Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 12:38

A sign from thee ( ). One wonders at the audacity of scribes and Pharisees who accused Jesus of being in league with Satan and thus casting out demons who can turn round and blandly ask for a “sign from thee.” As if the other miracles were not signs! “The demand was impudent, hypocritical, insulting” (Bruce).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

JESUS’ FINAL SIGN TO THE JEWS JONAS AND THE WHALE

V. 38-42

1) “Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying,” (tote apekrithesan auto ton grammateon kai Pharisaion legontes) “At that point certain ones of both the Scribes and Pharisees challenged him with ulterior motives, repeatedly saying,” mockingly, in derision, in skepticism, Luk 11:16; Luk 11:29; Joh 2:18; Joh 4:48; Joh 6:30; 1Co 1:22 reads, “For the Jews require a sign.

2) “Master, we would see a sign from thee.” (didaskale thelomen apo sou semeion edein) “Teacher we really wish directly from you to see a sign;” They thus gave evidence that they had rejected all prophetic signs and testimonies that had been spoken and fulfilled regarding Him, such as: 1) The virgin birth sign, Isa 7:14; Mat 1:22-23; 2) The city, country, and family lineage sign, Mic 5:2; Mat 2:4-6; Luk 2:4; Luk 2:20; 3) The calling out of Egypt sign, Hos 11:1; Mat 2:13-15; 4) The Nazarene sign Isa 11:1; Mat 2:23; 5) The Baptism sign and testimony of John the Baptist, Mat 3:1-3; Mat 3:13-17; Joh 1:6; Joh 1:30-33; and 6) All the miracles He had already publicly performed before their eyes, Mr 2:5-12; Joh 3:2; Joh 20:30-31.

Jesus Iater referred to those custodians, or caretakers and interpreters of the law of Moses, as a “wicked and adulterous generation,” and as hypocrites, Mat 16:1-4. Why? Because they were perverters and distorters of the very law they were paid to teach in truth. And according to our Lord, they would not have believed, though He had raised one “another one,” from the dead, Luk 16:31; Mr 7:5-9,13; Joh 8:24.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

JONAHS RECOVERY THE RESURRECTION SYMBOL

Mat 12:38-45.

(Delivered on Easter Sunday, 1933)

OUR recent studies in the Book of Jonah have refreshed the memory and emphasized the meaning of that much-debated Old Testament incident.

We take up this morning its New Testament interpretation; an interpretation given it by none other than the Lord Himself. When Christ selected Jon 1:17 to Jon 2:10 as an illustration of His own resurrection from the grave, He set upon the history itself the Divine seal of certainty, and elected to take that very part of it, over which men have most often stumbled, as an illustration or type of His own experience in the heart of the earth and His return after three days from the power of death and the grave. It becomes, therefore, an appropriate study for this Easter morning.

Think with me first of all of

THE TYPOLOGY OF JONAH THE PROPHET

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee,

But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas:

For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Mat 12:38-40).

This age, like that one, seeks for signs! It is doubtful if there has ever been a time when men were more mad over a possible miracle than now. Since the opening of this twentieth century interest in the plain, simple, New Testament Christianity has weaned; Evangelism has languished; church attendance decreased, and the number of converts diminished, and the great crowds that Moody and Chapman saw, in the dying years of the nineteenth century, are no more. Billy Sunday is still in health; his mind is as alert as ever and his voice no worse; but even his street-slang fails to pull together crowds akin to those that once nightly packed his tabernacle doors, and his converts are no longer in the hundreds.

There is just one appeal now popular with the crowds, and that is the professed miracle, the working of wonders, and the speaking with tongues where men and women fall on floors, where glasses and crutches and canes are collected, and where emotional people jabber in tongues unknown to themselves and interpretable by no person present. Thither the multitude, in recent years, have been wending their way, many of them honestly believing that the only proofs of Christs supernatural power, the only adequate evidence of His Deity, exists in SIGNS and wonders. If this be true, it strikes one strangely that Christ should have said to the kindred companies of His day, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.

Thomas belonged to the sign-demanding company. When the other disciples said unto him, We have seen the Lord, he answered,

Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.

And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.

And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed (Joh 20:24-29).

The demand for a sign, as the basis of faith, is, in itself, an evidence of the lack of faith; and the interest in Christianity that is only excited by some strange emotional act has neither an intellectual nor Scriptural basis.

When the Chapman campaign was on in this city Dr. Henry Ostrom was the preacher for the downtown section, with week day meetings in the Plymouth Congregational Church, (then at the corner of Eighth street and Nicollet) and Sunday meetings in the First Baptist Church. The crowds were not coming. Dr. Ostrom was impatient and critical of the committee of arrangements, and a certain degree of discouragement and confusion was incident to that fact.

Suddenly, one night at the close of the sermon when the invitation was given, a girl who lived in the old three-story brick building located on the very ground where Jackson Hall now stands, lost self-control and screamed aloud for a few seconds. The next morning the Tribune announced, Wild Excitement at the Ostrom Meeting. From that day, the house was filled.

Possibly your Pastor made a mistake, when, recently, in the New England meeting, a girl equally wrought up and beginning to scream was quickly committed to a woman who was asked to silence her and take her to a side room and quietly tell her how to accept Christ. But his study of the New Testament left him neither other precept nor example to follow.

On the day of Pentecost there were twenty-five hundred converts, and here is the simple record of the procedure,

When they heard [Peter,] they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we dot Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

And as for their part, it is simply recorded,

They that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

When they had found the Saviour they were without the necessity of signs.

The truest of all signs is already given. Its type existed in the return of Jonah from the belly of the fish; and in the saving truth of Christs triumph over the grave, and consequent ability to redeem from death and the grave.

It has come about that men imagine themselves demonstrably intellectual if only they publicly deny the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. It might be well for some of the so-called intelligentia to read again what George J. Romanes, the distinguished biologist, said at the very time that he himself was adrift concerning the faith. This was his statement:

I am not ashamed to confess that, with this virtual negation of God, the universe to me has lost its soul of loveliness * * and when at times I think, as think at times I must, of the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed which once was mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible.

If there is one company who deserves the pity of their fellows beyond others it is the unbelievers of the daythose ministers and laymen who doubt the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave; and who deny the supernatural work of God in the world! Unbelief is baseless! We live in an age of signs; we dwell in the midst of miracles, if we but had discernment!

John G. Wooley used to stagger through these streets; at times be found drunk in the gutters of the same: but one day John G. Wooley believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and instantly he was a new man and became a mighty preacher of the Gospel and one of the most effective foes of the infamous liquor traffic that that diabolical business ever faced.

What was that but a miracle? What was that but a resurrection from the grave? What was that but a triumph against sin and death? And the world has in it thousands of such men; men who but yesterday were wrecks and who today, by the simple act of believing on the risen Christ, are themselves redeemed and able with the blind man to say, One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. Whereas I was drunk I am now sober; whereas I was lecherous, I am now moral; whereas I once loved sin, I now loathe it; whereas I doubted the Saviour, I have discovered Him to be my all in all!

That is the sign of the centuries! That is the miracle of the ages! That, bless God, is the message of the morning!

This Easter day celebrates its significance. We are here in great numbers this morning solely because, on another Sunday morning, Christ conquered the grave, becoming victor over death.

Some years ago my friend Dr. Massee said:

The proclamation of three great facts composes the Gospel message. They are the death of Jesus Christ; the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Return of Jesus Christ. The resurrection lies at the center. Without the resurrection the death of Jesus would have been meaningless. Without the resurrection the Return of Christ would be impossible.

If Christ is not Divine,Then lay the Book away,And every blessed faith resignThat has so long been yours and mine,Through many a trying day;Forget the place of bended knee;And dream no more of worlds to be;

If Christ is not Divine.Go seal again the tomb;Take down the Cross, Redemptions sign;Quench all the stars of hope that shine;Forget the upper room;And let us turn and travel onAcross the night that has no dawn.

But the resurrection accepted, how certain, how dependable the whole Gospel message! Only God could conquer against death and the grave. The resurrection, then, is the sure ground of sins forgiven. Only God could sustain the soul in a sinful world, immersed as it is in sinful society. But He who conquered death, the product of sin, can throttle sin itselfthe souls enemy.

The day of resurrection:Earth, tell it out abroad;The passover of gladness,The passover of God.From death to life eternal,From earth unto the sky,Our Christ has brought us overWith hymns of victory.

Now let the Heavens be joyful,Let earth her song begin;Let the round world keep triumph,And all that is therein;Invisible and visibleTheir notes let all things blend,For Christ the Lord is risen,Our joy that hath no end.

THE JUDGMENT OF THIS GENERATION

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here (Mat 12:41).

The conduct of Nineveh is the condemnation of this generation. Ninevites were perhaps equally bad with this generation. They were famed for godlessness, violence and bloodshed; but perhaps they were no worse than this generation in any of them.

The late Dr. T. C. Horton, writing a while ago for one of our magazines, said, The crime craze is rampant in every section of our country. Men and women, boys and girls are committing crimes that once would have caused a shudder of horror, but now are so common that they create hardly a ripple of interest. Amusement centers, dance halls, movie palaces, autos and flying machines are all making their contribution to the immorality of the day. Decency and order have surrendered to indecency and disorder.

The reason is not far to seek, for as Horton said, The Word of God expresses itbecause sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Take our own local situation! Months ago, three or four men walked into one of our Banks on the East side, looted it of its riches, shot to death the two policemen who responded to the burglar alarm, and later in St. Paul killed an innocent young man whose ignorance of their character and accomplishments led him to stop by their disabled car, doubtless with the good motive of helping them.

And yet, the sentence of law has been pronounced against but two of these men, and owing to the silly sentimentalism of the age, the utmost that can be done with them is to spend the States money in convicting them and in keeping them in fairly comfortable quarters at Stillwater, and wait the newspaper announcement they have made good their escape, or have been paroled by a tender-hearted Board.

The greatest crimes are trifled with by those in authority, and the sinners of this age mock the prophets of the day, laughing their deliverances to scorn instead of falling upon their faces, repenting in sackcloth and ashes, as Nineveh did at Jonahs preaching.

I say that the conduct of Nineveh is the condemnation of this generation, and they will rise to speak our judgment in the hour when the final assize is on.

Yes, and the Queen of Sheba shames the same generation. In her day the greatest teacher living was Solomon. She traveled a long distance to hear what he had to say. She sat docilely at his feet and received approvingly his every sentence. She took pains to pass encomium upon both his palaces and his precepts.

But a greater than Solomon is here, even Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and the average man of the streets has no ear for Him and no interest in Him. The world never saw another work the works that He wrought, and men never listened to such wisdom as passed His lips. The moral lessons that He taught are the matchless maxims of the millenniums. Little wonder that men were astonished at His Words! They uncovered alike conscience and conduct; they sounded motive and purpose; they uniformly pointed to the peaks of righteousness.

Tauler used to be called Dr. Illuminatusthe doctor for whom a great light hath shined. But the Dr. Illuminatus, the Doctor who is Light, yea even the Light of the world, is Christ, and for the men and women of this day and generation to walk in darkness is a scientific demonstration of the fact that they do so because their deeds are evil; that they refuse to come to the Light lest their deeds should be reproved.

Bishop Ainsworth, in a recent article that appeared first in The Alabama Christian Advocate, but later in a number of magazines, says truthfully,

If America is not in a crisis, this nation has never known one. The crisis that confronts this country is not just a matter of economics. It is much more moral than economic. Some people never see any sort of crisis but a collapse of material values. America is threatened with moral collapse in high places. The Church of God is the only way out. The soul of the country must be awakened. A new consciousness of God must come upon the people. The principles of Jesus Christ are the only basis for prosperous and stable society. Whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. The Statutes of the Lord are rightand in keeping of them there is great reward. The Divine order is religion, righteousness, happiness, prosperity. It is time for action. As Richard Cecil said to England a hundred years ago, The state of the world and of the church is such, and so much depends on action, that everything seems to say loudly to every man, Do something. DO IT! DO IT!

And yet, at the very time that sordid social conditions are so crying in our ears,

The Church is being held in the grip of a deadly indifference. The judgment of some of us is that the pulpit of the present is far more at fault than is the pew. It is not so long since New Yorks preacher-pride told an audience that sin and hell had been sent to the Museum, and in fact most pulpits have so relegated them, and the pews are coming to so regard them-. I confess my own fault in this matter. I believe that one reason why this church has enjoyed the blessing that has been poured out upon it during the ministry of my visiting brother, Dr. Jas. B. Leavell, is that he has not minced words. Hell has been often on his tongue, and the terrors as well as the certainty of it have been faithfully presented, and damnation has not been exchanged for some smoother word. He laid a strong hand upon some of our social idols, and compelled us to face the fact that It is better * * to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire (Mat 18:9).

We have listened to the siren song of Twentieth Century philosophy until we have forgotten the declarations of all centuries Christianity. By that song we have been lulled to spiritual sleep, at the very time when the ship of Church is driving before the winds of infidelity straight into the breakers of soul-ruin and death.

As Dean Farrar once said,Oh, better surely that a sinner should tremble with agony, as the last leaves of the aspen shudder in the late autumnal wind, than that he should thus falsely presume that he knows more of God than God Himself hath taught him, and, seeing, as has been said, that wrath is written in Scripture against his way of life, should hope that it is not wrath, but mercy, and so rush upon the bosses of the Almightys buckler as the wild horse rusheth into the battle.

It is rather natural to pass from the judgment of this generation to

THE GODLESSNESS OF THE BACKSLIDDEN

Mark then the progress of Scripture:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse them the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation (Mat 12:43-45).

The reformed man is not necessarily the redeemed one. There are a good many men that think if they could get rid of one unclean spirit they would be all right. One man says, I am profane; that is the only thing wrong with me. If I could quit that I would be all right!

Another says, I am lecherous. If I could just resolve to live a clean life I would be all right!

The third says, I do get drunk occasionally. I wish I could get rid of that demon of drink. Then I would be all right!

The fourth one says, I have a tendency to thievery. It is a sort of a kleptomania with me, and if I could cease from that I would be all right!

But would he?

Resolution can drive the unclean spirit out for a while. I have seen men go as long as a year, two years, three years, yes even four years, in sobriety, and then suddenly find themselves drinking again.

I have known men to firmly resolve that they would quit gambling, and with a whip of will-cords drive the demons of gambling from the heart, and for a year turn their backs upon the hole of green cloth, and the Faro wheels, and all the devices of Gambrinus; but, suddenly, in the second year, they were back at the gambling table again, and the avidity with which they practised the black art marked a new enthusiasm for the thing they said they would never indulge in again. Take the subject of Prohibition as an illustration.

Twelve years ago, when we were in the humility and grief of ten thousand, thousand slain, we faced the wickedness of the drinking practice, and by a majority of votes in State after State we said, We will banish this demon from the land, and by fit legislation we put the whole traffic away. We swept and garnished the house, and for a dozen years we have had a national room that was comparatively clean. But the blind pigs and the liquor rats have been gnawing and gnawing on the walls thereof, eager to work their way through, and repossess the cleansed house; and, finally that public opinion which is as vacillating as the individuals resolutions, pushed back the door and said to the whole filthy, swill-loving herd, Come in, and each devil has brought with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of the government is worse than the first. Reformation is not redemption!

The cleansed life even is not necessarily the Christian life. You can sweep and garnish, and yet stop short. Go out yonder to that unoccupied house, (and the city is now full of them); take your broom with you, your brushes and varnish; sweep the rooms clean, varnish baseboards, cover the walls with brand new paper, close and lock the windows, shut and bolt the door, and let it alone one year, and then go and look in. You will find that cobwebs will hang from the ceiling, festoon the corners, and in all probability mice will have made their nests, and vermin will have found an entrance.

The best way in the world to keep a house clean, or even a single room of any home, is to put in it a clean and cleansing occupant.

The trouble with this room described by Jesus was that it was empty, and if you can, by act of will today, banish every evil spirit from your life, and you leave the heart empty, they will come back and bring with them others, worse than themselves, and a year hence your condition of soul will far exceed that of the day before the cleansing.

I have no doubt that a number of men and women who have listened to my friend, Dr. Leavell, these last three weeks have said, Well, I am going to turn over a new leaf. I am going to quit this; I am going to cease from that; I am going to refrain from the other. You have been sweeping; you have been garnishing. Alas, what folly!

You have refused to let in the One whose presence would keep the. life clean and sweet. You have locked the door of your will against the Christ who alone hath power to save, and to preserve. The result is uniformly this,

Your last estate will be your worst estate. I have traveled a great deal, of which you are painfully conscious. I have preached to multitudes, and am compelled, therefore, to deal with many men, and hosts of women and children; and I say to you that the worst cases, from a spiritual standpoint, that I ever meet, are backsliders. When I find a man in an after-meeting who frankly says to me, I have never been a member of any church; I have never made a profession of Christianity, my heart thrills with instant hope, and as a rule I succeed in bringing him to a decision for Jesus as the Christ, as personal Saviour and Lord.

But when I meet a man, and he says, Oh, I tried that once; I know all about it. I made a profession myself once and found out there was nothing in it, I know full well the improbability of doing aught for him. He is the identical individual described by the words of Jesus. He had decided once that he was going to turn over a new leaf, and he said so. In order to aid himself in the endeavor he joined the church, but having left his heart empty of the Christ, every demon that he willed out for a time he consented to let return later, and each of them brought with him seven others.

The most godless men in the world are the men who once took the Name of God upon the lips but refused Him the domination of their hearts. The most difficult people on earth to do anything with, or for, are the men and women that once joined the church, but did not yield to Christ.

A big proportion of the atheists have developed from this company. The President of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism was once a Methodist minister.

On this Easter morning there are in this audience not less than a hundred men and women who belong to this backslidden company. You are infinitely farther from God this morning than you were twenty years ago, the time you fully intended to be Christians; the time when you went so far as to profess Christ and receive the ordinance of baptism, in some form, and had your name enrolled as a church-man or a church-woman, but you know that you did not take Christ into your heart; that you did not permit Him to live in and tenant your entire being, and you know better than I can tell you that you have drifted, and drifted, and drifted; that you have gone down, and down, and down, and today you are farther from Heaven, and closer to hell, by the descent of the intervening years.

Are you going to continue to drift? Are you going to keep up your indifference? Are you going to practice the farce of going to church once a year, or only when some friend has pleaded with, and almost forced, you to accompany him, all the while refusing to let Christ come into your heart?

The time will come when there will be a voice saying, This day thy soul is required of thee. The time will come when the last enemy will lay his finger on your eyelids and close them for ever to the scenes of earth, and your soul will awaken in hell or in Heaven.

If in hell, you know what it will mean. You have heard already the voice crying from that burning pit Father Abraham, * * send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

Thomas Payne cried out during his last moments: O Lord, help me! God, help me! Jesus Christ, help me! Voltaire said: I am lost! I am lost! Oh, that I had never been born! Colonel Charteris said: I would gladly give 30,000 pounds to have it proved to my satisfaction that there is no such place as hell.

But, oh, if in Heaven, then what? As one once said:

What must it be to step on shore, and find it Heaven;To take hold of a hand, and find itGods hand;To breathe a new air and find itCelestial air;To feel invigorated, and find itImmortality;To rise from the care and turmoil of earthInto one unbroken calm;To wake up and find itGlory!

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 12:38. A sign.See Luk. 11:16. They wanted something of an immediate and decisive nature, to show, not that His miracles were realthat they seemed willing to concedebut that they were from above, not from beneath (Brown). Gerlach and Lisco suggest that these Pharisees were better inclined, and less opposed to Jesus, than the others. But in our opinion they were rather the worst among the bad (Lange).

Mat. 12:39. Adulterous.Adultery, taken in a spiritual sense, according to the Old Testament idea, is equivalent to apostasy or idolatry (Isa. 23:17). Jesus foreknew that the apostasy of the Pharisees would lead them even to an outward alliance with the heathen in the act of His crucifixion (Lange). No sign.The words seem at first to place our Lords miracles of healing outside the category of signs, and yet it was to these that He referred the messengers of the Baptist as proof that the Christ had indeed come (Mat. 11:5), and appealed in Joh. 5:36. They must, however, be interpreted by the context. One sign and only one, such as they demanded, differing from and transcending the miracles of healing, should be given to those for whom the other notes of Messiahship were insufficient, and that should be the sign of the prophet Jonas (Plumptre).

Mat. 12:40. Three days and three nights.I.e. three of the periods composed of a night and a day () which was reckoned as one day. On the Jewish principle, that a part of any such period is as the whole, a whole day and part of two other days would be reckoned as three (Mansel). Whale.Sea-monster (R.V. margin). Heubner relates an instance of a sailor who was swallowed by a shark, and yet preserved. In the heart of the earth.Some interpret simply in the grave; others in hades.

Mat. 12:41. Rise.Stand up (R.V.). The word rise is used not of the mere fact of resurrection, but of standing up as witnesses (Plumptre).

Mat. 12:42. The queen of the south.Of Sheba, Southern Arabia (1Ki. 10:1). A greater than Solomon.Solomon was wise, but here is Wisdom itself (Bengel).

Mat. 12:43. When the unclean spirit, etc.The connection is not clearly marked. It seems to be this: Christ has been speaking of this generation; He now contrasts it with past generations. The Jews of former times were like a man possessed by a demon, the Jews of this day are like a man possessed by many demons (Carr). Dry places.Waterless (R.V.) The waterless desert uninhabited by man was regarded by the Jews as the especial abode of evil spirits (ibid.).

Mat. 12:44. Empty.Properly, at leisure. To have cast out a sin does not make a man safe from sin; there must be no leisure in the Christian life (ibid.).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 12:38-45

Pretended friends.We have here yet another phase of opposition to Christ. Certain men amongst His opponents come to Him with a show of respect. Setting aside as unimportant all the signs He has hitherto shown, they come to Him as though persons only wanting a sufficient further sign to enable them to believe (cf. Mar. 8:11, a sign from heaven). That the Saviour saw through the hollowness of this request is plain from His language (Mat. 12:39). Yet He was pleased to give their request, notwithstanding this, a certain amount of reply. We may regard this reply as consisting:

1. Of a mysterious promise.

2. Of a solemn warning.

3. Of a lamentable forecast.

I. A mysterious promise.No sign, indeed, of the kind they meant should be granted to such as they were. What they asked for was not really what they desired. They were evil (Mat. 12:39). Nor would they use it, if granted to them, in the way they professed. They were adulterous (Mat. 12:39). It were a waste of power, therefore, as well as an encouragement of treachery, to do as they asked. Yet He did not intend, on that account, to leave them without further evidence of any description. In due course, rather, they should have a signa sign indeedof His mission. This sign would be, on the one hand, like one already known to them all. The prophet Jonah had been a most remarkable sign to the men of his generation. Few things more extraordinary than his storyfew more famousfew more effectual, had ever been known. The sign which He was now speaking of should be of like kind. It should be something fully worthy of being placed by its side. It should be like it even in that particular which was the most crucial part of the whole story of Jonah. Jonah was a space of three days and nights in the inside of the fish. The Son of man should be a similar time in the heart of the earth (Mat. 12:40). What that meant the event itself would fully explain. Meantime, it was in that event, whatever its nature, that they would ultimately be able to discover the sign that He meant. In due time, in a word, there would be no lack of proofof abundant proofof His mission.

II. A solemn warning.Had they been right then, after all, in demanding a sign? If more evidence was thus to follow in time, did it mean that they had been right in supposing that they had not enough as it was? No, the Saviour replies in effect, that was far indeed from the truth. On the contrary, He points out, there were those who had believed on less evidence still. Two cases of this kind stood out in the past. There was the case of those to whom the prophet Jonah, already mentioned, was sent. Those people of Nineveh, in this matter of evidence, had no such advantages as they had. Jonah had not been in his day what Jesus was in the present. There had not been the same array of miracles (Joh. 3:2), the same converging prophecies (Act. 10:43), the same manifest authority (Mat. 7:29), the same abounding love (Jon. 3:10; Jon. 4:1) in the case of that prophet. All that Jonah taught the Ninevites, was to believe it possible that God might repent if they did (Jon. 3:9). Yet they had repented and had believed in him, and that thoroughly, to a man (Jon. 3:5). On the other hand, there was the parallel case of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. There again present advantages were far greater than past. All she had heard of was the probability of learning the truth. They had its fulness in view. Both cases, therefore, were a contrast to them, and a lesson as well. If those earlier hearers, with their smaller light, used it so well, what would that say for these later ones, by whom such far greater light was despised? How could these later stand beside those earlier ones, when all things came to be judged?

