The Sign

The Sign Matthew 12:38–45

Now Jesus has just gotten in trouble for healing during the sabbath, and they began plotting to destroy Jesus (14), then He healed a demon possesed man who was blind and mute, then was freed, could speak and see (22), the Pharisees attribute this work of the Holy Spirit to Beelzebub (a local philistine deity) because the people called him Son of Man (from the prophet Daniel )and Jesus put them on absolute blast. Not only did he show his absolute authority, but by being against Him, and the obvious claim that He was “God” was that what He did was a direct work of the Holy Spirit.

But the Pharisees have dismissed what they have seen with their own eyes and declared war. Now they charge him to show their expectations of what they think the messiah is supposed to look like.

Matthew 12:38 “ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.””

The call him Teacher for the sake of the crowd, they don’t believe that He is. They are not asking for signs (like Jesus has been doing since showed up) like miracles. They are declaring their condemned state. Because they show their unbelief.

Their words condemn them, Matthew 12:37 “ For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.””

Now we know, the words are telling us whats happening in the heart of these men (Your heart overflows, comes out of your mouth)

Jesus isnt falling for it. They want him to submit to them, to do what they require and expect and he wont have it.

Matthew 12:39 “ But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

Jesus, again, calls some of the greatest religious leaders and followers of the day, Evil and Adulterous.

evil: ponera: not panara, but close enough lol. wicked, bringer of sorrow.

Adulterous: (“Adulterous” [moichalis] suggests that Israel was spiritually unfaithful to God by its religious formality and its rejection of the Messiah.)

The comparison of their entire generation being evil and adulterous, convicts them, but also comes with hope. Anyone who who can see who and what we truly are, can be humbled to repent and change our minds about what is right and wrong agreeing with God.

Why Jonah? Jesus explains

Matthew 12:40 “ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Oh goodness. Is this 3 24 hour days? Is is a fully daytime/nighttime? It says what it say. Jonah 1:17 “ Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” 3 times of daylight, 3 times of night.