Into a mountain apart to pray. The refuge of Christ in every great crisis was lonely prayer. In the midst of the sea. For the wind was contrary. The wind came rushing down from the mountains, and in attempting to make land at Bethsaida, where the Lord had directed, it was in their faces.
Sudden gusts are common on the Sea of Galilee.
Thompson says he encountered one of such fury that no rowers could row a boat across the lake. There had now arisen one of those sudden and violent squalls to which all inland waters, surrounded by lofty hills intersected with deep gorges, are liable. In the fourth watch. Jesus went to them. An apparition, an unreal appearance of a real person.