III. A sad forecast.What then, this was the next question, would be the end of such conduct? Even the same as always followed in similar cases. There was a fixed rulea sad rulean inevitable rulein such matters. Where a measure of light is so dealt with as not to be allowed to do its full workwhere it brings about, therefore, nothing more at best than a kind of outward reform, and so leaves, as it were, the actual source of life unenlightened therebythe end of so doing is a measure of darkness even worse than at first. In other words, the evil spirit so cast out wanders about for a time, but finds no rest in so doing. Naturally, therefore, it desires to go back to the kind of rest which it had; and naturally also, in that empty house (Mat. 12:44), finds nothing to prevent this being done. At the same time, remembering well its former expulsion therefrom, it seeks to prevent the possible recurrence of anything of the kind by getting the company of other spirits still wickeder than itself. And thus it is, therefore, that in every way, the last state is the worst. There are more in number, they are worse in character, they have a more tenacious hold than before. Even so, therefore, was it to be expected of the generation before Him. The light that had been given them, not being truly welcomed by them, would end in greater obscurity still. Their partial deliverybeing only partialwould be seven-fold bondage at last.

How sadly this forecast was verified in the case of that generation hardly needs to be told. The whole subsequent history of Israel is its fulfilment. Think of a time coming when it should be necessary to say of the chosen people that they were not all of them blind (Rom. 11:5).

How solemnly this verification should tell upon all hardly needs to be told. Doubtless the principle involved accounts for most of the apostasy in the world, whether on the part of individual Christians or associated bodies of Christians. Doubtless, therefore, the warning applies to us all. Nothing is more dangerous than not making the best of the light that we have!

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 12:38. Dictating to Christ.

1. Christ was exercised with divers sorts of temptations by His adversaries, some openly blaspheming, some subtly insinuating, as if they would deal reasonably with Him. Master say these men, we would see a sign; as if they had never seen any of His miracles before; or as if upon the doing of some miracle, they minded to believe in Him.
2. Christs miracles were sufficient to show that He was the Messiah, for even His enemies can crave no more but to have a sign.
3. Obstinate believers will not be satisfied with any of Gods words or works, but still crave new ones.
4. Misbelievers are also limiters of the Holy One of Israel; nothing will satisfy these men, but a sign at their direction.David Dickson.

Mat. 12:38-39. Sign-seeking.Many men of blameless livesof whom it would be a breach of charity to say that they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evilnevertheless declare themselves unsatisfied with the signs of the Divine mission of Christ our Lord. Why is this? It is because they are infected with the spirit of the age, engrossed with the material, the sensible, the secular. Such persons not only cannot recognise the signs of the kingdom of heaven, but are in a state of heart and mind to which no sign can possibly be given. We are indebted to the fine candour of the late Mr. Darwin for a striking illustration of this. In his Life there is an interesting correspondence with Prof. Asa Gray, the great botanist, who, wondering how Darwin could remain unconvinced by the innumerable evidences of design in nature, took the liberty of asking him if he could think of any possible proof which he would consider sufficient. To this Mr. Darwin replied, Your question, what would convince me? is a poser. If I saw an angel come down to teach us so, and I was convinced, from others seeing him, that I was not mad, I should believe. If he had left it there, it might have been pertinent to ask him whether Christ is not just such an angel come down from heaven to teach us, and whether a sufficient number of persons did not see Him in the flesh, to say nothing of the multitudes who know Him in the spirit, to convince us that we are not mad in believing it. He did not, however, leave it there, but went on to say: If man was made of brass and iron, and in no way connected with any other organism which had ever lived, I should, perhaps, be convinced. Nothing could be more candid, or more in keeping with the transparent honesty of this great man. But what an acknowledgment! Man must cease to be man and become a metal machine, and the universe must cease to be a harmonious whole before there can be evidence enough for so simple and elementary a principle as design in the universe: and then only a perhaps! If all this were done for me, I should perhaps be convinced. Is our Lords answer to the seekers after a sign out of date? Verily, I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation (Mar. 8:12). How could there be?J. M. Gibson, D.D.

Mat. 12:40. Jonas a sign.

I. As affording a type of the resurrection.
II. As a preacher of righteousness to a people who needed repentance as this generation needs it.A. Carr, M.A.

Mat. 12:41. The Ninevites and the Jews.What dissemblance or disparity was between the Ninevites and the Jews?

1. The Ninevites were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel and people of God; neither had they received His word before this; but the Jews had received the law from the Lord, and did boast therein, and yet would not hear Christ, who interpreted and explained the law unto them.
2. The Ninevites had but one preacher of the word, viz., Jonas, and yet they obeyed him; but although God had spoken unto the Jews by many prophets, and by John the Baptist, yea, by His own and only Son, yet they shamefully and reproachfully rejected them all.
3. The Ninevites having heard but only one sermon from Jonah, the servant of the Lord, repented, believed, and changed their lives; but the Jews had heard many sermons from the prophets in all ages, and at last heard those sermons repeated and confirmed by Christ, the Lord and Master of the prophets, and yet they would not repent and amend their lives.
4. The. Ninevites heard a stranger and believed him, although he came from a nation which they hated and envied; but the Jews despised Christ, who came of the fathers, according to the flesh, and was no stranger, but a child, and free-born, amongst them.
5. The Ninevites believed Jonas without any sign, content with this, that he had come unto them for their disobedience towards God; but the Jews daily saw many signs, i.e. miracles wrought by Christ, and yet persevered in their obstinacy, as though He had done nothing worthy of faith, or for which they had reason to believe in Him.

6. None had ever foretold the Ninevites anything concerning Jonas, and yet, when he came, they believed and obeyed him; but all the prophets had foretold the Jews of Christs coming, and they saw His words suit and agree with their predictions, and yet they would not believe Him, nor amend their lives.
7. The Ninevites patiently suffered Jonas, although he threatened the miserable destruction, both of their city and kingdom; but the Jews would not endure, or hear, or obey Christ, although He preached grace and salvation unto them, yea, did not prescribe any hard or harsh rules of living unto them, but declared remission of sins to every one who would repent, believe, and obey.
8. Jonas was not derided and mocked by the Ninevites, although he fled when God sent him unto them; but the Jews scoffed and taunted Christ, who refused not to undergo reproach, hatred, persecution, and death for them and their salvation.Richard Ward.

Mat. 12:42. The example of the Queen of Sheba.

1. She went, notwithstanding the distance of her residence.She had a long journey to perform, with little of those facilities and accommodation for travelling which we enjoy. And yet she went all the way to Jerusalem that she might hear and witness the wisdom of Solomon. Will not this procedure on her part condemn those of us to whom God has brought nigh His word? You have His ordinances; His Sabbaths are every week enjoyed by youHis house opened for your receptionHis word in a language you can understand.

2. She went, notwithstanding all the anxieties of her public station.She might have pleaded, I have so much to do, so many cares devolving upon me that I cannot go. But she acted on different principles and was well rewarded for her labour. Can you, then, plead any cares, any anxieties, any occupations, as a reason why you should not make every effort, submit to every sacrifice, go through every necessary difficulty, in order to attend to the wisdom of the Son of Godin order to listen to the oracles of truthin order to seek the things that belong to your everlasting peace?

3. She went though uninvited.There was no offer, no appeal made to her. Mere report, general testimony that she heard, induced her to go. Can you say you are uninvited?

4. She went to hear the wisdom of a mortal, at best fallible, and who after all was guilty of sad and criminal defection. But you are invited to listen to, and receive the instructions of heavenly wisdom, of eternal life.J. Fletcher, D.D.

Mat. 12:43-45. The spirit of evil.The words have a twofold symbolism as representing:

I. The state of the possessed man.

II. The state of the nation of which he is made the type. The latter belongs to the interpetation of the parable as a whole. The former portrays the state of the man who has been delivered from the wildness of frenzy, but has been left to the routine of common life and conventional morality, with no higher spiritual influence to protect and guard him.E. H. Plumptre, D.D.

The Jewish people.In applying the parable to the religious life of the Jewish people we have to ask

1. What answers to the first possession and the expulsion of the evil spirit?

2. What to the seven other spirits joined with the first, and yet more evil?

3. What is the last state, yet future at the time our Lord spoke, which was to be worse than the first?The answer to the first question lies on the surface of their history. Their besetting sin from the time of the Exodus to that of the Captivity had been idolatry and apostasy. The worship of other gods exercised a strange and horrible fascination over themdeprived them, as it were, of light, reason, and true freedom of will. They were enslaved and possessed by it. Then came the return from the exile in Babylon, when, not so much by the teaching of the prophets as by that of the scribes and Pharisees, idolatry seemed banished for ever. But the house was empty, swept, and garnished. There was no indwelling presence of the enthusiasm of a higher life, only an outward ceremonial religion and rigid precepts, and the show of piety. The hypocrisy of the scribes was the garnishing of the house. And then, the old evil came back in the form of mammon-worship, the covetousness which is idolatry, and with it bitterness and hate, and the licence of divorce, and self-righteousness, and want of sympathy, and that antagonism to good which had come so terribly near to the sin against the Holy Ghost. That state was bad enough as it was, but our Lords words point to a future that should be yet worse. We must turn to the picture drawn by the Jewish historian of the crimes, frenzies, insanities of the final struggle that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, if we would take an adequate measure of the last state of that wicked generation. We note in 2Pe. 2:20 a striking reproduction of the thought by one who may have heard it as spoken by our Lord.Ibid.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Section 29
JESUS GIVES THE SIGN OF JONAH

(Possible Parallel: Luk. 11:16; Luk. 11:24; Luk. 11:26; Luk. 11:29-32)

TEXT: 12:3845

38.

Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee.

39.

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet:

40.

for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

41.

The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.

42.

The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

43.

But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not.

44.

Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

45.

Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this generation.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

a.

Discuss repentance. What is it? How is it important? What statements by Jesus show that a negative repentance, or the mere putting an evil thing out of ones life, is insufficient?

b.

How should we understand and apply what Jesus said about a demon returning to the man from which it had departed?

c.

John said that a record of the miracles was given that men might believe (Joh. 20:30-31), and Jesus clearly stated that miracles were basic to faith. Here, however, Jesus rebuked the desire for signs and said that it proceeded from a wicked heart. How do you harmonize these statements?

d.

Do you think that something more than evidence is needed to produce conviction in a man, that is strong enough to cause him to change his life? What is the relationship between a mans will and the evidence presented to his mind?

e.

Why do you suppose it was so sinful for these theologians to ask for special supernatural proof of Jesus authority? What kind of sign would have satisfied them? Why were they seeking a sign? Were not they the rightful religious authority that, as defenders of public morality and religion, not only had the right but also the obligation to demand the credentials of all religious teachers including Jesus?

f.

What do you see as the difference, if indeed there is a difference, between the requesting of a sign from heaven on the part of these Pharisees on the one hand and the requesting of signs from heaven on the part of someone like Gideon, on the other? (Jdg. 6:36-40)

g.

What is so special about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that causes Jesus to say that it is the one sign He will give, that would convince the Jews of His divine identity and authority? What about the other miracles that He had done that accomplished the same purpose for other people before the resurrection ever took place? (Joh. 14:11) Was there something inferior or deficient in those other miracles?

h.

How do you account for the fact that Jesus in this text declares that He will give no other sign to that generation than that of His resurrection, while, as a matter of fact, He is recorded as having done many other miracles long after this statement, yet they were done before He died and rose again. How do you account for this fact?

i.

Is not God to be the Judge at the great judgment? How then can the people of Nineveh and the Queen of the South stand up at the judgment to condemn the people of Jesus generation?

j.

Jesus gives a precise statement that no one can mistake: So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Yet, none of the Gospel writers, Apostles and enemies of Jesus ever record this prophecy or sign as being actually fulfilled. All who ever speak of Jesus predictions or of the fulfilment, describe Jesus as having arisen on the third day, or after three days, or something similar. How then do you harmonize this precise language in the prophecy or sign with the loose language of the supposed fulfilment? Is it possible that Jesus made a mistake? Is it possible that the Apostles misunderstood His meaning here? Should we reinterpret all the Last Week passages that concern the facts of the burial and resurrection period as so to fit the three days and three nights prediction even if this makes the Apostles contradict the Lord?

k.

Some scholars are for various reasons not convinced that the book of Jonah is a book of sober history. They describe it as poetic fiction, an allegory, a parable, a prose poem, a didactic story, a midrash, a symbolic book, a legend containing a kernel of fact. On the basis of Jesus use of the experience of Jonah here in this context, do you think it possible to discern whether it is any of the foregoing, or else a narrative of historical fact? If not, why not? If so, upon what basis?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

Then some of the theologians and Pharisees demanded, Teacher, we wish to see supernatural proof from God that establishes your authority to teach.
But Jesus refused, Only evil and faithless people ask for more proof of my identity as if all the proof I have just given were not enough. I will not provide further proof to satisfy your idle curiosity, except the portent involved in the miraculous history of Jonah the prophet. That demonstration is this: In the same way that Jonah spent the better part of three days in the great fish and so became a sign from God to the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will I, the Son of man, spend the better part of three days and nights buried in the earth. By this means will my experience become a supernatural proof to the people of this present age that God is actually speaking through me.
The inhabitants of Nineveh will stand up on judgment day along with the people of these times and the Ninevites, as mute witnesses, will condemn you. This is true because they felt their need to turn to God and did so with reference to the message preached by Jonah. But you have heard something here greater than Jonah!
Similarly, at the judgment, the Queen of the South will stand up as mute testimony against the unbelievers of this generation and condemn you. You see, she felt the longing for greater wisdom than she possessed and came halfway around the world just to listen to Solomons wisdom. Listen: there is something involved here greater than Solomon!

This evil, unbelieving generation is like a man out of whom a demon has departed. The demon goes through dry country looking for a place to rest, but he never finds it. Then the demon says to himself, I will return to my home I just left. So the demon returns and finds the man empty, cleaned up a bit, tidybut EMPTY. Then the demon goes and rounds up seven other demons that, for wickedness, make him look like a beginner! This gang of demons comes and moves in to live there. So in the end, the plight of that man is much worse than at the beginning. And that is just what is going to happen to this generation of evil people!

SUMMARY

Jesus warned the skeptic religionists of His day that a religion that only makes a man empty and unable even to discern the obvious evidences of Gods working in his own generation, is false, regardless of all else that might be said for it. It is incapable of filling life. There have been people in history that, with less evidence than the theologians were demanding of Jesus, turned to God and expended great effort to learn even a portion of Gods wisdom and truth from Gods people. But there is far more evidence now for this generation than those underprivileged people of Jonahs or Solomons generations ever possessed. This generation will be condemned by those far less-privileged people who did better with their far inferior opportunities to know the truth.

NOTES

A. UNREASONABLE REQUEST (12:38)

Mat. 12:38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. Then (Tte) suggests an immediate temporal connection between the preceding incident and this demand that Jesus present His credentials. Whether it occurred immediately upon the conclusion of the Lords forensic victory over the Pharisees or, as Luke suggests (Mat. 11:16), was part of their original attack, is not so important as the spirit which this question manifests and the additional illustration it provides us of the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Certain of the scribes and Pharisees, though not the same persons as those who accused Jesus of secret alliance with Satan. (Note Lukes hteroi, Mat. 11:16, if parallel.)

Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. Their right to requested this is undoubted and is the proper safeguard against imposture. (Cf. Deu. 18:15-22; Deu. 13:1-5) Because of these Mosaic regulations granted to the Jews on the importance and nature of supernatural credentials, they were so ahead of the rest of the world that Paul could safely generalize, describing his people: Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. (1Co. 1:22) But in this group of rabbis now surrounding Jesus, were there any who were beginning to feel that Jesus had brought them face to face with real, divine authority, or that He might possibly be, after all, the Messiah with all the concomitant majesty and authority? Were there any who, feeling themselves so deeply but strangely swayed by His unparalleled ministry, now sensed their need either to acknowledge Him once and for all or to repudiate His claims and destroy Him? Were there any who felt that some compelling miracle would really overcome what they had come to believe were objections honestly arrived at? While a mentality of honest and proper doubt is at the base of this demand for signs in general, lest those who are to be influenced by the message vouchsafed by them be deceived by presumptuous revelations falsely attributed to God (cf. Joh. 2:18 and the attitude of the Jerusalem committee toward John the Baptist, Joh. 1:19-28), more often than not this sign-seeking attitude was, as A. B. Bruce (Expositors Greek Testament, in loc.) termed it: impudent, insulting and hypocritical. Whereas their tone is formally respectful, it is motivated by infinite cunning, because it was really an appeal to the multitudes by a display of authority, and, at the same time, a ploy to maintain their own prestige, a stratagem they often employed when no other reasonable objection presented itself. (Cf. Mat. 15:39 bMat. 16:4; Mat. 27:42 and par,; Mar. 8:11-12; Luk. 11:16; Luk. 11:29-30; Luk. 23:8; Joh. 6:30) Their purpose here, as elsewhere, is clearly to trap Him by means which He either cannot or will not escape. (Cf. Mar. 8:11; Luk. 11:16; Mat. 16:1; Mat. 19:3; Mat. 22:35; [Joh. 8:6]) Though their action is described as irzontes, which can be interpreted as that neutrally oriented testing of a thing to see of what it is made, or the testing of a person to see how he reacts, nevertheless Jesus reads their motives written on their hearts and declares them as evil and adulterous. So their nicely-worded challenge is neither objective nor sincere. Their imposture is unmasked when they who sit on the jury of inquest, because of personal prejudices and moral failure, refuse to admit the evidence of signs already given. By rejecting the obvious proof of other evidence, they disqualify themselves and automatically surrender their right to demand signs, for, by their tacit admission, they cannot arrive at a satisfactory conclusion verified by and based upon all foregoing evidence. Their hypocrisy is discovered when these self-appointed, but disqualified, judges resolutely maintain their effrontery in making such a demand.

From thee: They demanded not only that the sign be done by Jesus but that it be from heaven. (Cf. Mar. 8:11; Mat. 16:1; Luk. 11:16) What were they expecting? (Cf. Joh. 6:31; 1Sa. 12:18; 2 Kings 18)

1.

Is Lenski (Matthew, 490) correct in putting the emphasis upon a sign to see (smeon iden), as if they demanded something that required no faith, but just sight in order to be converted to Him as the divine Messiah? Do we see here an unhealthy craving for an astronomical circus performance in which the sun, moon and stars perform antics, in which unworldly visions appear against the heavenly backdrop or in which angelic armies suddenly become visible as they pass in review in the presence of God?

But what is wrong with drawing back the curtain to the spiritual world, permitting mortals to see the universe full of music, color, light and beautyworlds crammed to overflowing with evidences of Gods presence and care? After all, is this not the promised fulfilment after which our Christian longing yearns? Could there be any spiritual harm in demonstrating once and for all that Jesus alone can, by the single force of the spoken word, perform greater feats than those of which even the wildest imagination of writers of science fiction or of the tellers of ancient myths could dream? Are the commentaries correct in saying that such prodigies would meet no spiritual need, would point to no salvation from sin and would share nothing in common with saving faith? Is it true that such portents would only satisfy temporarily that morbid part of our being, because when fed would only cry for more, and when no more is forthcoming, reverts to the old dissatisfactions, doubts and denials? (So, Lenski, ad loc.) After reading C. S. Lewis Christian mythology (The Tales of Narnia) and his trilogy of science fiction (Out of the Silent Planet, Voyage to Venus and That Hideous Strength), one can no longer be so sure that such visions must necessarily produce such bad fruits. Lewis makes a good case for living out ones life on earth in genuine conformity to Gods will even after having personally walked and lived among angels and stars. Further, however imperfectly Lewis may have imagined the reality, such experiences left the earthling more than satisfied with their reality both while they were being experienced and longing for them when he left them to return to the present experiences of earth life. But the longing for the breaking in upon earths reality by the celestial life, as Lewis imagined it, was perfectly consonant with the longing for the presence of God. But even among Lewis characters we find people who were not gently drawn to these same happy conclusions. Rather, just because of their character, they are repelled by everything that attracts and satisfies those who choose to be servants of God. This, of course, just proves the validity of the evidence which they rejected and consequently the justice of their condemnation. Lewis proves thus that it is possible to imagine a personal, first-hand experience of celestial phenomena without ones freedom being violated.

And that such a vision could actually minister to mens spiritual needs is demonstrated by the supposition that Jesus could have opened their eyes to fantastic spiritual realities, even as God did for His lesser servant, Elisha, when he prayed that He grant this vision to his servant. (2Ki. 6:14-17) He could have drawn back the curtain for an apocalyptic portrayal of the past, present and future vicissitudes of Gods people and their final victory in Christ. And this kind of demonstration, such as we actually find filmed in the book of Revelation, could have been made so as to produce in the witnesses that kind of satisfaction with the reality of Jesus authority that to deny what they would have experienced would be a denial of themselves. This does not mean that they would have automatically submitted themselves to His will or entered His discipleship, for sheer display of heavenly power or visions can produce quite the opposite effect. (Cf. Mat. 8:34 Notes; Exo. 20:18-22) Naked supernaturalism does not impel belief. Therefore, Jesus could have performed this sign without damaging their will, so that they would somehow have been forced to believe against their wishes. So why did He not do it? See on Mat. 12:39-40.

2.

From Heaven: Is this a Hebraistic circumlocution for from God? Or was this demand due to a popular suspicion that miracles done on earth could be rigged, whereas signs from heaven, taking place in a sphere where no human hand could possibly manipulate, would not be deceptive, spurious or counterfeited, hence, more genuine, more convincing? Under the influence of the Jewish apocalyptic literature of the intertestamental period, they may have actually been demanding the literal manifestation of the messianic, royal display pictured in those popularizations of Jewish expectations regarding the Messiahs appearance. Also, since some of their own disciples or even rabbis themselves were known to have performed exorcisms (as those to which Jesus Himself alludes for sake of argument, Mat. 12:27), or since some of their rabbis claimed to have healed by their great (supposed) piety or prayers, let Him provide some astounding, decisive and indubitable proof of His authority. (See Edersheim Life, II, 68, 69)

B. LOGICAL REFUSAL (12:39)

Mat. 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it . . . The very character of the questers themselves is Jesus reason for refusing to give what they ask, not that He could not, in the nature of signs, provide the most extraordinary miracle to demonstrate His identity and bedazzle them with His glory and power. But in what sense are they so culpable? (Cf. other similar characterizations of people who stand in the presence of substantial proof but act the part of unbelievers: Mar. 8:38; Mat. 17:17; Act. 2:40; Php. 2:15) Are they more specifically wicked than perverts, kidnappers or any other sinners in the catalogues? Their request provoked a groan in Jesus (Mar. 8:12), because here are the elders of His nation, the standard product and best examples of that religion they professed to be from God in exactly the traditionalized form currently taught, whom He must condemn, placing them on a par with brutish, irreligious men. And He MUST do this, because their religiousness has made them into persons who can fly in the face of all foregoing evidence that should have been sufficient to convince them and still demand signs, as if nothing worthy of the name had ever been done!

1.

They are adulterous. Adulterous, in this peculiarly Jewish context, describes that spiritual infidelity according to which Israel, formally united to God by a covenant as binding and as intimate as marriage, spurned her divine Husband by idolatry, hypocrisy and indifference toward God. (Study Jer. 2:2; Jer. 3:1-22; Hos. 1:2 to Hos. 2:20; Hos. 4:10; Hos. 7:4; Ezekiel 16, 23) What were the percentages for believing that these spiritual descendants of patriarchs, who could commit fornication in the name of religion in full view of the burning, holy mountain where God had just given the most fantastic display of His own holiness and presence, would somehow respond any better, or be more significantly affected by a marvellous display of supernatural fireworks? It is unfaithfulness to God to ask for more signs than those He deems already sufficient!

2.

They are evil:

a.

Because their motive for asking for a sign is not that they might have good reasons for believing Him and submitting to His Lordship, but that they might be even more confirmed in their despising His revolutionary doctrine. They were not asking for evidence for faith, but for more material to criticize.

b.

