OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS GIVEN UNTO US

Matthew chapter 16 verses 1 - 4  says this;

1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

The Lord Jesus went on healing campaigns in the northern areas of Israel and attracted large numbers of people and His growing popularity and influence concerned the religious figures from the establishment and they tested Him by asking Him to prove that He was indeed sent from heaven by showing them a sign from heaven.

Being religious leaders, the expectation of them was that they should have been able to disern the times they were living in and guide the people of Israel accordingly but even though they had learned how to read the signs of the sky to predict the coming weather,  they had failed to learn how to read the spiritual signs and for this reason, Jesus called them hypocrites. They had presented themselves as spiritual leaders of the people but had no understanding of spiritual things. Instead, they had mastered the signs of the corporeal realm to forecast the weather and passed that skill off as spiritual understanding.

The Lord informed them that because they were seeking signs from heaven, this was an indicator that they were wicked and adulterous and as such, no sign would be given to them except the sign of Jonah. If they were righteous and devout towards God, they would has been able to disern the times as Simeon of Jerusalem did as Luke chapter 2 verses 25 - 32 says.

25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying

29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised.

30 I have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared for all people.

32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

Simeon had set an example of righteousness and was therefore able to disern the times by following the Holy Spirit but the religious leaders were disconnected from the culture of righteousness and so Jesus told them that the only sign they would receive was the sign of Jonah where for three days, Jonah was in the belly of the fish before being regurgitated back on land.

This sign that Jesus promised the religious leaders was a cryptic reference to Jesusˋ own death at their hands where He would descend into the belly of the earth for three days before being vomited out of hell due to the incompatibility between His righteousness and the wickedness of hell.

By actively participating in sign of Jonah, the religious leaders, with only a few exceptions, overlooked the sign altogether and missed the day of their visitation.

In the book of Luke chapter 19 verses 41 - 44, Jesus described the situation this way;

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Lord have mercy on us.´

Amen.

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