The Fish with the Coin in Its Mouth

The Fish with the Coin in Its Mouth

Here we have an historic event that is loaded with a string of miracles; it is one big miracle.

"And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee." Mat 17:24-27
In this event we see Jesus' control over nature, just as clearly as when he calms the sea; this is 100% a Jesus exalting event.

First, in that area of the world, people usually fished with nets, from the shore it would be a throw net, as one throw would give the possibility of catching at least more than one fish. He could have said, Throw a net, and look in the mouth of all the fish you catch, and one of them will have a coin in its mouth.  A hook only ever catches one fish, and so Jesus is showing his control, by basically telling Peter, you only need to do this once, I am sending one fish.

Second, he does not tell Peter where along the shore line to go; it does not matter. Wherever Peter goes, Jesus will send the fish to that spot.

Third, he does not tell him what bait to use; we will assume Jesus did not mean a bare hook. If he did, we are beyond miracle. I love fishing, you don't catch fish with a bare hook! But the bait did not matter, the fish Jesus was sending would have taken anything Peter threw in, Jesus made sure of that.

Fourth, it was during the day time, near the middle of the day, and in the middle East, where the sun is especially strong, during the middle part of the day, the fish go down to the cooler depths; that happens in lakes here in the USA also. That is why they fished at night, from their boats (James and John cleaning the nets in the morning after a night of fishing), with either throw nets, or drag nets, when the fish would have returned up near the surface of the lake. The point is, no one fished from the shore, with a hook, during the middle of the day. But Jesus wanted everything to be contrary to what is normally done, so that the miracle nature of what he was bringing to pass would be crystal clear.

Fifth, we will not say Peter's obedience is a miracle, but what he does makes no sense at all; he does what he as a fisherman would never do. He owned a boat, he was not a little kid who could only fish from the shore. He was in his home town, Capernaum (see Luk 4:31-39), so everyone knew him, and they see him, Peter the fisherman, the business man, the man with the boat, fishing from shore, middle of the day, throwing in a hook; Peter did not think of his reputation, he remember the "great daught of fish" Luke 5,and so he obeys. We do well to remember the Lord's past mercies, and act accordingly in the present.

"We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old." Psa 44:1  

Sixth, how did this coin get into the lake? Did the Lord just put it there just then as Peter was walking to go fishing, or at a previous time, or did someone drop it in? And when did the fish get it? Was he carrying it around in his mouth for awhile, or did he pick it up just before Peter threw in his hook? Did the Lord put it into the fish's mouth? Or did he cause the fish to pick it up? And did he cause the fish to be at the exact spot when it fell from someone's hand or pocket, and was sinking down, and grab it while it was floating down? Or did he send the fish to the spot of the bottom of the lake where it was resting, to pick it up?

We do not know, but what we do know, is that fish do not eat coins! So regardless of how the coin got into the lake, or how the fish got it, we have miracles at every point. There is no line of reasoning that removes all miracle. It is the Lord ordering each step, so that the coin ends up in the fish's mouth, very parallel to when the Lord sent the fish to swallow Jonah!

Seventh, the fish has the coin in its mouth, but it did not swallow the coin, YET it bites Peter's hook. We don't know the size of the coin, or type of fish, and hence we don't know the size of the fish's mouth, but that too is a problem: the fish's mouth has a coin it it, yet it is able to bite Pete's hook. We will assume Peter's hook was baited, so the fish bites the baited hook, while keeping the coin in its mouth, and does not swallow the coin, but is able to eat enough of the bait to get hooked! Nor does the coin drop out of its mouth as it is eating the bait on Peter's hook; nor does it lose the coin, as it is fighting to not get pulled into shore by Peter. And if the fish did not fight, since that is against a fish's nature, that would be a miracle! Each of these is a miracle.

Eighth, who co-ordinated the fish and Peter being at the same spot, at the same time? Again the Jonah parallel: the fish is next to the boat, just as the men throw Jonah into the sea, or the fish followed the boat until the men threw him into the sea. The Lord send this fish, with a coin in its mouth, to the exact place where Peter is, the correct distance from shore, exactly where Peter throws his hook, and causes the fish to bite a baited hook, even though it has a coin in its mouth, swallow the hook, but not the coin, struggles to not get pulled in, yet the coin does not fall out of its mouth.