Because they desired to be vindicated in that rejection in the mind of the multitude. Their eye was not set on seeing truth, but on seeing their prestige and influence reestablished with the people.

c.

Because these unfaithful Jews are rejecting those portents by which God had already signaled the identity and consequent authority of the Messiah. In their perversity they prescribe what course of action God Himself has to follow to suit their whims. Because they turned their back upon the multitudinous evidences that God had already given, it became morally impossible to concede them what they require. Dictating to God is evil!

d.

Because it is sin to reject evidence. (Deu. 18:18-19; cf. Luk. 16:30-31) These scribes were being disloyal to their own law and blatantly blind to all the prophetic precedents in their long history of Gods dealings with Israel through men who brought just such evidences as Jesus now presented.

So it would not have mattered what manner of evidence the Lord COULD have presented them, their character rendered any objective examination of it impossible. The word generation refers specifically to this evil generation of Jews then confronting Jesus (Mat. 12:45; Mar. 8:12; Luk. 11:29), but the denunciation is also applicable to ANY group in any era that refuses the testimony of evidence that contradicts their pet theories and by which refusal they hope to defend their skepticism. In order better to appreciate what is involved here in the nature of supernatural evidence, contrast Jesus answer given to the Pharisees with that sent to John the Baptist. (Mat. 11:11 ff.) The Pharisees could not be treated in the same manner as was John, since they rejected the evidential power of Jesus miracles as credentials by ascribing them to the power of Satan, whereas John accepted the witness of Jesus works as the mighty acts of God. So, in his case the Lord could refer him to them.

And there shall no sign be given to it . . . McGarvey (Jesus and Jonah , 1 f) argues that:

In demanding of Jesus a sign, the scribes and Pharisees denied by implication that any of the multitude of signs which he had wrought were real signs; and their demand was for one of a different kind. In answering that no sign should be given but that of the prophet, he could not have meant that he would give no more of the kind which he had been giving; for he did give more of these, and in great abundance; but he meant that none should be given of a different kind, except the sign of Jonah. This was different, in that it was wrought upon him, and not by him, and it was therefore a more direct and manifest exhibition of power from heaven.

C. MERCIFUL EXCEPTION (12:39c, 40)

Mat. 12:39 c and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. Here is written the wisdom and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ: in the presence of His fiercest opponents, who themselves deserve nothing but an eternity of tortured conscience, He graciously grants them precisely what they ask, a sign of a different type. For even this merciful exception to His own strict rule (No sign shall be given.) is in itself a demand that these critics suspend judgment until the fulfilment of the sign given. Study Deu. 18:15-22). From a Jewish standpoint, therefore, they got everything they asked for, even though it was not precisely what they would have dictated, had that opportunity been offered them. Our Lord can make even the most insidious, dishonest, unfair demand to boomerang upon those who make it, and, at the same time, provide Himself with further evidence of His true identity. So the resurrection is to be the one great sign which might yet convince them, since all signs and miracles previous to the resurrection are given power and significance by it. No one miracle stands alone, but receives its meaning from the resurrection, because a permanently dead miracle-worker is of less abiding significance than a living, resurrected Lord. Thus it was that Jesus was to be designated Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead . . . (Rom. 1:4; cf. Joh. 2:18-22) This act of God in raising Jesus from death was His authentic stamp of approval not only upon the words and acts of Jesus (Cf. Act. 2:22-33), but also Gods guarantee that it is with THIS Man, and no other, that all men must have to do. (Act. 17:31)

The sign of Jonah the prophet, as a phrase, suggests that it would have been a sign well known to the original hearers, especially to anyone acquainted with the history of that prophet. However, in what did this particular sign consist? Did Jesus intend to apply only certain features in the episode of Jonahs life, i.e. only the incident of the sea monster and not the preaching of repentance to the pagan metropolis? These questions are answered by Jesus next statement, which, while there is absolutely no textual evidence against it, has been the basis of many ingenious, but unsuccessful, attempts to expunge it from the original words of Christ. (See Plummer, Matthew, 183; McGarvey, Jesus and Jonah, chap. I; Keil, Minor Prophets, I, 383) The sign of Jonah must be interpreted in light of Jesus own application of it in this context, and not by some other use He is thought to have made elsewhere of this incident in the life of Jonah. (Cf. Luk. 11:30 and Plummets comments thereon as well as on Mat. 12:40. The agnostic commentaries tend to place the emphasis on the preaching of Jonah and deny as preposterous the miraculous elements in Jonahs experience.)

Mat. 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Despite the no little temptation to see in Jonahs mission to Nineveh a symbolical and typical importance (with Keil, Minor Prophets, I, 383ff.), these words are Jesus explanation of what HE means by the sign of Jonah. McGarvey (Jesus and Jonah, 9ff.) argues that:

His own resurrection, after entombment for three days, is called the sign of Jonah, because of the similarity of the two miracles. This view is confirmed by the consideration that it was undoubtedly a miraculous sign which the scribes and Pharisees demanded; and the word sign in his answer must be understood in the same sense. . . . But how could Jonah have been a miraculous sign to the Ninevites? He wrought no miracle among them; and his preaching could not have been regarded by them as miraculous until, by means of some separate miraculous sign they were convinced that it was a miraculous prediction. That which made him a sign to the Ninevites must then have been his experience in the fish, connected as it was with the command twice given to go and cry against Nineveh. But did the Ninevites hear of the sign of Jonah before they repented at his preaching? These men and many others answer, no; and they so answer because the fact is not stated in the Book of Jonah. But while it is not stated in that book, it is stated by Jesus, and there is nothing in the book which conflicts with the statement. On the contrary, the book leaves the way open for the supposition that the news of the miracle reached Nineveh as soon as Jonah did, if not sooner. . . . Necessarily, then, if there was a real analogy, and not a sophistical assertion of one, the sign in the person of Jonah must have been communicated to the Ninevites, and it must, as in the other case (i.e. of Jesus resurrection, HEF) have been the controlling evidence on which their faith and their consequent repentance rested . . . the sign of Jonah was the miracle wrought on his person, and . . . this was certainly known to the Ninevites before they repented at his preaching. . . .

And it is to be noticed that, in drawing an analogy between His future resurrection and the experience of the prophet, the Lord asserts that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale (sic: ASV; better: sea monster, so ASV footnote and Arndt-Gingrich on ktos, since whale may be too specific a word to describe this specially prepared fish.) Attacks on the force of Jesus affirmation of the historicity of the facts surrounding Jonah have been suggested along the lines mentioned by Plummer (Matthew, 183):

Our Lords mention of Jonah as preaching to the Ninevites does not require us to believe that the story of Jonah is history. In His own parables He made use of fiction for instruction. Why should He not use an O.T. parable for the same purpose? If He were on earth now, would He not quote Dante?

McGarvey (Jesus and Jonah) has so thoroughly dealt with these and other similar attacks, that one could do no better than to summarize his answers to the objections and simply acknowledge our indebtedness. Page numbers in each case refer to Jesus and Jonah.

1.

Objection: Writers and speakers of every age and people speak of fictional characters and their experiences as if they were real, without, at the same time, assuming any objective reality for the existence or activities of those characters. Or, in relation to written works, they may refer to them without concerning themselves about their historicity, literary form, authorship or date of composition.

a.

McGarvey (19): If the hearers of Jesus had so understood the story of Jonah, the cases would be parallel; but it is notorious, and it is freely admitted that they understood the story to be true, and when, therefore, Jesus spoke of it as a true story, he deceived them if it was not.

b.

In other words, such allusions to fictional characters and experiences are permissible only where writer and readers or speaker and audience know where each other stands on the question of the objective non-existence of those characters. One can cite even Walt Disneys cartoon characters as illustrations without being thought a fool, so long as his audience is aware of where he stands on the question of their ultimate, objective reality. But where he gives the impression that he holds their view of the matter when he really disagrees, then he conveys a false impression.

2.

Objection: The reference to Jonah is an illustration and, as such, serves only to suggest a thought which does not rest, for its effectiveness as a means of conveying the thought, upon the full historical validity of the thing which serves as the basis for the illustration.

a.

McGarvey (20): The question is not whether an illustration drawn from a supposed fact would be invalidated by the discovery that the account of the fact is allegorical; but whether the particular use Jesus made of the story of Jonah implies that Jonah was in the fish . . . for if Jesus treated the story as historical in speaking to men who held it to be so, then He was either mistaken about it himself, or he deceived his hearers. There is no possible escape from this alternative.

b.

But granted that this is an illustration, what is thereby proved against the historicity of the story upon which the illustration is based? Again, McGarvey (21): The undoubted reality of the past fact is what gives force to the assertion respecting the future one. . . . If the Pharisees could have answered Jesus, as these critics now do, by saying, Very well, Master; Jonah was not in the bowels of the fish; they could have added: therefore, according to your own showing, you will not be in the heart of the earth. Instead of being an illustration of something . . . the remark was a solemn prediction of a fact yet to be, which should be analogous to one that certainly had been.

3.

Objection: The book of Jonah was a well-known didactic parable written expressly to communicate a great moral lesson. Hence, Jesus hearers would have understood His reference to that parable of Jonah and, consequently, He would not have given them a false impression.

a.

Who can prove, however, that the Jews of Jesus day understood the book of Jonah to be anything less than sober history?

b.

But for any sort of moral lesson to be taught, the audience must understand the reference made by the speaker. While it is possible and admissible to use fictitious characters or make reference to imaginary facts as if they were real, if Jesus were doing this, then, His hearers did not understand His allusion, since they thought Jonah to be history. If Jesus believed Jonah to be fiction, then He made a false impression, because He talked as if it were fact. (McGarvey, 23)

c.

So what is left is a Jesus that cannot be acquitted of the charge of intentional duplicity if He knew that the event was not real and yet used it to confirm their impression that it was. (McGarvey, 24)

Nor is there any hope of admitting a portion of the book of Jonah as containing a kernel of truth, while rejecting the rest as unhistorical, unreliable accretions of a later age. Some would teach that Jesus notice concerning Jonah may be trusted only to justify credence in that kernel of fact upon which the traditional exterior ultimately rests. But the traditional exterior which is passed over as unhistorical, unreliable accretions, that is, referred to in this manner by the critics, is precisely those elements that are miraculous. McGarvey (32) is right to notice that:

If the words of Jesus . . . prove that the narrative of Jonah rests ultimately upon a basis of fact; that the outlines of the narrative are historical, and that the Ninevites did actually repent, why does not his explicit declaration that Jonah was three days and three nights in the bowels of the sea monster prove that this also is historical? I am afraid, after all, that the ultimate reason for denying the credibility of the narrative is that which is the avowed reason of unbelieversan unwillingness to accept the miraculous in the storyand this is the very essence of skepticism.

Others, in the endeavor to relieve themselves from the dilemma of seeing Jesus committed to a position unfavorable to the skeptical critics, follow the expedient of pontificating that Jesus did not actually say this, the statement itself coming from some lesser voice. Compare Plummer (Matthew, 183):

There is no doubt that ver. 40 is part of the original text of this Gospel; it is absent from no MS. no version. But there is good reason for believing that it was no part of Christs reply on this occasion. 1. It is not in Luk. 11:29-32. 2. It does not fit the context, which speaks of preaching producing repentance and is in no way concerned with the Resurrection. 3. It would not be intelligible to Christs hearers, who knew nothing of His future Resurrection, 4, The parallel drawn between Jonah and Christ is not true. . . . But the facts will not justify the statement that Christs body was three days and three nights in the grave. . . . The verse may be a gloss which got into the authority which Mt. used; or it may be an insertion made by Mt. himself on the supposition that Christs mention of Jonah referred to him as a type of the Resurrection. . . .

But to deal with these arguments in detail it is necessary to observe that:

1.

While admitting for sake of argument that these two passages are parallel, the fact that this statement (Mat. 12:40) is not in Luk. 11:29-32 is no argument against its being reported by the eyewitness Matthew as over against Luke who was not present. And were even both men present to hear Jesus original reply, it does not follow that both would agree on a verbatim citation, as even a superficial examination of thousands of parallel synoptic Gospel texts reveals. However, it is debatable whether they be even parallel reports of the same event.

2.

The context speaks not merely of preaching producing repentance, but specifically of this captious demand for a sign, hurled at Jesus. This, and nothing else, is what called forth this answer of Jesus. Contrary to that skeptical mentality that refuses to admit the objective reality of any supernatural events, the Jewish mentality requires that a sign consist in some prediction which can not be manipulated by the one giving it, nor which can be foreseen or presupposed by normal human sagacity or foresight, i.e. that it be specifically supernatural in character. So the sign does not lie in some supposed contrast between the preaching of Jonah which produced the repentance of the Ninevites on the one hand, and the preaching of Jesus Christ which resulted in the impenitence of the unbelieving Jews, on the other. This, because the impenitence of the Jewish nation as a whole was already a foregone conclusion. If not, the standard procedure through Jewish history was the brutal rejection and murder of the living prophets and the hypocritical glorification of the dead ones. (Cf. Mat. 23:29-30) So, from a practical standpoint, there could be no sign, nothing supernatural, in predicting their refusal to repent. To think so is to ignore all that the Jews really intended to convey by their demand for a sign.

3.

To speak of Jesus future resurrection so those hearers would perhaps be unintelligible, but so what? Perhaps they would be unable to foresee the mechanics of that event, but what does their inability prove about the right or propriety of revealing otherwise unknowable truth? That is what revelations are for! Did Nicodemus instantly comprehend the new birth when Jesus tried to capitalize on that rabbis confession that You are a Teacher come from God? Rather than let Jesus teach him as One possessed of the requisite authority to reveal otherwise unknowable truth, Nicodemus began to argue against what he could not immediately comprehend, since, to him, the mechanics of the rebirth were quite unclear. No, the objection here is based upon the prejudice that God cannot reveal to man what he does not already know or what does not immediately appeal to his intelligence as right and proper. Even the Apostles themselves, before the resurrection actually occurred, stumbled at the clearest, unfigurative explanations of this event, but that did not hinder Jesus from continuing His patient efforts to reveal it to them. (Cf. Mat. 16:21-23; Mat. 17:22-23; Mat. 20:17-19)

4.

The objection, that sees the parallel between the experience of Jesus and Jonah as fundamentally false, since in no sense can it be said that the body of Jesus lay in the tomb a full three days and three nights, is based upon the mistaken notion that this phrase is literal and, hence, to be considered the most precise expression of the schedule of events governing the Last Week of Jesus life. But that this phrase is not in any sense literal nor intended strictly to govern the time schedule for the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord is proved by the following considerations:

a.

If we must understand Jesus literally here, we must also expect Him to prophesy His own resurrection elsewhere as taking place on the FOURTH day, if He is to remain in the tomb literally three days and three nights, no more and no less. But this He never says. It is always on the third day or after three days, which are two exactly parallel statements of a Hebrew idiom, as a careful analysis of the various Synoptic texts will verify. (Cf. Mat. 16:21 and Luk. 9:22 with Mat. 8:31; Mat. 17:23 with Mar. 9:31; Mat. 20:19 and Luk. 18:33 with Mar. 10:34; also Luk. 24:7; Luk. 24:46 and Joh. 2:13) Surely Jesus Himself understood His own language when He explained elsewhere to His disciples what He meant here when put under pressure by the scribes to furnish them a sign. Therefore, unless we are to accuse the Lord of self-contradiction, we must permit Him the usual liberties to use language as men normally use it and we must look elsewhere (other than to a literal meaning) for the correct interpretation.

b.

One possible explanation of these seemingly precise words is that we have here in idiomatic Jewish usage which must be interpreted according to Jewish patterns of speech and not by the way Gentiles use the same words. Study of the following passages in their contexts will reveal that the Semitic mind habitually expressed time sequences in relatively precise language whereas only an approximative time element is intended. (Cf. Gen. 42:17-18; Est. 4:15-17; Est. 5:1; 2Ki. 12:5; 2Ki. 12:12; 1Kg. 20:29; 1Sa. 30:12-13; cf. even Cornelius manner of reckoning time, Act. 10:3-30. Or is the entire account retold from the Semitic standpoint of Peter or some other who served as Lukes informant?) Thus, this usage among the Hebrews of counting a part of a day for a whole day really existed. Further, the chronology of Jewish kings is notoriously problematic due to the habit (to us, frustrating) of counting a part of a year for an entire year. While this usage is perhaps strange to the western ear, this strangeness does not cancel its real existence in Semitic speech patterns. Taken in this sense, then, Jesus is speaking as a typical Semite when He says three days and three nights, but means no more than sometime within a period of three days more or less.

c.

Another possible explanation of these seemingly precise words is the fact that this expression is part of a sign, or a prophecy of things that must come to pass in the future, and like all prophecies, must be handled according to the normal exegetical rules governing the proper interpretation of prophecies. One such rule most pertinent here is that the sign, or prophecy, must be interpreted in the light of its actual fulfillment and not on the basis of any meaning attached to its words that would disregard that fulfilment. This same prophecy, or sign, was stated literally elsewhere. (See under 4a above.)

d.

Jesus Jewish enemies understood Him to mean less than 72 hours. (Mat. 27:62-64) Their testimony to the meaning of this expression is invaluable in that they were the most interested in seeing the failure of what they considered the most iniquitous imposture, and yet it was to this very class that Jesus addressed the sign in question in precisely the language recorded by Matthew.

e.

Luke names the days involved in the Last Week schedule of the death, burial and resurrection as Friday (paraskeu, translatable as preparation for some festival day, as here, the Sabbath, or rendered as the normal Greek word for Friday), Saturday (the Sabbath), and Sunday (the first day of the week). See Luk. 23:54 to Luk. 24:1. Matthew, though less obviously, is just as clear: evening after Jesus crucifixion (Mat. 27:57), Next day, that is, after the day of Preparation (Mat. 27:62) or sabbath (Mat. 28:1) and first day of the week (Mat. 28:1). Similarly, Mark follows much the same pattern: Mar. 15:42; Mar. 16:1-2, as does Joh. 19:31; Joh. 19:42; Joh. 20:1).

The great obstacle in question is not whether the story of Jonah be credible and worthy of God or not, for Jesus authority vouches for its authenticity. The insurmountable problem lies in trying to prove that OT account to be anything but true history. McGarvey (Jesus and Jonah, 61) argues that if the story of Jonah is not history, it is, of course, a piece of fiction . . . which originated in the brain of an Israelite. But that this alternative is itself even more incredible than the view it is invented to supplant, is proven by the following considerations suggested by McGarvey:

1.

It is incredible . . . that any Israelite, capable of conceiving and of writing such a story, would be so irreverent toward one of the great prophets of his nation as to make him act the part ascribed to Jonah . . .

2.

It is still more incredible that the leaders of the chosen people at any period of their history would have allowed such a document a place among their sacred books . . .

3.

No Israelite, inventing a story of Gods dealings with a great Gentile city like Nineveh, would have represented him as being so regardful of the welfare of its people, so quick to forgive their sins, and so tenderly mindful of the innocent within its walls, Especially would no Israelite write a story whose culminating point was a stern rebuke of his nation for animosity toward an oppressive heathen power. . . .

4.

This incredibility is intensified when we consider the date assigned to the Book of Jonah by those who hold it to be fictitious. . . . A Jew of a later age would be the last man on earth to invent a story showing tender regard for (Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire) on the part of Israels God. . . . The farther down the stream of time you bring the date of the book, the more incredible that it could have obtained the place which we know it did obtain in the sacred writings of the Jews.

While their arguments are largely based upon psychological probabilities, which in no sense can be considered mathematically certain however likely they may seem, and so could be rejected as hypotheses contrary to fact, still the canonization of Jonahs book by Jewish leaders is a fact, a fact that is explicable only on the hypothesis that its history was objectively too true and documented to permit them the right to reject it.

In the heart of the earth need mean no more than within the earth, since it is a common expression used without its literal signification. (Cf. Deu. 4:11; Eze. 27:4; Eze. 27:25 ff.; Jon. 2:3; Psa. 46:2) Nothing is here affirmed of the depth of Jesus future entombment nor of the exact location of Hades, but simply the reality of that burial. It does not really matter whether He means simply the grave of Joseph of Arimathea or Hades, because for the purpose of the sign, the meaning is the same. (Cf. Luk. 23:43; Act. 2:27; Act. 2:31; Eph. 4:9; 1Pe. 3:19?)

D. JESUS CONDEMNATION WELL GROUNDED (12:41, 42)
1. NINEVITES HEARD ONLY THE PROPHET JONAH (12:41)

Mat. 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. If God be the Judge, how is it true that ancient pagans could be said to condemn anyone? In the sense that anyone who fulfills what is required of all, condemns those who fail to do what was in their power, because the former prove that all COULD have done their duty and that any who do not do so are left without excuse for their failure. In this case the duty, required of both the men of Nineveh and the Jews of this generation in which Jesus lived, was repentance. God is still the Judge and He will be justified in the verdict He renders against the unrepentant Jews by the fact that the Ninevites proved that repentance toward God is both humanly possible and the right response of the generosity of God.

But why would the Ninevites condemn this generation? Because Christs preaching was based upon far better attested evidence than that of Jonahs. Did God accompany Jonahs ministry with the variety and abundance of undoubted supernatural evidences of the divine authority of his message, as He had done for His Son? If not, those Gentile Ninevites had far more reason to demand signs of that foreign prophet from a tiny subject kingdom than did this generation of Gods chosen people, nevertheless those godless pagans repented and this nation of God-fearing Jews did not. Apparently the men of Nineveh received the marvelous story of Jonahs deliverance as sign enough and proof enough that he truly spoke for the living God, so they believed his message. McGarvey (Jesus and Jonah, 56) imaginatively fills out the picture thus:

When be began to cry out in the streets of Nineveh, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, the question necessarily went from lip to lip, Who is this? The answer, that it was the great prophet of Israel, by whose supernatural foresight the victories of Jeroboam, running through a period of forty years, had been won, was enough to arrest solemn attention; but when it was added that on first receiving the command to come and utter this cry, he tried to escape the task by running away, and sailing far out upon the sea, but that Jehovah, who had given the command, overtook him, brought him back in the bowels of a fish, cast him out alive on dry land, and then renewed the command, this added tenfold power to the word of the prophet.

The Ninevites honesty in receiving the sign and preaching offered them, however limited the number of signs and sermons, was still Gentile honesty, because it originated outside the pale of Jewish advantages and enlightenment. But the Jewish response to Jesus, coming as it did from a people endowed with four thousand years of rich history of the wonderful dealings of the living God, a people who, rather than face up to the moral responsibility required of them by the abundance and variety of signs provided them in support of the message of Jesus of Nazareth, would dare to demand some proof of His authority, can be described as nothing less than callous dishonesty and moral irresponsibility! Gods standard of judgment here, as everywhere, is: According to the light against which you have sinned will be your judgment. (Cf. Luk. 12:47-48; 2Pe. 2:21; Jas. 4:17. Study other examples of Jesus use of the superior quality of Gentiles response to God despite great handicaps, in order to throw into greater contrast Jewish unbelief notwithstanding their excellent opportunities to know God and do far better. Mat. 8:10-12; cf. Mat. 15:22-28; Luk. 11:32; Luk. 13:23-30; Luk. 17:11-19; Mat. 21:43; Mat. 22:1-14. See also the examples where pagan cities, because of lack of opportunities, will be punished with less severity than privileged Jewish cities who knew Jesus: Mat. 10:15; Mat. 11:22-24; Luk. 10:12; Luk. 10:14.)

The men of Nineveh . . . shall condemn this generation. Here is further evidence of the uniqueness of Jesus message, proof that He does not intend to express the aspiration of His age, for, instead of picturing the nation of Israel as standing in judgment of the Gentiles, He affirms that these Gentiles will condemn the Jews. Our limited knowledge of rabbinic thought current in Jesus day does not permit us to pontificate about all the views of His contemporaries. However, we may timidly ask where was the rabbi that dared raise his voice to take so radical a view of Jewish culpability, as does Jesus here? We ask this, since we do not know who would have been spiritually mature enough as to be able to conceive an idea so inimical to all that Maccabeanism and its spiritual children stood for.

Further, Jesus clearly sees the outcome of judgment that only Jehovah could know with certainty. Who is this that dares place His own people on the balances with those penitent pagans only to find Israel condemned? Who is this that sees the outcome of the proclamation of His own death and resurrection so clearly as to be able to warn His people that the Jews of that age would reject that future sign and thus seal their fate?

