Here's Your Sign

Here's Your Sign

Matthew 12:39 "He answered, 'A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign. . . '"

July 6, 2020

In the Bible, many times the hero of the specific story asked the Lord for a sign before setting off on a big journey, a confirmation miracle to prove the authenticity of the revelatory command. Most of the the time, in the Old Testament, the Lord provided the sign. To be honest, the Lord set up the concept of a sign, a miraculous wonder to confirm the interactive spiritual awakening, and perpetuated it throughout the Bible. The Lord gave Moses a staff and told him to use it in front of Pharaoh and perform signs and wonders. Then the Lord even had Moses participate in the plagues, as a sign the Lord was taking part in the turn of events. Gideon asked for a sign. Even the 12 Disciples looked for signs, to confirm the Lord was actually present and speaking to them.

The Pharisees specifically asked Jesus to perform a miracle or for a sign to see if Jesus could back up His strong speech. It was actually inherent in the Pharisees' religious DNA to seek for a sign, since that's what was perpetuated for them in their readings. But Jesus was not about to give them a sign. The Pharisees wanted a sign more than they wanted the Lord. They wanted the sign so they did not have to faith. Jesus was not going to let the sign be the stumbling block to them and called them wicked for even asking for it. Jesus knew the sign was not going to fix their hearts. Their hearts were too focused on the human perspective and a sign would simply have reinforced their lack of maturity, the lack of faith or the need to have faith.

Jesus mentioned on several occasions that the only sign they would get was the sign of Jonah (referring to being in the belly of death for three days), as Jesus would be in the tomb for three days before resurrection. Further into the New Testament, when the Disciples were spreading the good news of the gospel, the gentiles (specifically Greeks), wanted the wisdom of the good news to be so overwhelming and enlightened that it made sense to higher reasoning. This, too, is opposite of what the Lord had set up. The gospel appears actually quite foolish, because it requires faith and because it requires knowledge of the unseen.  There is no wisdom in the unseen or higher state of knowledge to ascend to in order to reach salvation. Salvation cannot be attained through knowledge or understanding, only faith.

You are on a journey of faith, not signs and not wisdom. Some of you have been traveling well on that journey, but gotten trapped by the physical or human understanding of where your journey should be taking you. Every day is a fresh opportunity to assess if you are on the path the Lord has for you, the path of faith that signs and wisdom may not confirm. Some of you have been paralyzed, having enough faith to believe in the Lord, and stopped there, not moving forward with your Christian walk. It takes faith to step out into a treacherous journey, full of the unknown and alarming and the scary. You may be aware of the potential path but you've never started walking on it.  Maybe there is something that you are supposed to step out and do, or go, or become but you've been waiting for a sign. Here's your sign.

Don't take my word for it; look it up:  Judges 6:33-40, Matt 12:38-39, Matt 16:1-4, Matt 24:3, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25