Miracles, not just one, an entire, inter-connected string of miracles.

And all un-known to Peter; all un-seen by man; but all co-ordinated perfectly by the Lord Jesus.

It is obviously co-ordinated by Jesus, he tells Peter to go, cast is hook, and the first fish will have a coin in its mouth. This was not wishful thinking on Jesus part, and he was not tempting God his Father, "OK, Father I sent Peter, you better make this happen." Jesus refused to tempt the Father by jumping off the top of the temple, he would never tempt the Father now; Jesus was in control, he made it happen, with forethought!

Ninth, the Lord specifically says the "first" fish. Since the coin was in the fish's mouth, hidden from view, Jesus is telling Peter, "look inside the mouth of the first fish!" He had to look inside the fish's mouth, and fishermen normally would not look inside the mouth of a fish they catch.

But also, Jesus is again showing his control over the entire event, by making it the first fish; he could have said the second or third.

Tenth, the coin was the exact correct coin to pay the tax for 2 people. There was only one coin in the fish's mouth. Peter did not have to add to it, and there was no change. If the coin got into the lake by normal human activity, falling out of a person's hand or pocket, the miracle is that the exact correct coin fell. Otherwise, we see the Lord putting the exact correct coin into the fish's mouth, by an act of sovereign creation.

Last, the Lord Jesus does not tell Peter, "Go catch a fish, and sell it, and use that money to pay the tax," he works a string of miracles to met the need.

Here is a rub with this event, we are not to wait for God to work a miracle, normal Christian living is to do what we know we need to do, and we usually know what that is, BUT when humanly there is no way, we call out, like sinking Peter, "Lord save me," and he often by miracle, he does.

So, #1 what is a miracle.

And, #2, should we do nothing, and wait for miracles to happen?

#1, a miracle is a super-natural doing; super-natural, meaning something that does not, cannot, will not happen if the laws of nature are followed; miracles violate the natural laws. We spell it "super" but it comes from the Greek word "supra," which means "over and above, outside the realm of." A miracle is God putting aside the laws of the natural world, laws which he established, and doing something that naturally would not nor could not happen.

Miracles are God violating his laws; miracles are God's doing.

Like an ax head swimming. (2Ki 6:6)

Like three (3) men falling into a fire, and not being burned nor smelling of smoke. (Dan3)

Like dead people coming back to life. (Luk 7; Jhn 11)

A miracle is not simply something that we did not expect to happen, so we are surprised.

Miracles are great!

And, #2, should we do nothing, and wait for miracles to happen? Or more so, do things, so that a miracle must happen.

We are not to wait for God to deliver us by way of miracle. And we must not set up situations which would "require" God to deliver us with a miracle.

I am to pay my taxes, I must not wait for a voice from heaven to shout down "Ray go cast in a hook ..."

I am work, save my money, and send in the check!

Nor am I to set up a scenario where God would be "required" to rescue me by way of a miracle. That is testing/tempting God! There are stairs in the tower, I am to walk down the stairs, not jump off the roof, and expect God to send angels to rescue me, because of a promise in the Bible. (Mat 4)

But when "life happens," when I have not tested him, God may rescue me by way of a miracle, and often, dare I say usually does.

In 1983, here in PNG, we were driving over a section of road where a small land slide had happened. I should have stopped, dug a trench for the tire to go into so we would not slide down the hill, and into a river that was 50 ft below us, where we would have died. Cheryl, myself, and 3 or our 4 children, ages 5,4, and 3! But I didn't, I just started driving, and we started sliding side ways, down hill, toward the edge. But thankfully we stopped sliding. I put the vehicle into low-ratio, and we did make it across.

The miracle: there was a pebble in the dirt that was down hill of the vehicle, and caught the tire, and stopped the slide. I never saw it! Someone else was in the vehicle with us, and after he dropped us off, and was returning, he looked and saw the slide mark, and how the tire was stopped by the pebble; it was the size of a marble. I would have killed my family by my foolishness; God saved us by putting, causing that pebble to be there, at just the exact place, to catch the tire.

That is a miracle!

We do not just believe in miracles, we do not just believe that God can and does still work miracles, after all he never changes, so of course he can still do miracles; we rely on miracles! We rely on the providing and protecting hand of our Heavenly Father to care for us when life happens, and there is no other way.

21 January 2026