They repented at the preaching of Jonah (metensan eis t krugma Ion) Faith-only groups who would deny any connection between obedience to Christ in Christian baptism and remission of sins hope to sustain this theory by appeal to this passage and Luk. 11:32 as evidence for a special use of the Greek preposition eis. Eis is used in Act. 2:38 in the phrase for remission of sins (eis fesin tn hamartin) where most translators render the phrase: for the remission, in order to receive forgiveness, so that your sins will be forgiven, etc. But since those, who exaggerate the solo fede principle as to exclude baptism from the plan of salvation, must dispose of the damaging evidence of such texts on salvation as Act. 2:38; they think themselves to have found in the Greek phrase the solution to their quandary. Upon superficial examination of our texts (i.e. Mat. 12:41 and Luk. 11:32), it would seem that evidence for some other translation of the Greek preposition might have been discovered.

It is argued that the Ninevites repented eis t krugma Ion, i.e. because of the preaching of Jonah. Therefore, it is said, it is proper to translate Act. 2:38 in harmony with the faith only view as follows: Repent . . . and be baptized . . . because of the forgiveness of your sins, i.e. because your sins have been forgiven. That there is a causal use of the preposition eis is affirmed by grammarians and lexicographers, as, for example, Dana and Mantey, A Mannual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 104; Robertson and Davis, New Short Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 256; Arndt and Gingrich, Lexicon, 227229. However the best evidence upon which they affirm the causal use of eis is based principally upon Mat. 12:41 and Luk. 11:32. The weakness of this evidence lies in the fact that it ignores the usual meaning assigned to the word krugma: proclamation, announcement, preaching. (Arndt-Gingrich, 432) Nouns ending in ma are regularly and primarily considered the result of the action implied in the verb from which they are formed. (Chamberlain, Exegetical Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 12) Thus, the krugma of Jonah was not the action of preaching, but the thing preached by him, i.e. the message itself. While it is historically true that the Ninevites repented because Jonah preached to them (Jon. 3:5-10), this is not a proper translation of what Jesus said. Rather, Jesus said, . . . for they turned to the message preached by Jonah . . . (Mat. 12:41 and Luk. 11:32, Charles B. Williams translation. Or, as Plummer (Luke, 307, 308) has it: In accordance with the preaching they repented; i.e. they turned towards it and conformed to it; compare . . . 2Ti. 2:26; or else, out of regard to it they repented. That the repentance of the Ninevites was directed toward (eis) a definite end which formed the form and substance of Jonahs message is well-known. (Consider ;other examples of this use of eis: Joh. 3:16-19; Joh. 3:36; Joh. 1:12; Joh. 2:11; Joh. 2:23; Joh. 6:29; Joh. 6:35; Joh. 6:40; Act. 10:43; Act. 14:23; Act. 19:4; Act. 20:21; Act. 24:24; Rom. 10:9-10; Act. 20:21; 2Ti. 2:25; Act. 26:18; Act. 11:18; Luk. 24:47) Thus a well-meant attempt to prove that Peter meant be baptized because your sins have already been forgiven fails of necessary proof, because it cannot be sustained from our present text. The repentance of the Ninevites was their definite move toward (eis), their willing entrance into (eis) harmony with all that was the burden of Jonahs message. Whereas their former conduct had led them to turn their backs upon righteousness, sobriety and fear of God, the kind of conduct which was the very opposite to that which Jonahs oracle proclaimed, their repentance was their personal commitment to (eis) all the moral implications that his krugma demanded.

Behold, a greater than Jonah is here. (Cf. this saying with Mat. 12:6 with which Matthew places it in context. Is pleon, more, different in practical emphasis from mezon, greater?) Lenski (Matthew, 495) is right to notice that the neuter pleon includes everything the Jews had in Christ. Jesus is claiming that right in the presence of these dishonest critics and prejudiced authorities was something far more important, something of greater proportions than Jonah. Whereas the neuter something might tend to draw the mind to the many, convincing signs that had characterized His ministry, or perhaps to the ministry itself, the very mention of the man Jonah as the standard of comparison brings us back to the unstated implication: I, Jesus, am greater than that inspired prophet whose message called forth from his pagan audience the most amazing demonstration of repentance! He is fully justified in severely censuring His own people, since He had already proven Himself, beyond any reasonable doubt, to be superior to the great prophets of the past to whom these Pharisees gave full honors and yet pretended to be unable to recognize the proper Messianic identity and dignity of Jesus.

2. THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTH HEARD ONLY SOLOMON (12:42)

Mat. 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. This is obviously a second example reinforcing the point stated in the foregoing illustration, and, as such, becomes the historical validation of those OT texts. (1Ki. 10:1-13; 2Ch. 9:1-12) Here again the same arguments are valid that were used in reference to the historicity of Jonah, for, had the Pharisees been able to deny that the Queen of the South ever came to Palestine to visit Solomon, or that Solomon really never possessed his fabled wisdom, then they could also have retorted: Your claim to possess a wisdom superior to that of Solomon is an empty boast.

The Queen of the South had received authentic, though somewhat partial, news of Solomons wisdom. Her felt need, her longing for greater wisdom than she possessed, was sufficient to cause her to make the long, arduous journey, ignoring the hardships, dangers, time and expense involved, to hear him. Her diligence in seeking out that wisdom stands in bold contrast to the attempted neutrality and cold indifference of Jesus own people. She was also outside the influence of the Mosaic economy, hence, not blessed with the enormous advantages and opportunities to know God as did the chosen people. Therefore, even though it was the famed wisdom of Solomon that drew her, by which the Lord glorified Himself in him, and even though she felt compelled to exclaim her praise for Jehovah his God for His love for Israel that had placed such a man on the throne, yet there is no impelling evidence in the OT record that she was converted to Hebrew monotheism, since her acknowledgement of Jehovah as Israels God, was reconcilable with polytheism. (Keil, Kings, 160) And this is what we would expect of her: that she return to her own realm with serious doubts about her former paganism, that she live up to the light available to her. In the record she speaks consistently of Jehovah as your God, as if she did not claim Him as her own. (Cf. 1Ki. 10:9; 2Ch. 9:8)

The wisdom of Solomon, the point of comparison here, was of a practical sort, the best human psychology for excellent human relations. But its origin was a God-given gift that manifested itself in the finest practical philosophy man has yet seen. This is at the same time its greatness and its limitation, since it was not particularly presented as a divine revelation to save men from their sins. There were definite religious overtones and a positively religious basis, but Solomon sought his psycho-sociological orientation within the religious framework of the Mosaic system. (Study Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to sense this.) The most religious maxims in his work presuppose a complete religious system explained elsewhere.

With this view of the Queen of the South and of the wisdom of Solomon, we begin to discern that the second illustration is not exactly equal to the first. Rather, Jesus has moved, with excellent rhetorical effect, to an illustration involving a pagan who, though deeply moved by her contact with Hebrew monotheism, apparently did not become converted to it, in contrast with the Ninevites who actually repented. Further, in contrast to the preaching of a divinely inspired message by Jonah, we have in this illustration only the wisdom of Solomon. As a seeker after truth and as an expounder of great wisdom and knowledge, Solomon and the Queen of the South make an excellent point of contrast wherewith Jesus may censure His own privileged age. Solomons truly great erudition was so far inferior to the grand revelations of Him who is the Wisdom of God personified, and yet Gods own people could not recognize that same Wisdom right in their midst, in their own land! And, as will be discussed in connection with Jesus use of parables to hide truth about the Kingdom while, at the same time revealing it, we see that the Jews in general did not take the trouble to understand what was not clear and well-founded in the message of Christ. They just wrote Him off as a religious fanatic. Despite their great advantages to know by personal investigation, they just did not care that much about truth,

Greater than Solomon: on the neuter pleon see on Mat. 12:41 and on mezon at Mat. 12:6. Here again the neuter (pleon) speaks of all that Christ represented to the Jewish people, He had been laying before them the eternal wisdom of God and they did nothing but scorn it. But that ancient queen condemns not only those unbelievers, but all who cannot discern in this young rabbi from Nazareth all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3) nor see in the face of Christ the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. (2Co. 4:4; 2Co. 4:6)

The obvious conclusion to be drawn from Jesus words is that every man is judged according to the light against which he has sinned. What would the Lord say to the Twentieth Century? You have enjoyed even greater opportunities to investigate the truth, granted the historical perspective of twenty centuries. The Christians who lived out their lives in the early years of the Church and sought out the truth, with far less advantages that you, will rise up in judgment against your generation to the very extent that it does not live up to its privileges and the knowledge of Gods will that it could have obtained. Batclay (Matthew, II, 56) rightly concludes that in Jesus we are confronted with God; and the one real question in life is: What is our reaction when we are confronted with God in Jesus Christ? Do we see in Him a revelation of God greater than the inspired prophets of the Old Testament, a wisdom greater than the wisest man who has ever lived? Do we bend every effort to know the truth, regardless of the expense involved, and then, having found it, submit to it, even to the extent of the humiliation of repentance?

E. WARNING: THE DANGER OF THE UNCOMMITTED LIFE (12:4345)

Earlier (Mat. 11:16-19), Jesus had described the moral caliber of His generation by dramatizing them as fickle children playing in the marketplace whom no one could satisfy. Here His tone is graver as He likens them to a demonized man! (Cf. Luk. 11:24-26) This is a parable illustrating the fundamental impossibility of neutrality, indecision and inaction where truth can be known and when that truth requires a positive response. The text for this story may well be Mat. 12:30 (Cf. Luk. 11:23 as context for this same illustration.)

But the unclean spirit (cf. Mat. 10:1; Mar. 1:23; Mar. 3:11; Mar. 3:30; Mar. 5:2; Mar. 5:8; Mar. 5:13; Luk. 4:33; Luk. 6:18; Luk. 9:42) When he is gone out of the man: by what instrumentality the demon leaves his victim, Jesus does not say. Since the demon thinks himself free to return to his old habitation (Mat. 12:44) and proves his thesis correct (Mat. 12:45), we might conclude that the demon was not cast out by Jesus, for His stern rebuke, given in the case of the demonized boy, specifically forbade the demons return. (Cf. Mar. 9:25) Considering the completeness of Jesus cures, many presume His practice to have been uniform and His attitude the same at all other times. On the other hand, demons are not notoriously obedient to the will of God however expressed. Further, the very prohibition of the demons return in the case cited suggests that, had Jesus not so spoken, the demon would have returned. Passeth through waterless places: why waterless? Is this an example of Jesus accommodation of His language to a popular superstition connected with contemporary demonology? Or is He actually revealing something that demons really do? (Cf. Isa. 34:14; Bar. 4:35; Tob. 8:3) Concerning this problematic expression McGarvey (Jesus and Jonah, 15) wrote:

While it would be hazardous to make it the basis of a demonology for which he is to be held responsible, he certainly is to be held responsible for the remark itself. If an evil spirit, when he left a man, did not frequent waterless places, I should be glad to learn from Professor T. what kind of places he did frequent.

The critics are thus forced by Jesus assertion to prove that demons do NOT in fact frequent and areas, in order to demonstrate His words as mere accommodation to popular demonologies. The present state of their knowledge of demons does not permit them such pontifical powers. They too are dependent upon the Gospel narratives for much of their information on this subject and merely betray an unscientific bias when they begin arbitrarily to sift out what information seems to suit their preconceived notions as to what can be true about demons. Seeking rest and finding it not may be just part of the scenery of the parable and intended to reveal nothing about the spirit world. It serves to explain why the unclean spirit wanted to return to his old habitat. But this rigidly limited information does not permit us to speculate further about the mentality or habits of demons.

It might well be questioned whether Jesus intends to provide us a rudimentary lesson in demonology while teaching on an entirely different subject, and not rather a simple parable the details of which are not to be pressed to provide information on demons. That this is a parable is clear not only from the moral indicated at its close, but also from its application to the Jewish unbelievers. But to describe this story as a parable, does not need to imply that what Jesus says about demons therein must, therefore, be impossible or incorrect so far as it goes. Even though this information may not have been offered to provide some insight into demonology, nevertheless it could have been just as much to Jesus purpose to give us correct information on demons as to invent a fable to teach His truth, even though fables function remarkably well to reveal a truth. The Lord knows better than anyone then or now how demons act and is probably speaking accordingly in this parable. If He did not speak in harmony with reality, we cannot know it and He certainly missed an excellent opportunity to cast some light onto that dark page of spiritual reality. Granted, His major thrust has nothing to do with demonology, but with what is the fundamental meaning and application of this story, i.e., the empty heart of a Judaism purified but uncommitted. But though this is admittedly a question of probabilities and not one of certainties, yet, until we are prepared to demonstrate the details of Jesus story to be unrealistic in their portrayal of demonic thought or behavior, we remain dependent upon His words for any information we have.

The man who is the victim of the demons caprice is this evil generation (Mat. 12:45), so what happens to him is but a picture of the vicissitudes of Jesus contemporaries who were even then rejecting Him. The fortunes of the demonized man represent the nation under the present spiritual domination of the scribes and Pharisees and the party bosses of the other movements and parties competing for the attention of the nation. Because Jesus mention of the last state of the man (Mat. 12:45) suggests an earlier period when lesser evils plagued him, and as this last stage of his condition coincided with this evil generation, it is necessary to recognize the historical precedents that lay the groundwork for his later condition. A. B. Bruce (Expositors Greek Testament, Synoptic Gospels, 193) thinks that:

It is not at all likely that Christs view was limited to the period dating from Johns ministry. Moral laws need large spaces of time for adequate exemplification. The most instructive exemplification of the degeneracy described is supplied by the period from Ezra till Christs time. With Ezra was ended material idolatry. But from that period dates the reign of legalism, which issued in Rabbinism, a more subtle and pernicious idolatry of the letter, the more deadly that it wore the fair aspect of zeal for God and righteousness.

Jesus is painting the outlines of Jewish history in which the nation has been liberated of its bent for idolatry since the time of the Babylonian exile and remained free from its allurements during the Maccabean revival. But this temporary repentance from the worship of wooden gods was merely succeeded by a reverence for the letter of Gods law which proved so fatal to the true spirit of the worship and true service of God. Into the shrine, emptied of its idolatries, had swept the Pharisean scrupulosity and Sadducean liberalism, Herodian worldliness, the unrealism of the Essenes and the nationalistic bigotry of the Zealots, all so much more deadly because the old gods had been merely substituted by anything but submission to God. Is the superficial repentance and revival partially a reference to the flurry of religious activity promoted by the disciples of John the Baptist who had not also become disciples of the Christ? Is there also a reference here to the activity of Jesus, intended to bless and free Israel from the very evils to which it must necessarily fall victim when this evil generation will finally crucify Him who is their last hope?

Mat. 12:44 Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out. The demon still considers it his own dwelling, as God had not been invited in to occupy every room in it. My house, as a phrase, does not decide the question whether the demon has been driven out, for he could still describe his former habitation this way, even if driven out, especially if he suspected it yet empty of occupancy since his departure.

And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Empty (scholzonta, unoccupied, standing empty), not occupied by any compelling force, not positively committed to any cause, neutral. Why should Israel remain uncommitted to the will of God in the face of the great issues with which it was continually faced?

1.

The man on the street was probably too absorbed in the every day business of making a living to concern himself seriously in seeking out and submitting himself to the truth.

2.

Others, confused by the great debates between the learned rabbis, may have excused themselves on the basis of theological incompetence and so left it to the experts.

3.

Yet others, seeing the truth and admitting that Jesus was right, were afraid to take an unpopular stand,

4.

Others may have desired merely to be left alone, since they wished to be undisturbed by hard decisions.

5.

Some may have begun to grasp the spirit of adventure involved in the spiritual messiahship of Christ, but preferred the security of the old ways, rather than launch out taking the risks required by the adventure.

There were probably as many reasons as there were people who held back and, for one reason or another, did not bow to the will of God in Jesus Christ. But in all these excuses there is one common element. Morgan (Matthew, 135) describes this spiritual vacuum in the heart of Israel: There was no indweller, possessing, holding, mastering . . . (Contrast with this state of affairs: Rom. 8:9; 1Co. 3:16; 1Co. 6:19; 2Co. 6:16; Eph. 2:21-22; Joh. 14:23,) Jesus criticism cuts to the heart of Judaism: Your religion has only made you empty; it cannot fill you, It leaves you the easy victim of any power that can fill that vacuum!

Swept clean of all the repulsive foulness of idolatry and heathenism. Garnished (kekosmmnon, Arndt-Gingrich, 445: 1. Put in order; 2. Adorn, decorate.), but not filled. Decorated with the external beauty of Pharisaic devotion to the study and practice of the letter of the Law, the nation was living an outwardly reformed life characterized by empty virtue and hypocrisy and hollow ceremonies. God is not there, the only One who could have successfully resisted Satan. (Cf. Mat. 12:29)

Mat. 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. A total of eight spirits is not unusual, since, the Gospel writers describe cases of multiple demonization. (Luk. 8:2; Mar. 5:9 = Luk. 8:30) Spirits more evil: what could be more repulsive, more foul than idolatry? Pride, unbelief, fanaticism, greed, self-righteousness, formalism, hypocrisy and, worst of all, rejection of Israels Messiah! It must be noted here that Jesus never confuses demon-possession for sinfulness, nor does He ever identify demons simply with sins or even temptations to sin. Let us not make that mistake either. Nevertheless, it is very true that the basic teaching of this parable, which speaks exclusively of real demons as the basis of comparison, may find splendid application in reference to the vacuous religious life out of which certain evil practices have been removed without transforming the resulting idleness into positive Christian activity that leaves no room nor time for evil because filled with all the fulness of God. Dwell there (katoike): just as God is said to dwell in the Temple, i.e. make His permanent abode there (cf. Mat. 23:21, katoikowti), so these demons wander no longer, but take full possession of their victim. There is nothing said here of a forced entry into the dwelling, since there is everything about the house to invite habitation and nothing to prohibit it. The first demon did not need the others to help him force an entrance, nor are they described as being especially stronger than he. They are only more evil than he.

And the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. This sentence is the turning point in the Lords parable, belonging as well to the application as to the story itself. Vicious evils, both more in number and virulence than those once repented of, can take over the unfilled life. (Cf. 2Pe. 2:20; Joh. 5:14; Heb. 6:6; Heb. 10:26 f.) And with these evils, of course, comes the attendant responsibility and greater guilt. (Joh. 15:22-24) Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation. While this statement, stated in the future tense, menaces a dreadful future, there is still opportunity to repent. Plummer (Matthew, 185) observes:

They have not reached this desperate condition yet, but they are in danger of it, and some of them will reach it. The warning is similar to that about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which He does not say that they have committed, although they were near it.

But this hope is almost academic, since the very nature of this spiritual hardness practically eliminates the possibility that Israel would yet turn to God in any great numbers. This evil generation (t gene tat t ponr) is no merely technical, eschatological term referring to the entire Hebrew race clear down to the last trumpet. On the contrary, it is a practical expression that precisely pinpoints Jesus accusation upon the Jews then living and rejecting the real life and hope He was even then offering. (Cf. Mat. 11:16; Mat. 12:39; Mat. 12:41-42; Mat. 12:45; Mat. 17:17; Mat. 16:4; Mat. 23:36; Mat. 24:34; Luk. 11:29-32; Luk. 11:50-51; Luk. 17:25; Luk. 21:32) This generation means those people who, with the living lessons of Hebrew religion before their eyes and with the echo of the voice of John the Baptist ringing in their ears, had merely cleaned up their lives superficially, removing only the grosser, cruder sins of the flesh but leaving untouched the sins of the spirit and the depleted spiritual power and untenanted temple of their hearts. They had not surrendered the habitation and control of their life to its rightful Owner. (Study Malachi 3) By leaving the word generation general and unapplied, the Lord leaves the hearer free to feel its implications either in the formal expression of the Jewish life and religion or in his own personal emptiness before God. By attacking Judaism at its best and finding it wanting, Jesus own message stands out as the only true alternative. Thus, the Lord has met the opposition by claiming that His teaching was absolutely essential to fill human need, leaving no place for the return of the vileness that had so permeated its existence before. This is a clear claim to absolute religious authority, if not to Deity itself, because, after all, who could speak with such finality about the whole generation of which he is a part and be unable to find any redeeming feature in its people, its priesthood, its government, its religion, its popular ideals, its practical ethics and its national hopes? The Lord had already explained His charge. (Cf. Mat. 12:39 Notes) That evil generation felt the full blow of Jesus condemnation when God permitted the Romans to destroy them to the uttermost within just a few short years after this pronouncement, never to rise again for nearly two millennia. (1Th. 2:16)

It is interesting to observe that this vigorous battle of ideas began with the Pharisees accusation that Jesus was demon-possessed (Mar. 3:22; Mar. 3:30), but Jesus does not terminate it without first proving conclusively that the Jews themselves were so very much like a man repossessed by eight vicious demons! But this is no mere tit for tat rebuttal or name-calling, because Jesus can see the true nature of His people more clearly than any other contemporary observer. But He is no Judge to remain in the ivory tower of heaven to condemn but a compassionate Savior who labored incessantly to save that very generation! Instead of complacency and self-justification, we find in Him that deep concern and pained patriotism that longs for the salvation of these very opponents who refuse to see that their very accusation itself is symptomatic of the disease which they believe to diagnose in Him.

From the Masters application of His parable, we are able to discern profound lessons for ourselves, suggested by Barclay (Matthew, II, 57):

1.

The mere removal of a few of the fouler, more repulsive sins of which we are guilty, and the temporary victories over Satan, must not be confused for the final, decisive triumph over sin. So long as self is alive in the individual, the evil once banished from his life has not yet been destroyed. This is why the total filling of ones life with all the fulness of Christ is so very important. (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17-19)

2.

Out of the foregoing comes the observation that mere negative religion can never suffice to hold virulent evil at bay. Those whose piety consists entirely of the observance of Gods prohibitions are only half-armed against the assaults of Satan whose delight is unbounded when he can convince anyone that doing nothing is as good and useful for the promotion of godliness as doing positive acts of useful helpfulness to others.

3.

Consequently, the Church that would keep her converts permanently saved from sin will find this task easy in proportion to her success in giving them Christian work to do.

FACT QUESTIONS

1.

Explain the position of the scribes and Pharisees in Judaism, showing the theoretic reasonableness of the request they made of Jesus.

2.

Explain why Jesus refusal to comply with their request is more reasonable than the request itself.

3.

Explain why Jesus complied with their request, even though He had sufficient grounds for refusing.

4.

In what way was Jonah a sign to the Ninevites? Does Luk. 11:30 relate here?

5.

In what way, was Jesus to be a sign to His generation?

6.

Narrate briefly the story of Jonahs ministry to Ninevah showing the relevance of Jesus use of that experience as proof of His identity. In what respect is the sign that Jesus offers the scribes and Pharisees similar to Jonahs experience?

7.

Explain the judicial principle involved in the fact that both the Ninevites and the Queen of the South will stand up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. How is it possible for one group of human beings to condemn another group of people, all of which are imperfect?

8.

What is that something greater than either Jonah or Solomon? Did Jesus intend two separate items that in each case are greater than the two men named, or did He mean one item of surpassing value, illustrated from two separate angles? Are there other possible translations of this phrase that shed a different light on the meaning? Why is this something actually greater?

9.

What generation was the object of Jesus condemnation of this generation?

10.

State the occasion upon which Jesus had spoken of His resurrection as a sign before this. Note whatever similarities may exist between the several situations in which He gave this sign.

11.

Explain the Jewish usage involved in the phrases: three days and three nights. What do the Gospel writers describe as the fulfilment of this expression?

12.

Did Jesus fulfil the sign of Jonah? How? When?

13.

How does the story of the seven demons in a beautiful apartment connect with Jesus teaching on signs and on repentance?

14.

What is repentance, as illustrated in the account of Jonah?

15.

How much may be learned about demonology from the story of the demon here narrated? If nothing, why not? If so, what information is to be gained?

16.

