sinking when they were finally able to pull the round net close enough to the shore to empty it on the beach.
Benji saw more fish than he’d ever seen, and even though he had not been officially trained to sort the catch, Uncle John showed him how to safely pick up the musht fish. He carried them to the barrels of water that would keep them fresh.
It seems that the whole crowd was helping to sort the fish because they didn’t want them to spoil on the shore and there were more fish than anyone had ever seen. Even Mr. Jesus was helping to carry some of the bigger biny fish. Some of them weighed up to 50 pounds and couldn’t be handled by just one man. It was chaos.
Grandpa Zebedee was rolling out more barrels from the storehouse and directing them to be filled with water. Benji’s dad and his crew of shipbuilders came out to help. People were buying the fish as fast as the sellers could take their money, and the tax collectors were busy counting the barrels and calculating their share.
As the round net’s catch was almost sorted, Benji noticed that Mr. Jesus was talking with his Uncle John and Uncle James and his cousins Simon Peter and Andrew. They walked out to the two boats and all the fishermen ran out to help push the boats ashore so the rest of the fish could be sorted. Benji knew something was strange when he saw the four fishermen go and talk with Grandpa Zebedee and then leave with Mr. Jesus.
Benji wanted to ask questions but knew that it was not the right time. He just kept sorting fish until Grandpa Zebedee ran out of barrels.
Grandpa announced to the crowds that the rest of the fish were free for the taking. He had no more barrels to store them in. And what the townspeople didn’t clean up, the seagulls enjoyed.
Benji walked home with his Abba who had missed all the earlier action. He wanted to hear what had happened and Benji told him the best he could.
“Abba?”
“Yes, Son.”
“Why did Uncle John and Uncle James and Simon Peter and Andrew leave when there was still more work to be done? I don’t understand. I thought that was a fisherman’s rule to work until the work was done.”
“Well, Son, it is the rule. But I believe they weren’t quitting on the job.
“I believe that Mr. Jesus is the Messiah that was promised by God, and that makes his kingdom bigger and more important than Grandpa Zebedee’s fishing business. And just like Grandpa tells you where to work and what to do, I believe that Mr. Jesus has called your Uncle John and Uncle James and Andrew and Simon Peter to work for him. He’s given them jobs to do.”
“Why didn’t he give you a job to do, Abba?”
“Oh, he has!”
“I don’t understand, Abba.”
“God calls different people to do different things. He called me to be a boat builder. I tried to be a fisherman, but I got seasick every time I got in the boat. It became pretty clear that I wasn’t going to be a good fisherman. But when I began to learn carpentry from a friend of Grandpa’s, I realized that I could use my carpentry skills to build fishing boats for Grandpa. I believe that I’m serving God by being the best boat maker I can be — and the best dad and husband I can be.
“Your Uncle Jaden, my oldest brother, always knew that he wanted to be a fisherman. And he’s a very good one. Someday, he’ll take over for Grandpa. God will use him, like he uses Grandpa to help an awful lot of people.
“But Uncle John and Uncle James have been called to work for God in a special way. I don’t know how God will use them, but I’m happy that they have found what they want to do. Someday, you’ll find what you want to do — but I hope that you will always want to please God and obey God and be the very best man that you can be.”
“This has been a crazy day.” Benji said. “First no fish, then hearing Mr. Jesus say that we should trust God to provide for us, and then, wham! more fish than we know what to do with. I’m starving — but I hope it’s not fish for dinner!”
“ABBA!” Benji had not screamed like that since he was a little boy having nightmares — but this was worse than his worst nightmare. “ABBA!”
His Abba quickly ran to Benji’s side, holding a lamp. It was after midnight and Benji was crying and shaking in his blanket. “Benji, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“Oh, Abba, I forgot the net! I left the net!”
“Benji, you left the fishing net? Where?”
“On the beach. I had just finished checking it and had finished all the rock repairs when Mr. Jesus sent the guys fishing. I went to watch, and I meant to come right back and pick up the net. But I forgot. I didn’t pick it up. Oh, I know it’s ruined! Everyone was walking there, and they dumped the fish right there. I know it’s ruined! And Abba, when the tide comes in, it could wash away. Oh, Abba, I’ve got to go get that net before the tide comes in!”
“Let me tell your mother. Get your heavy poncho and take your lamp. I’ll get the lantern and maybe we can find it.”
“Oh, Abba, thank you for going with me, but it’s all my fault. You don’t have to come.”
“Son, we’ll go together. Get your lamp.”
So Benji and his Abba hurried toward the dock in the wee hours of the morning. Of course, the minute they got close to the beach, Grandpa Zebedee stepped out of the shed to meet them. He was used to fishing all night so he was a light sleeper. “Who goes there?”
“Dad, it’s me, Jonas, and Benji.”
“Grandpa, I forgot the net. I had just finished it when everything got crazy, and I forgot to pick it up. I’ve got to find it before the tide comes in. I’m sorry, Grandpa. I know it will be a mess because people walked all over it. You can take it out of my pay. I’m so sorry. I’ll work for free until it’s paid for.”
“Go home, you two, and get some rest. I found the net after everyone left. It is a mess, but there’s nothing you can do tonight. Get some rest and we’ll deal with it in the morning.”
“Yes, sir,” said Benji, certain that he would be fired in the morning.
“I’ll see you in the morning, Dad,” said Benji’s Abba.
He took Benji’s hand as they walked slowly back home.
Benji was grateful for the warm blanket, but he couldn’t get to sleep for a long time. He lay in the dark and blamed himself for being so careless. He finally cried himself to sleep just about the time Mother woke him up for breakfast.
Benji walked to work with his Abba, but he was grateful that Abba didn’t try to come with him to talk with Grandpa Zebedee. He wanted to deal with Grandpa man to man — even though he was only 10.
Benji was surprised that Laban had laid out the circular net to be checked first. He would much rather have gotten the big net over with. He was eager to see how much damage was there and whether it would even be repairable at all. While they were checking the circular net, Grandpa Zebedee called Laban. Benji felt certain that Grandpa was telling Laban what he had done and then he would be sent home — he just knew it.
Instead, after talking with Grandpa, Laban just walked past him and said, “See you, squirt!” Benji watched as Laban headed to the processing plant. Benji’s heart began to hammer inside his chest. The last place he wanted to work was the processing plant. He hadn’t thought about that. That would be worse than being sent home!
“Benji!”
“Coming, Grandpa!”
“Benji, as you know a lot of things changed around here yesterday. Because four of my fishermen are gone, I’m rearranging some assignments. I am assigning you to be in charge of the nets. You’ll need to train some new boys to help you. You’ll be responsible to see that we have five large rectangular nets and three circular nets ready for use every night by sunset. That means that you’ve got to make sure to have extras in case some get torn and need repair. I’d like for you to keep about five extra nets ready at all times.”
Benji could not believe his ears.
“But Grandpa, I messed up!”
“Yes, Benji, you messed up. We all mess up sometimes, but you did everything you could to make it right — even coming out in the middle of the night to try to fix the mistake. That tells me that you will take this job very seriously. I’ve watched your work and I’m proud of you. You are a team player and I hope that you will encourage those who work with you.
“Finish the round net quickly. I have hired some new boys for you to train later this morning. You’ve got a really messed-up net for them to learn on!”
As Benji worked on the round net, he remembered his Abba saying that he wanted to be the best boat builder he could be for God. Benji asked God to help him be the best net manager that Grandpa had ever had.
Something that he heard Mr. Jesus say yesterday was:
“... do to others what you would have them do to you.…”3
He knew that whenever he trained the new boys, he wanted to do it God’s way.
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