Explain how that generation of Jews was like the demon-possessed man.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(38) Master, we would see a sign from thee.The order varies slightly from that in St. Luke, in which the demand for a sign follows on the parable of the unclean spirit returning to his house. In both, however, the sequence of thought appears the same. The tone of authority, as of one who is the judge of all men, leads to the challengeGive us a sign by which you may convince us that you have a right thus to speak.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

38. Master, we would see a sign This asking for a sign seemed to be a standing demand, made at different times; by the scribes and Pharisees, as here; by the Pharisees with the Sadducees in Mat 16:1; Mat 16:4; and by the people in Luk 11:16; Luk 11:29. See also Joh 6:30; 1Co 1:22. Our Lord uniformly not only refused compliance, but rebuked the request. From this, some skeptics have boldly inferred that our Lord could not furnish the sign; and that he really performed no miracles; since miracles are signs. To these cavils, perhaps answers will appear in the course of our remarks. But we may here remark that although a miracle is in a true sense a sign, yet there is a difference between a miracle and a sign. A miracle is a work going forth from our Lord’s own power and act. A sign would be some divine token, given from some other source, as a confirmatory seal of his Messiahship. Now, as miracles going out from our Lord’s power were proper and true manifestations of himself, it was upon proof of those that our Lord rightly held that he was to be received. He claimed to be accepted for what he himself was or did. What the Jews at this time sought, as appears from Luke, was a sign from heaven; and it is probable that they had in their minds what in Mat 24:30, is called “the sign of the Son of man in heaven;” that is, the glory of his approaching presence, preceding and betokening him. And this is explained in Dan 7:13, where the Son of man, with his glory in the heavens, is described, exhibiting the Lord in the same array of state, though not upon the same occasion. The Jews may have identified this glorious manifestation in the skies with the Messiah’s first advent or coming. And as it was, possibly, this sign of the Son of man, or manifestation in the heavens, which the Jews now had in their thoughts in asking a celestial sign, so hence we have a good reason why our Lord does not grant their request. It was out of the divine order; inasmuch as that glorious appearing belonged to his second coming in power and judgment, and not to his first coming in humiliation and for salvation. But see notes on Mat 16:1-4.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we would see a sign from you.”

‘Then’ is a connecting word (compare Mat 12:22) and, like most connecting words in the Gospels, must not be overpressed. It indicates a loose connection to give some indication of continuity, without being specific.

‘Certain of the Scribes and Pharisees’ may indicate an official deputation, or may simply indicate that not all Scribes and Pharisees were to be seen as involved. Not all Scribes and Pharisees behaved wrongly towards Jesus.

“Teacher, we would see a sign from you.” They came seeking a sign, something typical of Jewish thinking (compare Mat 16:1-4; 1Co 1:22). Their Scriptures had taught them to expect the spectacular. Later Rabbinic writings would speak of Rabbis proving themselves on request by turning water into blood, or moving trees some distance, or making a river move backwards. Compare Moses (Exo 4:9) and Hezekiah (Isa 38:8). They were, of course, legends, but they demonstrated the kind of things that the Rabbis saw as a sign. They would have loved the one suggested by Satan (not a good source for suggestions) that He throw Himself off the roof of the Temple. But of what would they have been convinced? It would not have changed their attitudes towards Jesus’ teaching. It would not have changed their hearts. The children of Israel who saw all the signs of Moses still had to perish in the wilderness because of unbelief and disobedience.

‘Teacher.’ A regular address to Jesus by Scribes, Pharisees, and others seeking to be polite. In each case they were those who would see themselves as at least on a level with Him in status (Mat 8:19; Mat 9:11; Mat 17:24; Mat 19:16; Mat 22:16, Mat 24:36). And it was even used by Jesus speaking of Himself (Mat 26:18). It therefore here ranks Jesus alongside other teachers, including Solomon in his capacity as a wisdom teacher.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Sign from Heaven and a Warning.

A request:

v. 38. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee.

The emphatic manner of speaking which Christ had been employing may not have been without influence upon some of His hearers. Some of those that were not yet open blasphemers may have been sincere enough in asking for some proof of Messianic authority in making such statements. On the other hand, the connection will hardly permit such a charitable interpretation. No, those that had just cast the suspicion of Satanic influence upon Christ resented the fact that He was assuming royal and judicial authority before them. They rejected His claims. Probably in open derision they ask for a sign from heaven to substantiate the claims which they believed absurd.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 12:38-39. Then certain of the Scribes, &c. Though our Saviour’s reasoning was clear and unanswerable, yet some of the Scribes and Pharisees, desirous to divert the discourse to another topic, and fully demonstrating the hardness of their hearts, required a sign from heaven; as much as to say, “Master, thou professest thyself a teacher of extraordinary authority, and we may justly expect some proportionable proof of it: Now these supposed dispossessions which we have lately seen or heard of, are so liable to fraud and collusion, that we cannot fully acquiesce in them, but would gladly see a more remarkable and convincing sign from thee; and particularly some such celestial appearance as several of our ancient prophets gave.” The words of St. Luk 11:16 expressly fix it to this sense: and St. Matthew, in another relation of this kind, ch. Mat 16:1 tells us they demanded a sign from heaven; (See Mar 8:11 the note on ch. Mat 4:6 and Joh 6:30.) and they might probably conclude, that they had the better excuse for making such a proposal, as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and Elijah had given such signs. Jesus told them, that their requiring a sign after so many miracles were wrought to convince them, shewed them to be a wicked and adulterous generation, a spurious breed which had degenerated from the faith and piety of their great progenitor Abraham; for which reason they should have no other, but such as they were every day beholding in his miraculous works, the sign of the prophet Jonah excepted. He meant hereby the miracle of his own resurrection from the dead, typified by the deliverance of Jonah from the fish’s belly, and to which he often appealed, as the great evidence of his mission from God. We may just observe, that as the resurrection of Christ was attended with the appearance of a descending angel, it was, with greater exactness than is generally observed, the very thing which these Pharisees demanded; a sign from heaven. Some have objected to our Saviour, as being unwilling to give all the evidence of his mission which he might have given, on account of his refusing a sign when it was demanded. But to this it may be replied, that as the persons who made this demand were actuated byno laudable motives, but by perverseness and prejudice, which had already made them withstand the clearest evidence, and the greatest miracles, and which it was in vain to expect to conquer by working more miracles; it was therefore as reasonable to refuse to work more, as it is not to persist in reasoning with a man, who shews that he reasons only for the sake of contention, without any concern to discover truth. But when we recollect what was the sign which they desired, the objection is even absurd. It was a sign which they were led to expect only by their false notions of a temporal Messiah; it was absolutely inconsistent with the truth of the Messiah’s character: to have given it, would have been to become just such a deliverer as the Jews expected; it was therefore impossible that it could be given: instead of giving it, it was proper to affirm expressly, as Jesus did affirm, that it never would be given, and that it did not belong to the Messiah, justly conceived. Whenever a sign was asked, he appealed for the certainty of his mission to his own resurrection from the dead. So far was he from refuting any rational evidence of his mission, that even their perverseness hindered him not from voluntarily pointing out the strongest. His resurrection was in itself the most stupendous miracle, and its force was increased by its being in this manner appealed to; for it thus became the accomplishment of the prophesies uttered by him. But there is a farther propriety in his foretelling it, when they required a sign: it was a plain insinuation that their opinion of the manner of the Messiah’s appearance was wrong; that he was not such a prince as they expected; for by it he informed them expressly, that he must be put to death, or at least die, before he entered on his kingdom. His answer was therefore fit for leading them to a juster interpretation of Daniel’s prophesy (ch. Mat 7:13-14.), and for preventing their rejection of the Messiah, because he wanted a character which was never predicted of him. See Dr. Gerard’s Dissertations on subjects relating to the Genius and Evidences of Christianity, p. 186, &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 12:38 . The narrative is more original than that in Luk 11:16 .

] a manifestation of miraculous power that, by appealing to the senses, will serve to confirm thy divine mission . In such a light they had not regarded the cure of the demoniacs, Mat 12:24 . In thus insisting as they did upon yet further proof, they were actuated by a malicious desire to put Him to the test and reduce Him to silence.

] from Thee Thy sign .

In deference to Mar 8:11 , Luk 11:16 , many erroneously suppose that in this instance it is specially a that is meant. In Mat 16:1 , however, the sign is being requested for the second time.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

“Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. (39) But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: (40) For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (41) The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (42) The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. (43) When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. (44) Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. (45) Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”

I pass over all the several subjects contained in this passage of Jesus, from making any observations upon them, being in themselves self-evident; in order to call the Reader’s attention to one here spoken of, which may not perhaps at first be so immediately plain and obvious. I mean, respecting the unclean spirit in his departure and return. The unclean spirit, no doubt, means the devil. And when men, under the cursed influences of the devil, are living in the open and notorious vices of profaneness, drunkenness, dishonesty, sabbath-breaking and the like, they may be said to have an unclean spirit. But if any outward reform takes place in such characters, and we behold a change wrought upon them, so that they are more decent in life, and conversation, the devil may be said to have gone out from them, under the character of an unclean spirit. But it: there be no saving change wrought in the sou.1 by the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost: if the devil be gone out of his own accord, and not driver, out by the stronger man, he, even Jesus (Mat 12:29 ); this man’s heart is still as much as ever under Satan’s government; for he calls it his house, and saith he will return to it; yea, and he doth return to it, if so be there be no saving change wrought upon the man’s heart by grace. So that, though he goes out an unclean devil, yet he comes back only somewhat cleaner, but, still a devil, and reigns, and rules in his house, of the man’s heart, as much as before. Yea, our Lord saith, that the last state of this man is worse than the first. For if, while under the same awful influence of an unrenewed, ungenerated heart, the man is prompted to put on the appearance of an outside sanctity; and covers over the uncleanness that is within, with a seeming zeal for religion without: these, are like the seven other spirits of the devil, more wicked than the former, because more desperately deceiving, both himself and the world; and of consequence, the end is more dreadful. And who shall calculate the numbers there as living under this most wretched of all delusions? Who shall say, the many, who go out of life well pleased with this whitening sepulchre-reform; in whose heart, no saving change hath been wrought; nor any acquaintance made with the person, work, or grace of God the Holy Ghost. Joh 3:3-9 ; Act 19:2 . Reader! see to it that no change satisfies your mind, but that which is wrought by the Holy Ghost and Christ, formed in your heart the life of glory. Rom 8:9-17 ; 2Co 5:17 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 51

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art good to us with exceeding fulness of mercy. Thy compassions fail not, they come up with the light every morning, and they fill the darkness of the night with lights brighter than the stars. Thou art our helper: when we are helpless thou art nearer to us than our own life; thou art round about us like a great defence of fire, and no man can pluck us out of the Father’s hand. Thy promises are exceeding great and precious, and as for their number, they have none the Sands upon the seashore may be counted, but thy mercies are beyond all reckoning, they fill our life, they overflow it, they are our daily inspiration and confidence, and our one hope and final security. Thou dost enrich us all the promises of thy grace are ours, the unsearchable riches of Christ are our possession, all things are ours. Lord, increase our faith, give us that bold yet loving hand, which seizes the prize in all its fulness and preciousness and applies it to the poverty and the whole necessity of life. We have not, because we ask not, or because we ask amiss, give us the asking spirit and the right spirit of asking, and turn our whole life, not into a cry of distress, but into a prayer of hope then wilt thou open the windows of heaven, and our life shall know its littleness by reason of the infinity of thy reply.

We come to thee through Jesus Christ, the one way, the way that is living and abundant and as continual as our necessity. We come by the way of the Cross, we tarry at the Cross, our eyes are upon the Cross, our expectation is from the Cross; as for him who hangs upon it, he saved others, himself he cannot save. He is our Saviour not his own, he died for sin once, and he reigneth unto righteousness through all the ages of thine own duration. May we hide our little life in his eternity, may we bring our daily sin to his age-long intercession, to the blood shed before the foundation of the world, and in the presence of that great mystery our sins shall vanish like a driven cloud.

Thou hast set before us a great destiny, thou dost ply our life with many calls, thou dost urge us by many impulses, thou dost turn our ambition into a religious force and lure us by many a promise of larger life and nobler attainment. Help us to obey the call, may we never be disobedient to the heavenly vision. Speak to us out of thy temple of light, and answer our questioning when we desire to know what thou wouldst have us to do. May we fill up the little day of our life with filial industry, with gentle, unmurmuring patience, toiling at any service thou dost impose upon us, and bearing ourselves throughout our whole task as those whose strength is in heaven and whose inspiration is of God.

Thou knowest our whole necessity, our life in all its throbbing pain and pitiful helplessness and wordless desire and mute agony, in all its hope, expectation and vehement desire, in all its solicitudes and wanderings and curious questionings thou knowest us altogether, thou knowest the burdens we carry, the stings that wound us every day, and the fire which scorches us like the judgment that is infinite. Thou knowest our rest and our hope, and the place we count most secure. According to all our life do thou now come to us and do thou cleanse us by the inspiration of thy Spirit, and make us holy by the application of the blood of the heart of Christ, and passing through all the mystery of thine inward discipline, may we come out of the same godly, strong, pure, tender, large of heart, noble of purpose, marked by entirety and joyousness of consecration, and may our life be an ascending sacrifice unto the heavens.

Pity us in our littleness, help us to bear the rebuffs and scorn of men, enable us to forgive our enemies with large pardons, yea, with multiplied releases of love. Enable us to bear patiently with all who provoke us or try our temper or seek to drag us down in our noblest endeavours. When there is sickness in the house, may the healer from heaven be there, where death comes, steadily, stealthily, nearer, nearer, may the Resurrection and the Life be nearer still, to foil the enemy in his purpose.

Give unto children the spirit of obedience, and unto parents the spirit of wisdom and of love. May the master and the servant live together in Christian amicableness, and may all classes and conditions of men feel themselves united, not in the region of transient distinctions, but in the roots and vitalities of things, and all those relations which survive the wreck of time and pass on to the higher fellowships of the world unseen.

Give us all to feel this day what is meant by the lifting up of the spirit by the shining of the Sun of Righteousness upon the inward heart and life may there be great joy in the sanctuary, may the temple be filled with the shouting and singing of those whose hearts experience great release from the burden and torment of sin and as a man who hath come upon great prey, upon the prizes of heaven. Thus for one day in the weary week may our feet stand in a large place, and our hearts be lifted up in a freeman’s song. Amen.

Mat 12:38-50

Christ’s Denials

It was always difficult for Christ to say No. Surely he was not born to say that cold word to any human heart that asked a question of him. The negative did not come easily to those beneficent lips they were shaped rather to say with all tunefulness and sympathy of love, “Yes,” to every human desire, to every yearning, loving spirit. Yet in this case Jesus Christ says’ “No,” and no man can say No with so severe a firmness. In his lips, under such circumstances as are detailed in the text, his No was final. He had an intermediate no, which he never meant to stand as such the No which he said to the Syro-Phoenician woman it was an experimental No, there was no hollowness of. final, negative purpose in it, it was one of the trials or temptations addressed to the human heart by him who intends to fill that heart with larger blessing in consequence of its temporary denial. When did Jesus Christ say “No” to the sick, to the weary, to the broken-hearted, the bruised, the helpless, the wounded spirit? When did he say it to any little child that asked the favour of his smile? Yet in this case, standing up in front of an evil and adulterous generation, he said “No.” ‘Twas unlike him and yet very like him: he would rather have said “Yes” to human prayer, but it is sometimes quite as merciful to say “No” as to say “Yes.”

What was it the Scribes and Pharisees wanted from Jesus Christ? They sought a merely intellectual gratification, they wanted a sign, something to estimate, something to speculate upon, another link in a chain of argumentative evidence. Jesus Christ never came to satisfy the mere intellect of man. Therein have all the doctors and sages and leaders of the Church made many a mischievous mistake. They have written evidences, and built up proofs, and conducted a high intellectual argument. The gospel has nothing to say to the intellect merely as such; to the intellect, stiff and blind in its godless conceit, the gospel has nothing to utter but a plain disappointing “No.” The wisdom of this world is not the wisdom of God. What are called proofs, in the lower schools of men, are not to be taken as proofs in the higher reasoning and in the diviner culture. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. To this man will I look, to him that is of a broken and contrite heart, who trembleth at my word. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. In the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, in which the mission of Christ is stated in many particulars, I find no reference to the intellect. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath sent me” what to do? to give signs and wonders, to satisfy mere intelligence and carnal curiosity and intellectual ambition? No such line can be found in this loving and beneficent specification of duty and vocation. The meek, the captive, the bound, the tired, the helpless, the mourning, the tearful, the sad all these are gathered within the enclosure of Christ’s purpose, but the merely intellectual and literalistic and argumentative, where are they? Outside, of no consequence in this great strife they will be brought in by other processes, yea, they shall be found on bent knee, worshipping him who is the King. Meanwhile Jesus Christ keeps his great answers and his great promises and benedictions for the meek, the broken-hearted, the sincere, the child-like, the docile, and those who have no self-confidence.

What does Jesus Christ teach in this broad answer? Jesus Christ teaches that there is already enough in human history to satisfy every healthy and earnest mind if right use be made of it. The great questions of the heart were answered at the beginning; the gospel is in Genesis; God planted every tree from the very first, and the after ages have but developed the roots set in the human heart by the divine hand, or planted in heaven by him who plants only the trees of righteousness. All great answers have been given. Jonah and the queen of the south have their counterparts in all histories and in all cultivated and developed human lives. If you have not lived the story of Jonah the dictionary can never explain it to you. The whale and its mouth, and a thousand mysteries that gather around it you will never be able to understand it; but if you have been Jonah, and have been in the whale and in the deep, and have been cast out, and have passed through all the tragedy, you will know the meaning of the spirit, without being able to give any satisfaction to those who live in the universe of a zoological garden, and who never penetrate the inward poetry and apocalyptic meaning of the things that are happening around them every day. The earth is full of signs, the heavens shine with tokens, all life is a witness and confirmation. We need no more proof; what we do need is to make better use of the proof we already have.

Let me, therefore, speak with all moral incisiveness and positiveness of meaning, to those who are yet among the Scribes and the Pharisees, saying, with vulgar or ill-concealed conceit of intellect, “Master, we would see a sign from heaven.” There shall no more signs be given; what we now have to do is not to add to the evidences but to utilize them. You do not want a new Bible, you want to read the Bible you already have in your hands. There is not a man in a thousand who knows anything about the Bible vitally and really, in all its grasp and meaning. There is no book of such momentous purpose and significance so little read and so little understood. We are outside, and we see only the edges and surfaces of things written in the inner book. We do not want more evidences, evidences have often misled the thinker or have only been food to the pride of his intellect, or have only established him in the confidence of his own conceit, for wherein he has mastered them, he has said, if not in words yet in effect, “See how able I am, and how clever and how masterly is my grasp of things.” That man has not come into the kingdom of heaven at all. I will not say he has not come in by the right gate, he has come in by no gate, he is as one who walks round about it and takes observations and makes measurements, but has never been caught in the whirlwind of its music, in the fire and sacrifice of its ineffable passion. You do not want more evidence, you need the understanding heart, the clean heart, the right spirit, the child-like disposition, all prayers in one, “Lord, teach me what thou wouldst have me do.”

What think ye? Here is a man who is filling his grate with all kinds of fuel, and a beautiful grate it is, not wanting in capacity. And still he re-arranges the material, again he redistributes the fuel, he takes it all out and puts other fuel in, and calls the attention of men to the size of his grate and to the purpose of his life, and he challenges men to find any better fuel than he has yet secured. What should he be doing? Not playing himself at grate-filling, but setting fire to the material already in his possession, and thus kindling a friendly influence in the house, the fire, that household apocalypse, that household revelation, that chamber of the picture-gallery, the fire wherein battles are fought and victories won, and temples built and sacrifices offered, and great motions continually are proceeding which are to be caught by the imagination and transformed into all kinds of utility in the life. O, fool, light the fuel you have; other fuel will be wanted and will be ready to come, not for ornament but for use.

Jesus Christ gave a broad answer, we have just said, to this inquiry for a sign. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding none: then he saith, I will return.” That unclean spirit is curiosity, idle, vain, self-seeking curiosity, and when once it has been satisfied by the great replies of history, and still wants a further satisfaction, and goes out to find it, it will return and become sevenfold greater than it once was. Beware how you keep your curiosity chained. Strengthen the chain every day. Once get into the spirit of sign-seeking and question-asking, and vital piety becomes an impossibility in your case. Never let question-asking get the upper hand of you. In this solemn department of life keep curiosity in its right place, which is outside, mile on mile away from the letter. Consider how easy it is to ask for signs, how poor and feeble an intellectual condition it is merely to be able to ask questions, to propound difficulties, to suggest troubles, and to bewilder and puzzle those who are endeavouring to do great good in the world. Do not mistake question-asking or sign-seeking for intellectual greatness.

The doctrine is not only true intellectually, it is true morally. If once you get over a bad habit you must do something more, or that bad habit will come back to you, and finding the house empty, swept, and garnished, will bring with it seven other habits worse than itself, and the last state of your heart shall be sadder than the first. What is that other thing a man has to do after he has got rid of a bad habit? He has to cultivate a good one. It is not enough to cease to curse, you must learn to pray; it is not enough to throw away from you the evil-spirited book and to say, “I will never read another line of you;” you must replace it by a wise and good book, otherwise the old appetency will wake, and will urge you to its cruel satisfaction.

Herein it is very important that all merely negative reformers should be followed up in their noble and beneficent course by those who have something distinctive and positive to offer to such as have been reclaimed from open and scandalous vices. You have been converted from the sin of drunkenness; it is not enough that you be a mere abstainer from intoxicating drinks, you must be surrounded by the noblest influences, you must be intellectually enlightened and trained, you must betake yourself to some grand moral purpose, you must become deeply interested in some philanthropic and beneficent scheme, and thus must complete in positiveness what has been so happily begun in the region that is merely destructive or negative.

The unclean spirit will come back. No man can remain in the same state from time to time getting no better, getting no worse it is not in human nature to be thus stationary. “The last state of that man is worse than the first,” said Christ concerning those who had not filled up the house of the heart with good and heavenly spirits. We become worse and worse every day if we are not pursuing the right course; we do not stand still. Nor is the decadence and corruption of our nature a rapid and visible one; the process is silent, subtle, often invisible, and not seldom unfelt in its detailed action. The sapping goes on quietly, the strength is sucked out of a man little by little, so that he shakes himself and says, “I am as strong as ever;” but there comes a time when in shaking himself he reveals himself to himself, and feels that he is no longer the young, blithe, strong, clear-headed man which he was in his earlier life. Sometimes the collapse is sudden; there is nothing in the outward circumstances to betoken what has been proceeding within; but at one critical touch the whole outline gives in and the collapse is complete. I may have illustrated this to you before by the action of the white ant. The white ant will enter into a door and will eat it up; every fibre of the wood will be consumed by the little creature, and the paint will be left untouched. You would say, “The door is there, open it.” If you touch it it falls; the whole of the woodwork has been consumed by the little mischief-maker. It is also the same in our life. We appear to be the same; to all outward seeming we are just as we were twenty years ago; but if we have not been growing in the right direction, there will come upon us a touch, and we shall sink and perish, and the tremendous reality will be revealed.

“While he yet talked to the people.” We must not forget the circumstances under which the next event occurred. Jesus Christ was in the excitement of speech; when he spoke, everything in him spoke; the whole life was an utterance; in no cold blood did this mighty publisher of eternal truths declare his testimony; his quietness was power suppressed, his whisper was a thunder-burst in the azure, when he spoke he trembled, thrilled, vibrated through and through to some influence within and above. “While he talked to the people, behold his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.” His mind was moving forward with the sweep and wholeness of a great river; a man in the crowd sought to turn the urgent river from its channel; Jesus answered out of the inspiration of his human enthusiasm, “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” You cannot understand these words in cold blood; there are fingers so icy that they ought never to touch this Book; there are eyes so cold they ought never to look into these immortal pages. You cannot understand the prophets and the apostles in cold critical mood; you can vivisect their words, etymologise them, searching into remote meanings and earlier definitions, and when you have done all that as I shall endeavour to do in a few instances this evening in this church there remains a broader interpretation which can only be exercised by those who are aflame with the very fire of God.

We all know what it is to speak out of a holy and sublime excitement. There are sacred hours, when we see the broadest and grandest bearings of the lines of life, and in which we seize the innermost meaning of common or tender terms. Our little self is lifted up into a heroic personality, in which no local relation is destroyed, but rather ennobled and sublimed. You must therefore look at Jesus Christ’s words in the light of the fact that they were uttered while he yet talked to the people, his soul aglow, his eye alight, his blood fevered with the fire of God, and his whole individuality lifted up into a broader self-hood than was measurable by the merely human eye even in its keenest observation.

Look at this wonderful speech of Jesus; it recalls his earliest recorded words. Said his mother: “Thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing.” Said he: “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Already, at twelve years of age, he was another than the son of Mary and the reputed son of the carpenter. Already he had seized the key-word of the universe and realised that relation which makes all other relations fall into their right perspective and assume their proper proportion and colour. We are too local, we are too small, we build ourselves up into families and we enclose ourselves within square huts, and we have terminal points we begin here and we end there, and so far we know nothing about the spirit of Jesus Christ, the great humanity, the world-feeling we do not realise our ancestry and our posterity and our whole bearing in the universe: we detach ourselves: we belong to this sect, or to yonder clan, or to the other fraternity; we are English, or American, or Italian, or Colonial; we have these little narrowing dwarfing terms always clinging to us and impoverishing our speech. Use them as mere conveniences and they may be of some utility, but there ought to be times in the consciousness of every Christian heart in which every land is home and every man a brother.

This answer explains Christ’s true relation to the human family. “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.” It is not a question of local pedigree, it is not a claim that can be set up on partial lines. This whosoever is as broad as any whosoever uttered in all the great and inclusive language of the Bible. “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven.” He keeps to the key-word, he involves the centre, he stands on vital terms. Not whosoever shall be born in my day and age, whosoever shall be born in my country, whosoever shall speak my language with my accent; not whosoever shall be great or noble, or rich, or mighty whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven. Then that gives me my chance. I may be a relation of Jesus Christ poor, obscure, unknown, helpless; even I may enter the household of faith and be permitted to touch at least the hem of his garment. I may be one of his family; I may be a kinsman of the Son of God; I need no longer be a stranger and a foreigner, but may enter into the household and commonwealth of heaven.

I have thus to offer you a grand ancestry; to offer all men new vitalities, new surroundings, new kinsfolk. This shows the uniting power of Christianity. The Christian religion never divides men, never splits up a human family and belittles our human relations. The Christian religion would have us all brought into a common sympathy, united by a common spirit of loyalty to the same Saviour, and would give each of us the same badge, the old, grim, black, accursed cross, which may be turned into the very symbol of the heart of God himself, the greatest Sufferer, the one Sufferer, the only Heart that knows the meaning of infinite woe.

Here, then, is our standing; this very day we are members one of another. Whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; whether one member rejoices, all the members should rejoice with it, and have common dance and song and high delight in the holy place. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Be no longer strangers and foreigners, but of the household of God. We are not isolated individuals; we grasp hands with the ages, the glorious company of the apostles, the holy band of the prophets before them, the noble army of martyrs uniting them both, the holy Church throughout all the world this is the household of God. Beauteous picture! Tender relationship! it cannot be realised in all its ideal perfection here and now, but we ought always to cling to the inner and vital truth which it typifies, that the Church is one indivisible as the heart that bought it with blood.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXX

OUR LORD’S GREAT MINISTRY IN GALILEE

Part V THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT (Continued)

Harmony pages 59-60, same as for the preceding chapter and Mat 12:38-50 ; Mar 3:31-35 ; Luk 8:19-21 .

We are now ready to consider the unpardonable sin itself. Here, at the outset we meet a difficulty that needs to be removed. It is a question concerning the true text of the latter clause of Mar 3:29 . Our common version reads: “But is in danger of eternal damnation,” while the revised version reads: “But is guilty of an eternal sin.” Evidently these two renderings cannot be differences in translating the same Greek words. It is unnecessary to cite all the variations of the text in the several manuscripts on this short clause. For our present purpose we need to note only one. The revised version, on the authority of older and more reliable manuscripts than were before the King James translators, recognized as the true text hamartematos instead of kriseos. The former is rendered “sin,” the latter “damnation.” But the difficulty is not yet entirely explained. All the texts have the same Greek word enochos , which the common version renders “in danger of.” The question arises: How can there be such vast difference in rendering this one word? The difference is great and obvious since “in danger of” expresses a mere liability which may be averted, while “guilty of” expresses a positive, settled transaction. This difficulty is grammatical, and not textual so far as the word enochos is concerned, but is textual when we look at the case of the noun connected with it. If the noun in the true text is in one case, say the dative, then “in danger of,” “liable to” or ” exposed to” would fairly translate enochos . But if the noun with which it is connected is in a different case, say the genitive, then “guilty of” is the better translation. Well, it so happens that in the true text that is, the one so regarded by such scholars as Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and others, and the one so accepted by both the English and American companies of the revisers of the new version in this text the noun hamartematos, rendered “sin,” is in the genitive case, hence enochos hamartematos with its modifying words is rightly translated “guilty of an eternal sin,” while enochos kriseos with the same modifying words might well be rendered “in danger of eternal judgment.” So that in the true text we find not only a different word meaning “sin,” instead of “damnation” or “judgment,” but we find that word in a case which will necessarily give color to the meaning of another word connected with it, about which there is no textual difficulty.

We accept, then, the text and rendering of the revised version. We hold it as the word of God, that whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit is at once, not liable to, but guilty of an eternal sin.” What, then, is an eternal sin? Does it mean an “eternal sinning”? That is, does the perpetuity refer to the committing? Evidently not. Doubtless one who has blasphemed the Holy Spirit will, as a matter of fact, continue to sin, but the language under consideration refers not to such fact. An eternal sin, as here intended, is an act already completed, whose guilt and judgment have already been incurred. It is called an eternal sin because its penalty can never be blotted out. Any sin would be eternal in this sense, if there were no possible way to escape its punishment. A sin becomes eternal, then, when all gracious means of forgiveness are withdrawn. For example: David committed a great sin. Its penalties, or chastisements, lasted to the border of this world. But it was not an eternal sin, because those penalties had an end. They did not continue forever. Grace stopped them with this life and blotted them out forever. What is blotted out has no existence. But the sin against the Holy Spirit is eternal, because thereby the sinner at once puts himself beyond the only means of pardon. Remember the principles already stated: Outside of grace no salvation; outside of Christ no grace; outside of the Spirit no Christ. Or without regeneration, justification, and sanctification, no salvation; and apart from the Spirit no regeneration, justification, and sanctification.

We have seen that as human governments become more civilized very few offenses are made capital, and these must be very heinous in character. Moreover, the conditions under which such crimes are possible are very stringent, to wit: discretionary age, sanity, premeditation, and malice. Not only so, but the accused is additionally hedged about by a liberal construction of all provocation and of the right of self-defense, and of the amount and character of the evidence necessary to conviction. Now since this benevolent modification of hitherto rigorous human law has been brought about by the influence of the Bible, we would naturally expect to find in that good book that the only unpardonable offense against divine law calls for a rare degree of heinousness, and such extraordinary conditions under which the sin could be possible, as would on their face vindicate the divine procedure from all appearances of harshness, with all right thinking intelligences. This high degree of heinousness and these extraordinary conditions are just what we do find.

It is not a sin to be committed by a thoughtless child immature youth nor by one of feeble mind, nor by the ignorant. It must be knowingly done, wilfully done, maliciously done, presumptuously done.

The whole matter may be made more forcible by stating clearly and considering separately the constituent elements or conditions of the unpardonable sin:

It is a sin of character crystallized in opposition to God.

By this is meant such a confirmed state of heart, and such fixedness of evil character, such a blunting or searing of moral perceptions as mark the incorrigibly wicked. Indeed, this reflection embodies the essence of the sin.

It is no impulsive, no hasty act, but proceeds from such a state of heart, such a character, such a servitude to evil habits, such a violent distortion or utter perversion of moral vision, such an insensibility to spiritual impressions as would indicate the hopelessness of benefit in the continuance of remedial appliances, since there is a point beyond which we cannot go without destroying individuality and moral agency.

The case in point is abundantly illustrative. Let us carefully examine each step of our way just here. Let us be sure we are right before we go ahead. Milton not inaptly represents the crystallization of Satan’s character in five words: “Evil, be thou my good.” Isaiah, in rapt, prophetic vision, forecasts the very characters fitted to commit the unpardonable sin. He denounces six woes which may well be compared to the eight woes denounced by our Lord (Isa 5:8-23 ; Mat 23:13-36 ). They all refer to character incorrigibly evil, such as (a) inordinate covetousness and selfishness that join house to house and field to field until there is no place for other people to have a home; (b) inveterate and confirmed drunkards that rise early and sit up late to inflame themselves with strong wines until they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands; (c) incorrigible sinners that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and defy the judgments of God; (d) moral perverts that justify the wicked and take away the righteousness of the righteous; (e) inveterate vanity and self-conceit; (f) but especially this one: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Now this answers to Milton’s devil: “Evil, be thou my good.” And it was this very distortion and perversion of moral vision of which the Pharisees of this passage were guilty, and which constituted the essence of their blasphemy or slander of God. They called the Holy Spirit an unclean spirit. Upon this point the testimony of Mark is explicit. They are expressly declared to be guilty of an eternal sin, “Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” But the words were significant only because they were symptoms of expressions of a state of heart a heart of overflowing, implacable hate and malice.

So, in the context, our Saviour declares: “How can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” It is therefore evidently out of harmony with the Bible concept of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, that thoughtless boys and girls, who sometimes in revival meetings manifest an irreverent spirit, do thereby commit the unpardonable sin.

I have myself conversed with a now genuinely good and converted mother, who, when young, once conspired with nine or ten other girls to practice on the credulity of a conceited young preacher by joining the church in a body and by being baptized, when the whole procedure was meant for a practical Joke. Some of these parties are now living and one of them is the exemplary wife of a Baptist preacher. The irreverence and impiety of the act were not realized until afterward. This was no blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. They were immature, ill taught girls, without malicious intent against God, and some others of them, as I have since learned, afterward most cordially repented of their great sin and received the gracious forgiveness of the Heavenly Father whose institutions and ordinances had been outraged by their folly. If we compare with this incident the act of Ananias and Sapphira, we may readily perceive the difference in degree of guilt.

It is an old proverb: “Nature has no leaps.” Character is a result of long working forces tending to permanency of type. We have thus reached a view of the first and most important element in this awful sin an element of character resulting from cumulative forces and habits.

It is a sin against spiritual knowledge. Far, far from us, however, be the thought that every sin against light or knowledge is unpardonable. Do allow me to make this very clear and very emphatic, because a host of good people have tortured themselves needlessly just here by misapprehension. They are conscious of having sinned, and of having sinned when they knew beforehand that what they were tempted to do and did was wrong. Misapplying the Scripture they have said to themselves: “The unpardonable sin is a sin against knowledge. I have sinned against knowledge. Have I not committed the unpardonable sin?” Here again let us step carefully. Let us be sure we are right before we go ahead. Look closely at a little catechism mark the emphatic words: The unpardonable sin is a sin against what knowledge? Against what degree of that knowledge? Is every sin against even that particular kind of knowledge necessarily unpardonable? Note the emphasis on the discriminating word in this second constituent element of the unpardonable sin. It is a sin against spiritual knowledge. How else could it be a sin against the Holy Spirit as specially distinguished from and contrasted with a sin against the Father or the Son?

Let us illustrate by the case of Paul. (a) According to his own testimony he was, before his conversion, “a blasphemer, and a persecutor and injurious” (1Ti 1:13 ). (b) By persecution and torture he “compelled others to blaspheme” (Act 26:11 ). (c) Yet he says, “I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1Ti 1:13 ). What are the salient points of this case? We find here first an indisputable case of blasphemy, but it is blasphemy against the Son, which this passage declares to be pardonable. Next we find a case of ignorance which again makes the sin pardonable. This second finding is most pertinent to the matter in hand. It furnishes the clue, which properly followed leads us safely out of the maze of discussion on the unpardonable sin. What was Paul’s ignorance? We cannot deny that he had the Old Testament with all its shadows, symbols and prophecies pointing to the Messiah. We cannot deny that he had knowledge of the historical and argumentative proofs, certifying Jesus to be that Messiah. Wherein then was he ignorant? In this material point: Light from the Holy Spirit had not convinced him that Jesus was the Messiah. He had not spiritual knowledge and hence had not sinned against the Holy Spirit. In his soul he thought Jesus was an imposter. He “verily thought within himself he was doing God’s service” in warring against Jesus. His conscience was void of offense. Compare this with the demons: “We know thee, who thou art, thou Holy One of God.” Paul hated Jesus from an utter misconception of him, and loved him when the misconception was removed. The demons hated him the more, that they did not misconceive his mission and character. Because they knew he was the Messiah and because they painfully felt the presence of his holiness as a wolf is shamed or an owl is pained by the light; therefore they hated him.

Just here we approach a borderland whose precise boundary line has never been fixed by theological controversy. And yet in this narrow strip lies the unpardonable sin. Where the great have stumbled let guides of less degree walk humbly, circumspectedly, and prayerfully. I trust, at least, to make myself intelligible here. Some hyper-Calvinists hold that all subjects of influence from the Holy Spirit are necessarily saved, basing their arguments on such scriptures as, “Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phi 1:6 ). From which they argue that the Holy Spirit never really touches any man except those pre-ordained to salvation. I hold unswervingly to the doctrine that in every case of genuine conversion the good work thus commenced will be graciously completed. But, in my judgment, the Bible is very far from teaching that the lost never had any spiritual light never were subject to any impressions made by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, it would seem impossible otherwise to commit the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit.

With all light comes responsibility to accept it and walk in it. With all light comes liability. As said the Saviour, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not the sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin” (Joh 15:22 ). Unquestionable the degree of both guilt and penalty is measured by the degree of light against which one sins. This sentiment readily finds universal acceptance. It accords with our instinctive and intuitive ideas of justice. Certainly the Bible, at least, is very clear on this point. On what other principle could our Lord declare the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, more tolerable in the day of judgment than the punishment of the cities which rejected him and his servants (Mat 10:15 ; Mat 11:20-24 ; Mar 6:11 ; Luk 10:12-14 ) ? How else account for the difference in penalty between “a few stripes” and “many stripes” when the act of offense is precisely the same in both cases (Luk 12:47-48 ) ? How otherwise account for David’s distinction between “secret sins and presumptuous sins”? How otherwise could Paul represent God as “winking at” [i. e. a mercifully overlooking] “times of ignorance” (Act 17:30 ) ? How else could the men of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba condemn at the judgment the generation that rejected Jesus (Mat 12:41-42 )? Now mark the application of this argument to the matter under consideration. Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Jerusalem were guiltier than Sodom and Tyre, because a greater light, in a greater person than Lot, Solomon or Jonah, was in their midst.

But our Saviour himself teaches that the light is brighter still when the Holy Spirit works. And hence a sin against the Son of man may be pardonable while a sin against the Holy Spirit is unpardonable. But as Lot, Jonah, Solomon, and Jesus, the light-bearers, were all personally present in a way to be known and felt, so it must follow that the Holy Spirit, as bearer of a brighter light, must be personally present in a way to be known and impressively felt. Therefore none can commit this unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit unless he has known and felt his presence as a light-bearer. I say the presence of the Holy Spirit must be known and felt. The mind must be convinced of his presence, and the heart must feel it, and the inmost judgment of conscience must acknowledge it. This is precisely why the unpardonable sin is oftenest committed in great revivals. It is a sin against light spiritual light light known and felt, light so painfully, gloriously bright that a man must run from it, blaspheme or be converted. What miracle affecting only the physical man can equal the Spirit’s display of power over mind and soul in a great revival? When he fills a house or a whole city; when he is demonstrably convicting and converting on the right and left; when strong men are broken down; when hard hearts are melted; when long-sealed fountains of tears are opened; when hardened sinners fall as oak trees before a sweeping tempest; when all around the guilty confess their sins; when the saved rise up with love-lighted eyes and glorified faces to joyfully declare that God for Christ’s sake has forgiven their sins ah I the power the felt Presence! Then some sinner, seeing and knowing and feeling the truth of it all, pierced through and through with the arrows of conviction, riven to the marrow with the bolt of demonstration, trembling like Belshazzar before the mysterious, awful, but certain Presence, overwhelmed by memory of a thousand sins, yet so knowing, so feeling, clings with death-grip to some besetting sin and to justify rejection of Jesus, so witnessed by the Holy Spirit, lies unto God as to his real motives of rejection, reviles the Holy One, turns away and dies forever. Yes, a soul dies! As I have been impressed with the presence of physical death, so, only far more vividly, have I felt the presence of spiritual death. Once during a great meeting I felt it; I felt a soul had died that I was in the presence of the hopelessly lost.

It must be a sin of malice. In the special case before us the presence of malice is most evident. One expression of our Lord sufficiently tells the whole story: “Ye offspring of vipers I” See the snake in his coil! Mark his cold, steely eye of hate! Behold the lightning play of his forked tongue! See the needle fang and the venom of secreted poison! That snake means death to his innocent victim. So Satan’s devotee, about to commit the unpardonable sin. Hear him: “I hate this light. It exposes my secret sins. It strips me of my mask of self-respect. It humiliates me. This light shows how sensual, how groveling, how beastly, how devilish I really am. It exposes my chains. It advertises my bondage to pride, lust, and money. It makes me loathesome to myself. I hate this painful light, this awful purity. O, prince of darkness, restore my self-esteem, re-establish my respectability!”

Hear Satan’s rejoinder: “You must away from that light. You cannot put it out. It is the unquenchable shining of immaculate holiness. Here is your only expedient: Lock all the doors of your soul. Close the blinds of every window. Pull down every curtain. Now call that light ‘& superstition.’ Call your rejection of it ‘superior intelligence,’ or ‘science,’ or ‘higher criticism,’ or ‘progress,’ or ‘broadmindedness,’ or whatever you will. Put evil for good and good for evil. Blaspheme. And that light will never disturb you any more.”

Ah, no! Never more. “The die is cast. The Rubicon is crossed that soul is free no more.” In his case is fulfilled the scripture: “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” He has joined that outlawed host to whom this scripture applies: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit.” Here is genuine striving and genuine resisting. The Spirit strives the man resists. The gnashing upon Stephen with their teeth expresses desperate malice. It was malice proceeding from deep conviction that Stephen was right and they were wrong. It followed “being cut to the heart.”

The sin must be wilful. This involves the double idea of premeditation and decision. The mind has not only deliberated it has chosen. The love of pleasure, or of money, or of power, is deliberately preferred to the love of God. The “will” settles the matter. However long the time, complex the forces, or inscrutable the processes which determine the resultant character which makes the decision, that decision itself is one definite act of the will. The preparation of mind and heart which fitted the man to make such awful choice may indeed have extended over a period of years, the man meanwhile waxing worse and worse, the heart indurating, the soul petrifying. Yet, in one moment, at last, the border of possible salvation is crossed over forever. The “will” steps across the line. “I will not to do the will of God.” “I will not go to Jesus. I will not have this Man to reign over me.”

It is a sin of presumption. It is not difficult to get a clear idea of the meaning of this word. An irreverent, overweening, daring confidence for which there are no just grounds. Presumption draws false conclusions from God’s forbearance. Because sentence against an evil deed is not speedily executed the presumptuous heart is fully set to do evil. God suspended judgment that the man might repent. The sinner concludes that God does not mark iniquity. So many times has he trifled with the overtures of mercy) he presumes that he may continue to trifle with impunity. God’s patience, erroneously construed, has made him irreverent and daring. He can recall, and despise as he recalls, the number of times he has been touched somewhat in other meetings. He presumes that what has been will be again, in case it becomes necessary to revise his decision. Time enough for that if one chooses to turn back later on. Nothing tells him that this is the last time. He presumes as if he had a lease on life and as if the sovereign and eternal Spirit of God must come to his call.

Just here I desire to quote a scripture which some high human authorities affirm to be applicable to the subject under consideration. I very greatly respect them and very readily concede my own fallibility of judgment. But where my convictions are strong I speak. Here is the scripture: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace” (Heb 10:26-29 ). My present brief comment on the passage is:

There appears to be a manifest reference, in some sort, to apostasy. I mean by apostasy the final loss of all that is accomplished by regeneration and justification.

It clearly teaches, and for obvious reasons, that in case of such a loss, renewal would be impossible. The remedial resources of grace in such case being completely exhausted, there would be nothing more to draw upon for recovery.

But the reference is not to such calamity as objectively possible. The context and all the letter to the Hebrews as unequivocally teach the final perseverance of all the saints as does the letter to the Romans, or any other scripture. And to my mind the Bible teaches no doctrine more clearly than the ultimate salvation of all the elect. The reference then is to apostasy as hypothetically and even, perhaps, subjectively possible.

If then the reference is to apostasy, though not hypothetically and not really possible, how can it be applicable to the sin under discussion? This pertinent question I will now answer. While only a hypothesis concerning one thing, it yet contains an argument fairly applicable to another thing. It discusses wilful sin after enlightenment. The greater the enlightenment, the greater the sin. In the hypothetical, but actually impossible case of apostasy, there would be no more sacrifice for sin. The blood of Christ, and the Spirit power, beyond which grace has nothing to offer, would have been found inefficacious after fair trial. Now apply this same principle of argument to an unregenerate man. To him the Father’s love is offered and rejected. To him Christ as the highest expression of that love is offered and rejected. To him, the Spirit’s testimony to Christ is offered in such a way that he knows and feels that Spirit’s presence and power, and in such a way that his conscience recognizes and confesses the truth of the testimony. But from love of sin and hatred of known truth he blasphemes that Holy Spirit. Then in his case it would be true that “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,” not because he had experimentally tried its efficacy and used up all its power to save, but that from his rejection of such sacrifice in the blaze of spiritual light demonstrating its efficacy, such efficacy is no longer available to him. On this passage Dr. Kendrick says: “If others fall away who have reached a very high grade of spiritual enlightenment, who have experienced all of the divine influence but regeneration, their recovery is morally impossible. God will not bless the efforts for their renewal but, like the field that has answered the rains and sunshine only with thorns and thistles, will give them over to the burning.” (See American Commentary Hebrews.)

Now our theory of the unpardonable sin necessarily supposes spiritual light to make it a sin against the Spirit, and a very high degree of spiritual light to make it so heinous as to constitute it the only unpardonable sin. That there is shed forth such spiritual light, that there is put forth such spiritual influence light which may be seen and influence which may be felt, and yet light and influence which, through the sinner’s fault, do not eventuate in salvation is the clear and abundant teaching of the Bible. I know of no great theologian in the Baptist ranks who denies it. I refer to such acknowledged teachers of systematic theology as Gill, Boyce, Strong, Dagg, Hovey, Pendleton, and Robinson, and among the Presbyterians such authors as Calvin, Hodge, and Shedd all of whose books I have studied on this specific point.

We may here, I think, conclude the analysis of this sin. Its conditions are clearly before us: The age of discretion, a sound mind, a high degree of spiritual light, a character fixed in opposition to God, a life under the dominion of confirmed evil habits. Its constituent elements are: Premeditation, or deliberation, a decisive choice, presumption and malice. We come now to consider the state of one guilty of this eternal sin. This is an important phase of the subject. Such a state surely evidences itself in some way. The marks which distinguish it from other states ought, one would naturally suppose, to be sufficiently visible for recognition. As an introduction to my discussion of these marks it is thought appropriate to give the most remarkable poem on the subject in all literature. It is Alexander’s hymn:

There is a time, we know not when, A point, we know not where, That marks the destiny of men, To glory or despair.

There is a line by un unseen, That crosses every path, The hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath.

To pass that limit is to die To die as if by stealth; It does not quench the beaming eye, Nor pale the glow of health.

The conscience may be still at ease, The spirit light and gay; That which is pleasing still may please, And care be thrust away.

But on that forehead God hath set Indelibly a mark, Unseen by man, for man as yet Is blind and in the dark.

And yet the doomed man’s path below, Like Eden may have bloomed; He did not, does not, will not know Or feel that he is doomed.

He knows, be feels that all is well, And every fear is calmed; He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell, Not only doomed, but damned.

Oh I where is this mysterious bourne, By which our path is crossed? Beyond which God himself hath sworn, That he who goes is lost?

How far may we go on in sin? How long will God forbear? Where does hope end, and where begin The confines of despair?

An answer from the skies is sent; Ye that from God depart, While it is called to-day, repent, And harden not your heart.

Confining my own diagnosis strictly to the Scriptures I would say that the state of one who has committed the unpardonable sin is one of awful deprivation. We say “Darkness is deprivation of light; death deprivation of life.” The deprivation in this case is:

Of the Holy Spirit whom he has reviled and despised. To that Spirit God has said, “Let him alone; he is wedded to his idols.” This insures his death. This makes his sin eternal. He cannot now ever find Christ, the door. Without the Spirit he can never repent, believe, be regenerated, be justified, or sanctified. “There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,” that is, to him there is no Christ. I think that there are such men today, from whom the Holy Spirit has taken his everlasting flight.

It is a deprivation of the prayers of God’s people. God who said to his Spirit, “Let him alone,” now says to his people who would pray for such a man, “Let me alone.” Awful words: Let him alone let me alone!

The friends of Job had sinned, but not beyond the reach of prayer (Job 42:7-10 ). Paul had sinned by persecution and blasphemy of Jesus, but not beyond the reach of Stephen’s dying prayer: “Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge” (Act 7:60 ). The crucifiers of Jesus had sinned, but not all of them beyond the reach of his dying prayer: “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luk 23:34 ). But God’s people cannot pray acceptably without the Spirit’s prompting (Rom 8:26-27 ). The Spirit never prompts one to pray against the will of God. Hear the word of God (1Jn 5:16 ): “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” (Jer 15:1 ): “Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.”

It is a deprivation of the protection usually afforded to the wicked by the presence of the righteous. The presence of ten righteous men would have protected Sodom and Gomorrah from overthrow (Gen 18:23-32 ). The righteous are the salt of the earth. Their presence preserves it from immediate destruction. Paul and Christ taught that when the righteous are garnered off the earth then comes the deluge of fire. But one who has committed the unpardonable sin, at once is deprived of all protection arising from the contiguity of the righteous. To repeat a scripture: “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the city, as I live saith the Lord they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness” (Eze 14:20 ). No Spirit, no prayers) no protection.

It is a deprivation of spiritual sensations. What is meant here? Speaking naturally, our sensations are from our five senses. One who is blind loses the sensations that come from sight; one who is deaf, those from hearing. So with taste, and smell, and touch or feeling. A body that cannot see, hear, feel, taste or smell is dead to the world around it. So with the senses of the inner man. When the spiritual or moral perceptive faculties are so paralyzed that they cannot take hold of God, that soul is dead to God, however much it may be alive to the devil. Having eyes it sees not. Having ears it hears not. Having a heart it feels not. The conscience is seared as with a hot iron. They are past feeling (Eph 4:18-19 ) : “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling having given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Old soldiers recall that when mortification took place in a wounded limb there was no longer any pain. The wounded man felt unusually well. It was the prelude of death.

In his book, Over the Teacups, Oliver Wendell Holmes says: “Our old doctors used to give an opiate which they called ‘the black drop.’ It was stronger than laudanum, and, in fact, a dangerously powerful narcotic. Something like this is that potent drug in Nature’s pharmacopeia which she reserves for the time of need, the later stages of life. She commonly begins administering it at about the time of the ‘grand climacteric,’ the ninth septennial period, the sixty-third year. More and more freely she gives it, as the years go on, to her gray-haired children, until, if they last long enough, every faculty is benumbed, and they drop off quietly into sleep under its benign influence. Time, the inexorable, does not threaten them with the scythe so often as with the sandbag. He does not cut, but he stuns and stupefies.”

But the “black drop” administered by Satan, when, at any age, the unpardonable sin is committed, has no such kindly intent. It puts one past feeling as to heaven, but full of sensation as to hell. There are no kindlings to repentance, however keen may be the biting and sting of remorse. It is quite possible that one who is past feeling to spiritual impressions may dream as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Richard III , or Scott’s “Glossin” in Guy Mannering. And so to such a one there may remain nothing “but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.” What time these apprehensions last they are the foretaste of hell.

It is not only a state of deprivation, but of positive infliction. When “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him” (1Sa 16:14 ). To the man who closes his eyes to the Spirit’s testimony, God sends judicial blindness and hardness of heart. Not only so, when the Lord refused to answer Saul, “neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets,” he allowed him to return to spiritualism and “inquire of one who had a familiar spirit” (1Sa 2:5-7 ). God chooses the delusions of the hopelessly lost. He sends them a strong delusion that they may believe a lie and be damned (Isa 66:4 ; 2Th 2:11 ). This delusion may be spiritualism, or science, or philosophy, or anything else. Whatever it is, for the time being it fills the vision and the heart. It points out a path “whose steps take hold on death and hell,” and though the end thereof is death, it seems right to him.

Such, I think, is the Bible teaching concerning the unpardonable sin. It is a sin of today as well as yesterday. The liability of its commission is greatly increased during revivals of religion.

That hazard is unspeakably awful when men know and feel God’s presence and power, and though convicted and trembling, turn away with a lie on their lips and hatred of holiness in their hearts.

To younger people would I urgently say:

Beware of those insidious beginnings which tend to the formation of an evil character. Cultivate most assiduously such tenderness of heart, such susceptibility to religious impressions as you now have. Follow every prompting toward heaven. Transmute every spiritual emotion to action. Beware of becoming hardened. Beware of dominant passions, such as the love of pleasure, the pride of opinion, the pride of life, the love of money. Distrust as an enemy, anything or anybody, whose influence keeps you apart from the use of the means of salvation. Shun, as you would a tiger’s Jungle, all associations that corrupt good manners. Beware of all people who make a mock at sin and speak irreverently of holy things.

Oh, the beginnings! The beginnings I These are the battlegrounds of hope. Hear today, turn today, escape for thy life today. For when once under the dominion of pleasure, or lust, or wine, or pride, or especially the love of money, that root of all kinds of evil, then O then how easily, how unconsciously you may commit the unpardonable sin.

And then, though the world were full of Bibles to the stars, and Christians more numerous than the sands and forest leaves, and every church ablaze with revivals for you there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. You are now and forever lost.

In response to this discussion of our Lord upon the sin against the Holy Spirit the Pharisees demanded of him a sign, to which he replied that no sign should be given them except the sign of Jonah, i. e., his burial and resurrection. This test of his messiahship he submitted time and again both to his enemies and to his disciples. Here he again announces a principle of the judgment, viz: that men will be judged according to the light they have here. The Ninevites and the queen of the south will stand up in the judgment and condemn the Jews of his day because with less light than these Jews had they responded to God’s call while that generation rejected their light. Then he closes that discussion with a comparison of the Jewish nation to a man whom the evil spirit volunteered to leave and re-enter at pleasure with the assurance that every time he returned, after a leave of absence, the last state was worse than the first.

It is necessary to add a word of comment on Section 50 (Mat 12:46-50 ; Mar 3:31-35 ; Luk 8:19-21 ) of the Harmony. Here on the same day and on this same occasion the mother of Jesus and his brothers come to him for an interview, ostensibly to arrest him from so great a zeal. Perhaps they thought he ought to stop and eat, but he, knowing their purpose toward him, announced the principle of spiritual relation above the earthly relation that whosoever would do the will of God was nearer to him than earthly relations. What a lesson for us!

QUESTIONS

1. What is the difficulty of Mar 3:29 and what is its solution?

2. What is the meaning of “eternal sin”?

3. By whom and how must this sin be committed?

4. What is the first constituent element, or condition, of the unpardonable sin? Give biblical illustrations and proof.

5. What is the second constituent element? Explain and illustrate by the case of Paul.

6. What theological controversy here and what is the author’s position?

7. What principle of judgment here involved and what is the biblical proof?

8. Describe the spiritual conditions under which a soul may commit the unpardonable sin.

9. What is the third element and what is the proof? Recite the struggle of a soul on the verge of this awful sin and Satan’s rejoinder.

10. What is the fourth element and what is involved in it?

11. What is the fifth element and what its meaning? Illustrate.

12. What passage of Scripture here introduced, what is the author’s points of interpretation, and how does this passage apply to the subject under discussion?

13. What is the state of one who is guilty of the unpardonable sin and what poem quoted on this point? Quote it.

14. What are the items of deprivation which constitute the state of such a soul? Explain each.

15. In response to our Lord’s discussion of this sin against the Holy Spirit what demand did the Pharisees make, what was our Lord s reply and what does he mean?

16. How does our Lord here characterize these Jewish people?

17. What was the incident of Section 50 of the Harmony and what is its lesson for us?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

Ver. 38. Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees ] Had not these, as one said of Nero, os ferreum, cor plumbeum, an iron face, a leaden heart, that could call for a sign after so many signs? But it is a sign from heaven they would have (as Moses called for manna from thence, Samuel for rain, Elijah for fire, &c.), and much the nearer they would have been should our Saviour have gratified them. But he never meant it. They were now so clearly convinced of their blasphemy that they had nothing to say for themselves, but fawningly to call him Master, whom before they had called Beelzebub; and to pretend themselves to be willing to learn, if they might see a sign. They could not see wood for trees, as they say. And who so blind as he that will not see? Sic fit, ubi homines maiorem vitae partem in tenebris agunt, ut novissime solem quasi supervacuum fastidiant, saith Seneca. Men that have lived long in the dark may think the sun superfluous.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

38. ] St. Luke ( Luk 11:15-16 ) places the accusation of casting out devils by Beelzebub and this request together, and then the discourse follows. It seems that the first part of the discourse gave rise, as here related, to the request for a sign (from Heaven); but, as we might naturally expect, and as we learn from St. Luke, on the part of different persons from those who made the accusation . In consequence of our Lord declaring that his miracles were wrought by the Holy Ghost, they wish to see some decisive proof of this by a sign, not from Himself, but from Heaven .

The account in ch. Mat 16:1-4 manifestly relates to a different occurrence: see notes there. Cf. Joh 6:30-31 ; Joh 12:28 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 12:38-45 . A sign asked and refused, with relative discourse (Luk 11:16 ; Luk 11:29-36 ). Both Matt.’s and Luke’s reports convey the impression that the demand for a sign, and the enunciation of the Satanic theory as to Christ’s cures of demoniacs, were synchronous. If they were, the demand was impudent, hypocritical, insulting. Think of the men who could so speak of Christ’s healing ministry wanting a sign that would satisfy them as to His Messianic claims!

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 12:38 . : what kind of a sign? They thought the cure of demoniacs a sign from hell . Elsewhere we read of their asking a sign from heaven (Mat 16:1 ). From what quarter was the sign now asked to come from? Perhaps those who made the demand had no idea; neither knew nor cared. Their question really meant: these signs won’t do; if you want us to believe in you you must do something else than cast out devils. The apparent respect and earnestness of the request are feigned: “teacher, we desire from you (emphatic position) to see a sign”. It reminds one of the mock homage of the soldiers at the Passion (Mat 27:27-31 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 12:38-42

38Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 39But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; 40for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold something greater than Jonah is here. 42The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”

Mat 12:38 “scribes”

SPECIAL TOPIC: SCRIBES

“we want to see a sign from You” They had heard Jesus’ teachings and had seen the healings and exorcisms performed by Him, but they wanted some ultimate sign to convince them to believe on Him. This is exactly the temptation of Mat 4:5-7 to which Jesus would not succumb. However, in reality, He had given them sign after sign but they would not or could not see (i.e., Isa 6:9-10)!

Mat 12:39 “adulterous” Adultery became a metaphor for spiritual unfaithfulness (cf. Lev 20:5; Num 25:1; Hos 1:2; Hos 4:10; Hos 4:18; Hos 5:3; Mat 16:4; Mar 8:38; Jas 4:4).

“the sign of Jonah the prophet” As Jonah was in the great fish three days, Jesus was three days in the grave (Hades). We must remember that this is three days by Jewish reckoning, not three twenty-four hour periods. Any part of a day, which for them was evening to evening (cf. Genesis 1), was reckoned as a full day.

Jesus’ allusion to Jonah confirms strongly the historicity of the book of Jonah. It is precisely the experience in the great fish that was used as an analogy (cf. Mat 16:4).

Mat 12:40 “three nights” See note at Mat 16:21.

“in the heart of the earth” This referred to descending into Hades (cf. Mat 11:23), the realm of the dead, the grave, or the metaphorical place of unborn children (cf. Psa 139:15-16). This is phenomenological language: the language of observation and of common human description. The Jews, like us, buried their dead; therefore, they “lived” in the ground. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Where Are the Dead? at Mat 5:22.

Jesus’ words would not have been understood by His contemporary hearers until after His resurrection. Matthew has structured the sayings of Jesus for theological purposes, not chronological sequence (cf. Mat 7:21-23, also could not have had meaning until a much later date).

Mat 12:41 “the men of Nineveh” This also relates to Mat 11:20-24, as does Mat 12:42. Nineveh repented due to Jonah’s preaching and consequently was spared the wrath of God’s judgment. This also implies that the Ninevites of Jonah’s day were alive in an afterlife.

“repented” See SPECIAL TOPIC: REPENTANCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT at Mat 3:2 and see note at Mat 4:17.

Mat 12:42 “The Queen of the south” This was a way of referring to the Queen of Sheba (cf. 1Ki 10:1-15), who is still alive and will appear to testify in the eschaton.

“something greater than Solomon is here” This is another clear Messianic claim. It reveals Jesus’ self-understanding. He saw Himself as greater than the wisest man of the ancient East (cf. 1Ki 3:12; 1Ki 4:19-34). See full note at Mat 12:6.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Master = Teacher. See App-98. Mat 12:1.

would = desire. Greek. thelo. App-102.

see = to see. Greek. eidon.

a sign. The first of six “signs” asked for. Compare Mat 16:1; Mat 24:3. Luk 11:16. Joh 2:18; Joh 6:30.

from. Greek. apo.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

38.] St. Luke (Luk 11:15-16) places the accusation of casting out devils by Beelzebub and this request together, and then the discourse follows. It seems that the first part of the discourse gave rise, as here related, to the request for a sign (from Heaven); but, as we might naturally expect, and as we learn from St. Luke, on the part of different persons from those who made the accusation. In consequence of our Lord declaring that his miracles were wrought by the Holy Ghost, they wish to see some decisive proof of this by a sign, not from Himself, but from Heaven.

The account in ch. Mat 16:1-4 manifestly relates to a different occurrence: see notes there. Cf. Joh 6:30-31; Joh 12:28.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 12:38-39. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

The Pharisees change their manner, but they are in pursuit of the same object. How hopeless had the religionists of that age become! Nothing would convince them. They manifested their hate of the Lord Jesus, by ignoring all the wonders he had wrought. What further signs could they seek than those he had already given? Pretty enquirers these! They treat all the miracles of our Lord as if they had never occurred. Well might the Lord call them evil and adulterous, since they were so given to personal lasciviousness, and were spiritually so untrue to God. We have those among us now who are so uncandid as to treat all the achievements of evangelical doctrine as if they were nothing, and talk to us as if no result had followed the preaching of the gospel. There is need of great patience to deal wisely with such.

Mat 12:40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The great sign of our Lords mission is his resurrection, and his preparing a gospel of salvation for the heathen. His life-story is well symbolized by that of Jonah. They cast our Lord overboard, even as the sailors did the man of God. The sacrifice of Jonah calmed the sea for the mariners, our Lords death made peace for us. Our Lord was a while in the heart of the earth as Jonah was in the depth of the sea, but, he rose again, and his ministry was full of the power of his resurrection. As Jonahs ministry was certified by his restoration from the sea, so is our Lords ministry attested by his rising from the dead. The man who had come back from death and burial in the sea commanded the attention of all Nineveh, and so does the risen Saviour demand and deserve the obedient faith of all to whom his message comes.

Mat 12:41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here.

The heathen of Nineveh were convinced by the sign of a prophet restored from burial in the sea; and moved by that convincement, they repented at his preaching. Without cavil or delay they put the whole city in mourning, and pleaded with God to turn from his anger. Jesus came with a clearer command of repentance, and a brighter promise of deliverance; but he spoke to obdurate hearts. Our Lord reminds the Pharisees of this, and as they were the most Jewish of Jews, they were touched to the quick by the fact that heathens perceived what Israel did not understand, and that Ninevites repented while Jews were hardened. All men will rise at the judgment: The men of Nineveh shall rise. The lives of penitents will condemn those who did not repent: the Ninevites will condemn the Jews, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and the Jews did not. Those who heard Jonah and repented will be swift witnesses against those who heard Jesus, and refused his testimony. The standing witness to our Lord is his resurrection from the dead. God grant that every one of us, believing that unquestionable fact, may be so assured of his mission, that we may repent and believe the gospel. RESURRECTION is one proof, in fact, it is THE SIGN; although, as we shall see, it is supplemented by another. The two will convince us or condemn us.

Mat 12:42. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

The second sign of our Lords mission is HIS KINGLY WISDOM. As the fame of Solomon brought the queen of the south from the uttermost parts of the earth, so does the doctrine of our Lord command attention from the utmost isles of the sea. If Israel perceives not his glorious wisdom, Ethiopia and Seba shall hear of it, and come bowing before him. The queen of Sheba will rise again, and will rise up as a witness against unbelieving Jews, for she journeyed far to hear Solomon, while they would not hear the Son of God himself who came into their midst. The superlative excellence of his wisdom stands for our Lord as a sign, which can never be effectually disputed. What other teaching meets all the wants of men? Who else has revealed such grace and truth? He is infinitely greater than Solomon, who from a moral point of view exhibited a sorrowful littleness. Who but the Son of God could have made known the Father as he has done?

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Mat 12:38. , …, answered, etc.) As though they would not otherwise believe the words which they had just heard.-, we wish) Why do we wish? Because it so pleases us. They thus deny the signs which our Lord had already performed.- , from Thee) i.e. from Thee Thyself, as in ch. Mat 16:1- , from heaven.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Opposing or Doing Gods Will

Mat 12:38-50

It was an evil and adulterous age. It had no spiritual appreciation, and was intent on getting an outward and sensible sign. Nineveh itself would have condemned it. The queen of Sheba, without the advantage attaching to the Hebrew race, appreciated Solomon; but the people of this generation had no appreciation of the Christ. They were nearing the last days of corruption and reprobation. They were a deserted palace given over to demons. Seven demons possessed them and urged them, as they did the swine in Mat 8:31, to destruction.

But amid the general apostasy, there were faithful souls who recognized Jesus as the Son of God and drew near to hear His words. They recognized His kinship to the Father and revealed their kinship to Him. Let us not look back to Nazareth and Bethany with longing eyes. See Solomons Son 8:1-2. We are privileged to occupy a closer relationship than that of natural birth. See Joh 1:12-13; Gal 4:1-6; Rom 8:16. O Brother Christ, make us more like thee!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter 27

Behold, a greater than Solomon is here!

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

(Mat 12:38-50)

In these verses the Lord Jesus silences the caviling Pharisees, demonstrates the validity of Holy Scripture and the danger of graceless religion, and gives great comfort to all who trust him.

Looking for a Sign

The first thing that confronts us in this passage is the fact that unbelief always looks for a sign. The Pharisees in their brazen, obstinate, arrogant self-righteousness and unbelief said, Master, we would see a sign from thee (Mat 12:38). What sham pretense! They pretended that they merely wanted a little more evidence in order to be convinced and become his disciples. The healing of the sick, the cleansing of the lepers, the casting out of devils, and the raising of the dead was not quite enough evidence for them. It was not enough because they were determined not to believe the Son of God!

That is exactly the state of many today. They claim a willingness to believe if only they had enough evidence, or enough proof, or enough signs. But faith in Christ cannot be produced by signs, proofs, and arguments. Faith is the gift of God. It is wrought in men and women by hearing the Word of God (Eph 2:8-9; Luk 16:31; Rom 10:17; 1Co 1:22-24). And the basis of faith is the naked Revelation of God in Holy Scripture (1Jn 5:9-13). The only way anyone can ever see the glory of God and be established in the peace of God and the truth of God is by believing God (Joh 11:40; Isa 7:9).

One Book

Mat 12:39-42 demonstrate clearly that the authority of the Old Testament and the New Testament stand or fall together. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

In these verses the Lord Jesus, almost casually, displays the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures. This is an important fact. The Bible is one Book, not two. It is one, united Word of divine revelation. Those who attempt to pick holes in the Old Testament are at the same time attempting to destroy the authority of the New (2Ti 3:16-17; Rom 15:4; 2Pe 1:20-21).

The same Holy Spirit who inspired the Old Testament writers to tell us of Jonah, the Queen of Sheba, and Solomon inspired the writers of the New Testament to tell us of Christ, his redemptive work, and his exaltation and glory. If one part of this Book is a lie, all of it is a lie. You cannot pick and choose what you want. You must either receive it all and believe it all, or reject it all as a lie, a falsehood, a fable, and a fabrication.

As Jonah really was in the belly of the whale for three days, so the Lord Jesus, when he was crucified as our Substitute, was buried in the earth and rose from the dead three days later. The men of Nineveh who believed Jonahs message and repented shall rise in judgment against all who refuse to believe the message of grace from the lips of the risen Christ. Behold a greater than Jonah is here! Christ is a greater Man with a greater message.

The Pharisees cast our Lord overboard, just as the sailors did Jonah. As the sea was calmed for those sailors by the sacrifice of Jonah, so our Lords death made peace for us. As Jonahs mission and message were certified by his resurrection from the sea, so is our Lords mission and message certified by his resurrection from the dead. That man who had come back from death and burial in the sea commanded the attention of all Nineveh. Even so, our risen Savior demands and deserves the obedient faith of all who hear his message. The resurrection of Christ is the sign of the prophet Jonah; but it is supplemented by another, that in the mouth of two witnesses it might be established.

As the Queen of Sheba diligently sought Solomon and heard all his wisdom, so all who seek Christ shall find him and be taught of him all things pertaining to life and godliness. Behold, a greater than Solomon is here! This queen of the south shall rise in judgment against all who have Christ clearly set before them, but refuse to trust him.

The sign here spoken of displays our Lords kingly wisdom. As the fame of Solomon caused the Queen of Sheba to seek him, so the doctrine of Christ commands the attention of the whole world. Though the Pharisees and lost religionists of our day refuse him who is the Wisdom of God, chosen multitudes, scattered over all the earth, gladly come to him, bow before his majesty, and gladly receive his Word.

The superlative excellence of Solomons wisdom stands for our Lord as a second sign, a sign that cannot be disputed. Our Saviors royal wisdom meets all the needs of men. Who else has revealed such grace and truth? Who but the Son of God could have revealed the Father to us?

Profession without Possession

Mat 12:43-45 teach us that nothing is so dangerous and destructive to the souls of men as a profession of faith without the possession of grace. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Faithful gospel preachers do not try to pump and twist professions of faith out of people, young or old, because we realize that nothing is more certain to destroy a person than religion without Christ. Such men want you to know Christ, to trust him, to be saved by him, and urgently press upon you the claims of Christ in the gospel. If God has given you faith in Christ, they will urge you to confess him in believers baptism, identify yourself with his people, and publicly devote yourself to Christ, his gospel, and his cause, knowing that secret disciples are always suspect disciples. But they will not aid unconverted men and women in making a refuge of lies for themselves, professing faith without experiencing grace. None of Gods elect are going to perish because we do not pump professions of faith out of people. Our only business is to faithfully preach the gospel to people, pray for Gods blessing upon it, and wait for God to do his work.

In these verses the Lord Jesus describes what happens to men and women who are talked into religion and persuaded to make a profession in a lost religious generation, never experiencing the grace of God. They may experience a great change and religious (moral and outward) sanctification; but their ultimate end will be everlasting ruin (Heb 4:6; Heb 10:38; 2Pe 2:20-22). As J. C. Ryle wrote, None prove so hopelessly wicked as those who after experiencing strong religious convictions have gone back again to sin and the world. The last state of that man is worse than the first. Do not be content with Christless, graceless religion!

For if, wrote Robert Hawker, while under the same awful influence of an unrenewed, unregenerated heart, the man is prompted to put on the appearance of an outside sanctity; and covers over the uncleanness that is within, with a seeming zeal for religion without: these are like the seven other spirits of the devil, more wicked than the former, because more desperately deceiving, both himself and the world; and of consequence, the end is more dreadful. And who shall calculate the numbers there, as living under this most wretched of all delusions? Who shall say, the many, who go out of life well pleased with this whitening sepulchre-reform; in whose heart, no saving change hath been wrought; nor any acquaintance made with the person, work, or grace of God the Holy Ghost (Joh 3:3-9; Act 19:2). Reader! see to it that no change satisfies your mind, but that which is wrought by the Holy Ghost and Christ, formed in your heart the life of glory (Rom 8:9-17; 2Co 5:17).

Gods Family

Mat 12:46-50 teach us that all true believers are the family of God.

While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

Sometimes the Church of God is called by one name and sometimes by another to show various aspects of our relationship to God and to one another. It is called the church, the body of Christ, the bride, the fold, an holy nation, a royal priesthood, Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, and the family of God. In this passage our Lord teaches us that all true believers are one in him, and that we are the family of God (Eph 3:15). All believers are counted by the Son of God as his relatives. He loves them. He feels for them. He cares for them, as members of his family, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. He provides for his family. He protects his family. He prays for his family. Some of his family have already gone home. Some of his family are yet in their pilgrimage. But all who do the will of his Father, all who trust him are members of his family.

J. C. Ryles observations on this passage are as precious and encouraging as they are instructive.

Mark how He speaks of every one who does the will of His Father in heaven. He says, he is my brother, and sister, and mother. What gracious words these are! Who can conceive the depth of our dear Lords love towards His relations according to the flesh? It was a pure, unselfish love. It must have been a mighty love, a love that passes mans understanding. Yet here we see that all His believing people are counted as His family. He loves them, feels for them, cares for them, as members of His family, bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.

There is a solemn warning here to all who mock and persecute true Christians on account of their religion. They consider not what they are doing. They are persecuting the near relations of the King of kings. They will find at the last day that they have mocked those whom the Judge of all regards as His brother, and sister, and mother.

There is rich encouragement here for all believers. They are far more precious in their Lords eyes than they are in their own. Their faith may be feeble, their repentance weak, their strength small. They may be poor and needy in this world. But there is a glorious whoever in the last verse of this chapter which ought to cheer them. Whoever believes is a near relation of Christ. The elder Brother will provide for him in time and eternity, and never let him be cast away. There is not one little sister in the family of the redeemed, whom Jesus does not remember (Son 8:8). Joseph provided richly for all his relations, and Jesus will provide for His.

Are you a member of this family? Rejoice? Would you be? Trust Christ?

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

OUR, King challenged to give a Sign

Mat 12:38-39. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

The Pharisees change their manner, but they are in pursuit of the same object. How hopeless had the religionists of that age become! Nothing would convince them. They manifest their hate of the Lord Jesus, by ignoring all the wonders he had wrought. What further signs could they seek than those he had already given? Pretty enquirers these! They treat all the miracles of our Lord as if they had never occurred. Well might the Lord call them “evil and adulterous”, since they were so given to personal lasciviousness, and were spiritually so untrue to God. We have those among us now who are so un-candid as to treat all the achievements of evangelical doctrine as if they were nothing, and talk to us as if no result had followed the preaching of the gospel. There is need of great patience to deal wisely with such.

Mat 12:40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The great sign of our Lord’s mission is his resurrection, and his preparing a gospel of salvation for the heathen. His life-story is well symbolized by that of Jonah. They cast our Lord overboard, even as the sailors did the man of God. The sacrifice of Jonah calmed the sea for the mariners; our Lord’s death made peace for us. Our Lord was a while in the heart of the earth as Jonah in the depth of the sea; but he rose again, and his ministry was full of the power of his resurrection. As Jonah’s ministry was certified by his restoration from the sea, so is our Lord’s ministry attested by his rising from the dead. The man who had come back from death and burial in the sea commanded the attention of all Nineveh, and so does the risen Saviour demand and deserve the obedient faith of all to whom his message comes.

Mat 12:41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

The heathen of Nineveh were convinced by the sign of a prophet restored from burial in the sea; and moved by that convincement, they repented at his preaching. Without cavil or delay they put the whole city in mourning, and pleaded with God to turn from his anger. Jesus came with a clearer command of repentance, and a brighter promise of deliverance; but he spoke to obdurate hearts. Our Lord reminds the Pharisees of this; and as they were the most Jewish of Jews, they were touched to the quick by the fact that heathens perceived what Israel did not understand, and that Ninevites repented while Jews were hardened.

All men will rise at the judgment: “The men of Nineveh shall rise.” The lives of penitents will condemn those who did not repent: the Ninevites will condemn the Jews, “because they repented at the preaching of Jonas,” and the Jews did not. Those who heard Jonah and repented will be swift witnesses against those who heard Jesus and refused his testimony.

The standing witness to our Lord is his resurrection from the dead. God grant that every one of us, believing that unquestionable fact, may be so assured of his mission, that we may repent and believe the gospel.

Resurrection is one proof; in fact, it is the sign; although, as we shall see, it is supplemented by another. The two will convince us or condemn us.

Mat 12:42. The queen of the south shall rise tip in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

The second sign of our Lord’s mission is his kingly wisdom. As the fame of Solomon brought the queen of the south from the uttermost parts of the earth, so does the doctrine of our Lord command attention from the utmost isles of the sea. If Israel perceives not his glorious wisdom, Ethiopia and Seba shall hear of it, and come bowing before him. The queen of Sheba will rise again, and will “rise up” as a witness against unbelieving Jews; for she journeyed far to hear Solomon, while they would not hear the Son of God himself who came into their midst. The superlative excellence of his wisdom stands for our Lord as a sign, which can never be effectually disputed. What other teaching meets all the wants of men? Who else has revealed such grace and truth? He is infinitely greater than Solomon, who from a moral point of view exhibited a sorrowful littleness. Who but the Son of God could have made known the Father as he has done?

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

Master: Mat 16:1-4, Mar 8:11, Mar 8:12, Luk 11:16, Luk 11:29, Joh 2:18, Joh 4:48, 1Co 1:22

Reciprocal: 1Ki 13:3 – General Isa 7:11 – a sign Joh 6:30 – What Rev 12:1 – wonder

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2:38

The word sign is from SEMEION which has been rendered in the Authorized Version by miracle 22 times, sign 51, token 1, wonder 3. Jesus worked miracles for a testimony to those who were honestly disposed toward information, but there is no case on record where he did it to gratify mere curiosity. These Jews had just witnessed the casting out of the devil, and that should have convinced them that Jesus was a good man to say the least. This present re quest was in the nature of a challenge, and it also was in line with the leading characteristic of their race (1Co 1:22).

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

THE beginning of this passage is one of those places which strikingly illustrate the truth of Old Testament History. Our Lord speaks of the queen of the South, as a real, true person, who had lived and died. He refers to the story of Jonah, and his miraculous preservation in the whale’s belly, as undeniable matters of fact. Let us remember this, if we hear men professing to believe the writers of the New Testament, and yet sneering at the things recorded in the Old Testament, as if they were fables. Such men forget, that in so doing they pour contempt upon Christ Himself. The authority of the Old and New Testament stands or falls together. The same Spirit inspired men to write of Solomon and Jonah, who inspired the Evangelists to write of Christ. These are not unimportant points in this day. Let them be well fixed in our minds.

The first practical lesson which demands our attention in these verses, is the amazing power of unbelief.

Mark how the Scribes and Pharisees call upon our Lord to show them more miracles. “Master, we would see a sign from thee.” They pretended that they only wanted more evidence, in order to be convinced, and become disciples. They shut their eyes to the many wonderful works which Jesus had already done. It was not enough for them that He had healed the sick, and cleansed the lepers, raised the dead, and cast out devils. They were not yet persuaded. They yet demanded more proof. They would not see what our Lord plainly pointed at in His reply, that they had no real will to believe. There was evidence enough to convince them, but they had no wish to be convinced.

There are many in the Church of Christ, who are exactly in the state of these Scribes and Pharisees. They flatter themselves that they only require a little more proof to become decided Christians. They fancy that if their reason and intellect could only be met with some additional arguments, they would at once give up all for Christ’s sake, take up the cross, and follow Him. But in the mean time, they wait. Alas! for their blindness. They will not see that there is abundance of evidence on every side of them. The truth is, that they do not want to be convinced.

May we all be on our guard against the spirit of unbelief! It is a growing evil in these latter days. Want of simple, childlike faith is an increasing feature of the times, in every rank of society. The true explanation of a hundred strange things that startle us in the conduct of leading men in churches and states, is downright want of faith. Men who do not believe all that God says in the Bible, must necessarily take a vacillating and undecided line on moral and religious questions. “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” (Isa 7:9.)

The second practical lesson which meets us in these verses is the immense danger of a partial and imperfect religious reformation.

Mark what an awful picture our Lord draws of the man to whom the unclean spirit returns, after having once left him. How fearful are those words, “I will return into my house from whence I came out”! How vivid that description, “he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished”! How tremendous the conclusion, “he taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself,- and the last state of that man is worse than the first”! It is a picture most painfully full of meaning. Let us scan it closely, and learn wisdom.

It is certain that we have in this picture the history of the Jewish church and nation, at the time of our Lord’s coming. Called as they were at first out of Egypt to be God’s peculiar people, they never seem to have wholly lost the tendency to worship idols. Redeemed as they afterwards were from the captivity of Babylon, they never seem to have rendered to God a due return for His goodness. Aroused as they had been by John the Baptist’s preaching, their repentance appears to have been only skin-deep. At the time when our Lord spoke they had become, as a nation, harder and more perverse than ever. The grossness of idol-worship had given place to the deadness of mere formality. Seven other spirits worse than the first had taken possession of them. Their last state was rapidly becoming worse than the first. Yet forty years, and their iniquity came to the full. They madly plunged into a war with Rome. Juda became a very Babel of confusion. Jerusalem was taken. The temple was destroyed. The Jews were scattered over the face of the earth.

Again, it is highly probable that we have in this picture the history of the whole body of Christian churches. Delivered as they were from heathen darkness by the preaching of the Gospel, they have never really lived up to their light. Revived as many of them were at the time of the Protestant Reformation, they have none of them made a right use of their privileges, or ”gone on to perfection.” They have all more or less stopped short and settled on their lees. They have all been too ready to be satisfied with mere external amendments. And now there are painful symptoms in many quarters that the evil spirit has returned to his house, and is preparing an outbreak of infidelity, and false doctrine, such as the churches have never yet seen. Between unbelief in some quarters, and formal superstition in others, everything seems ripe for some fearful manifestation of anti-christ. It may well be feared that the last state of the professing Christian churches will prove worse than the first.

Saddest and worst of all, we have in this picture the history of many an individual’s soul. There are men who seemed at one time of their lives to be under the influence of strong religious feelings. They reformed their ways. They laid aside many things that are bad. They took up many things that are good. But they stopped there, and went no further, and by and bye gave up religion altogether. The evil spirit returned to their hearts, and found them empty, swept, and garnished. They are now worse than they ever were before. Their consciences seem seared. Their sense of religious things appears entirely destroyed. They are like men given over to a reprobate mind. One would say it was “impossible to renew them to repentance.” None prove so hopelessly wicked as those, who after experiencing strong religious convictions have gone back again to sin and the world.

If we love life, let us pray that these lessons may be deeply impressed on our minds. Let us never be content with a partial reformation of life, without thorough conversion to God, and mortification of the whole body of sin. It is a good thing to strive to cast sin out of our hearts. But let us take care that we also receive the grace of God in its place. Let us make sure that we not only get rid of the old tenant, the devil, but have also got dwelling in us the Holy Ghost.

The last practical lesson which meets us in these verses is the tender affection with which the Lord Jesus regards His true disciples.

Mark how He speaks of every one who does the will of His Father in heaven. He says, “the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” What gracious words these are! Who can conceive the depth of our dear Lord’s love towards His relations according to the flesh? It was a pure, unselfish love. It must have been a mighty love, a love that passes man’s understanding. Yet here we see that all His believing people are counted as His relations. He loves them, feels for them, cares for them, as members of His family, bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.

There is a solemn warning here to all who mock and persecute true Christians on account of their religion. They consider not what they are doing. They are persecuting the near relations of the King of kings. They will find at the last day that they have mocked those whom the Judge of all regards as “His brother, and sister, and mother.”

There is rich encouragement here for all believers. They are far more precious in their Lord’s eyes than they are in their own. Their faith may be feeble, their repentance weak, their strength small. They may be poor and needy in this world. But there is a glorious “whosoever” in the last verse of this chapter which ought to cheer them. “Whosoever” believes is a near relation of Christ. The elder Brother will provide for him in time and eternity, and never let him be cast away. There is not one “little sister” in the family of the redeemed, whom Jesus does not remember. (Son 8:8.) Joseph provided richly for all his relations, and Jesus will provide for His.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Mat 12:38. Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees. Others (Luk 11:16); on the same occasion, however.

Master, or Teacher. In this instance the term was either a polite formality or used in ironical doubt (Luke: tempting him).

We would see a sign from thee. Luke: from heaven. They intimated that the miracles of healing were not sufficient evidence; might be attributed to magic or diabolical art A sign from heaven they would regard as conclusive proof. They either denied that His miracles were signs, or that coming from Him, they could be signs from heaven. Pharisaism admires marvels of power more than miracles of mercy.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The request which the Pharisees make to Christ; Master, we would see a sign from thee. But had not Christ showed them signs enough already? What were all the miracles wrought in their sight, but convincing signs that he was the true Messias? But infidelity mixed with obstinacy is never satisfied.

Observe, 2. Our Saviour’s answer to the Pharisees’ request: he tells them that they should have one sign more, to wit, that of his resurrection from the dead: For as Jonas lay buried three days in the whale’s belly, and was then wonderfully restored, so should (and did) our Saviour continue in the grave again.

Observe, 3. How Christ declares the inexcusableness of their state, who would not be convinced by the former miracles he had wrought that he was the true Messiah; nor yet be brought to believe in him by this last sign or miracle of his resurrection.

The Ninevites shall condemn the Pharisees, they repented at the preaching of Jonas; but these would not be convinced by the preaching and miracles of Jesus.

The queen of Sheba, who also came from the south to hear and admire the wisdom of Solomon, shall rise up in judgment against those that reject Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father; and the doctrine delivered by him, which was the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Learn, That the sins of infidelity and impenitency are exceedingly heightened, and their guilt aggravated, from the means afforded by God to bring a people to faith and obedience. The sin of the Pharisees in rejecting Christ’s miracles and ministry, was by far greater than that of the Ninevites, had they rejected Jonah’s message and ministry sent by God amongst them.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 12:38-40. Then certain of the scribes, &c. Now present, upon hearing how plainly Christ admonished, and how severely he rebuked them, answered Probably with a view to divert the discourse to another topic, We would see a sign from thee As if they had said, Otherwise we will not believe this doctrine. Thus they insinuated that the ejection of devils was but a trifling miracle, which, for all he had said to the contrary, might be done by the help of devils, and that no signs of that kind, however numerous, should convince them; for that they would not believe unless he would prove his mission by what is here called a sign, and in Luk 11:16, a sign from heaven, meaning, probably, some such celestial appearance as several of the ancient prophets gave; particularly Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and Elijah. But he answered, An evil and adulterous generation A spurious breed, which has degenerated from the faith and piety of their great progenitor, Abraham; or, a generation whose heart wanders from God, though they profess him to be their husband. Such adulterers are all those who love the world, and all who seek the friendship of it. Seeketh a sign After all the signs they have had already, which were abundantly sufficient to have convinced them, had not their hearts been estranged from God, and consequently averse to the truth. And there shall no sign be given to it, but [or, unless it be] the sign of the Prophet Jonas Who was herein a type of Christ. For as Jonas was three days and three nights, &c. It was customary with the eastern nations to reckon any part of a natural day of twenty-four hours for the whole day. Accordingly, they used to say a thing was done after three, or seven days, &c., if it was done on the third or seventh day from that last mentioned. Instances of this may be seen, 1Ki 20:29; 2Ch 10:5; 2Ch 10:12, and in many other places. And, as the Hebrews had no word exactly answering to the Greek , to signify a natural day of twenty- four hours, they used night and day, or day and night, for it. See also Est 4:16; Est 5:1; Gen 7:4; Gen 7:12; Exo 24:18; Exo 34:28. In the whales belly Or, in the belly of the great fish that swallowed him. See note on Jon 1:17. So shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth That is, in the earth; for the expression does not imply that he was to be buried in the middle of the earth, but in the earth simply. Thus, in Eze 28:2, Tyre is said to be in the heart of the sea, though it was so near the continent, that, when Alexander besieged it, he carried a causeway from the land to the city.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

XLIX.

SIGN SEEKERS, AND THE ENTHUSIAST REPROVED.

(Galilee on the same day as the last section.)

aMATT. XII. 38-45; cLUKE XI. 24-36.

c29 And when the multitudes were gathering together unto him, a38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. [Having been severely rebuked by Jesus, it is likely that the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign that they might appear to the multitude more fair-minded and open to conviction than Jesus had represented them to be. Jesus had just wrought a miracle, so that their request shows that they wanted something different. We learn from Mark ( Mar 8:11) that they wanted a sign, not coming from him, but from heaven, such a sign as other prophets and leaders had given ( Exo 9:22-24, Exo 16:4, Jos 10:12, 1Sa 7:9, 1Sa 7:10, 1Sa 12:16-18; 1Ki 18:36-38, 2Ki 1:10, Isa 38:8). “In Jewish superstition it was held that demons and false gods could give signs on earth, but only the true God signs from heaven” (Alford). The request was the renewal of the one which had assailed him at the beginning of his ministry ( Joh 2:18), and re-echoed the wilderness temptation to advance himself by vulgar display rather than by the power of a life of divine holiness.] 39 But he answered and said unto them, {che began to say,} This generation is an evil generation: it seeketh after a sign; aAn evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign [305] [While the Jews of that generation could well be accused literally of adultery, Jesus here evidently uses it in its symbolic sense as used by the prophets. They represented Israel as being married to God and as being untrue to him– Exo 34:15, Jer 3:14, Jer 3:20]; and there shall no sign be given to it, cbut the sign of Jonah. athe prophet [They did not accept miracles of healing as a sign, and only one other kind of sign was given; viz.: that of Jonah. Jonah was shown to be a true prophet of God, and Nineveh received him as such because he was rescued from the fish’s belly, and Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead– Rom 1:4]: 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights. [Jesus was one full day, two full nights, and parts of two other days in the grave. But, as the Jews reckoned a part of a day as a whole day when it occurred at the beginning or end of a series, he was correctly spoken of as being three days in the grave. The Jews had three phrases, viz.: “on the third day,” “after three days,” and “three days and three nights,” which all meant the same thing; that is, three days, two of which might be fractional days. With them three full days and nights would be counted as four days unless the count began at sundown, the exact beginning of a day ( Act 10:1-30). For instances of Jewish computation of days, see Gen 42:17, Gen 42:18, 1Ki 12:5, 1Ki 12:12, Est 4:16, Est 5:1, Mat 27:63, Mat 27:64. The Greek word here translated “whale” is “sea monster.” It is called in Jonah “a great fish” ( Jon 1:17). Because of the supposed smallness of the whale’s throat, many think that it was the white shark, which is still plentiful in the Mediterranean, and which sometimes measures sixty feet in length, and is large enough to swallow a man whole. But it is now a well-established fact that whales can swallow a man, and there are many instances of such swallowings on record. The expression “heart of the earth” does not mean its center. The Jews used the word “heart” to denote the interior of anything ( Eze 28:2). The phrase is here [306] used as one which would emphatically indicate the actual burial of Christ.] c30 For even as Jonah became a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. [Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, situated on the Tigris River, and in its day the greatest city of the world. Jonah’s preservation was a sign from heaven, because wrought without human instrumentality. The resurrection of Christ was such a sign to the Jews, but rejecting it, they continued to seek other signs– 1Co 1:22.] a41 The men of Nineveh shall stand up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. [Literally, repented into the teaching of Jonah. The meaning is that they repented so that they followed the course of life which the preaching prescribed. The phrase, “stand up,” refers to the Jewish and Roman custom which required the witness to stand up while testifying in a criminal case. The idea here is that the Ninevites, having improved the lesser advantage or privilege, would condemn the Jews for having neglected the greater. Nineveh’s privilege may be counted thus: a sign-accredited prophet preaching without accompanying miracles, and a forty-day period of repentance. In contrast to this the Jewish privileges ran thus: the sign-accredited Son of God preaching, accompanied by miracles, in which many apostles and evangelists participated, a forty-year period in which to repent.] 42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: {cwith the men of this generation, and shall condemn them:} for she came from the ends of the earth [a Hebraism, indicating a great distance] to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. [The queen of Sheba is supposed to have been queen of Saba, or Arabia Felix, which lies in the southern part of the peninsula between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. But Josephus says she was from Ethiopia in Africa. Her testimony will also be based on the compared privileges, which [307] stand thus: notwithstanding the dangers and inconveniences, she came a great distance to be taught of Solomon, but the Jews rejected the teaching of the Son of God, though he brought it to them. The teaching of Solomon related largely to this world, but Christ taught as to the world to come.] a43 But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places [places which are as cheerless to him as deserts are to man], seeking rest, and findeth it not. [Rest is the desire of every creature. Jesus here gives us a graphic description of utter wretchedness.] cand finding none, a44 Then he saith, I will return into {cturn back unto} my house [he still claimed it as his property] whence I came out. 25 And when he is come, he findeth it aempty, swept, and garnished. [It was empty, having no indwelling Spirit, swept of all righteous impressions and good influences, and garnished with things inviting to an evil spirit.] 45 Then [seeing this inviting condition] goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits [to reinforce and entrench himself] more evil than himself [while all demons are wicked they are not equally so], and they enter in and dwell there [take up their permanent abode there]: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation. [In the application of this parable, we should bear in mind that it tells of two states or conditions experienced by one man, and the comparison is between these two states or conditions and not between the condition of the man and other men. Such being the parable, the application of it is plain, for Jesus says, “Even so shall it be unto this evil generation.” We are not, therefore, to compare that generation with any previous one, as many do; for such would be contrary to the terms of the parable. It is simply an assertion that the last state of that generation would be worse than the first. The reference is to the continually increasing wickedness of the Jews, which culminated in the dreadful scenes which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem. They were now like a man with one [308] evil spirit; they would then be like a man with seven more demons added, each of which was worse than the original occupant.] c27 And it came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou didst suck. [This woman is the first on record to fulfill Mary’s prediction ( Luk 1:48). It is the only passage in the New Testament which even suggests the idolatry of Mariolatry, but it was far enough from it, being merely a womanly way of expressing admiration for the son by pronouncing blessings upon the mother who was so fortunate as to bear him.] 28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. [Jesus does not deny the fact that Mary was blessed, but corrects any false idea with regard to her by pointing to the higher honor of being a disciple which was attainable by every one. Mary’s blessing as a disciple was greater than her blessing as a mother; her moral and spiritual relation to Jesus was more precious than her maternal. Mary’s blessings came through believing God’s word ( Luk 1:45). To know Christ after the Spirit is more blessed than to know him after the flesh– 2Co 5:15, 2Co 5:16, Joh 16:7.] 33 No man, when he hath lighted a lamp, putteth it in a cellar, neither under a bushel, but on the stand, that they which come in may see the light. 34 The lamp of thy body is thine eye: when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when it is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. 35 Look therefore whether the light that is in thee be not darkness. 36 If therefore thy whole body be full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining doth give thee light. [This passage given in a slightly varying form is found in the Sermon on the Mount. See page 256. It is here addressed to the Pharisees and reproves them for not using the light (his miracles) which was given to them. If they [309] had had an eye single to goodness, Christ’s light would have enlightened their souls. But their eye was double; they desired wonders and spectacular signs.]

[FFG 305-310]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

CHAPTER 24

THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES SEEK A SIGN FROM HEAVEN

Mat 12:38-45; Luk 11:16-36. Then certain ones of the scribes and Pharisees responded, saying, Master, we wish to see a sign from Thee. And responding, He said to them, A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and no sign shall be given unto it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was in the stomach of the whale three days and three nights, so the Son of man shall he in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The scribes and Pharisees were not satisfied with His numerous and stupendous miracles of healing the sick, casting out demons, and even raising the dead, but they demanded a sign directly down to the earth, like the falling of the manna in the wilderness. Do you not see how the Infallible Teacher calls those preachers and Church leaders, A wicked and adulterous generation? Lord, save us from the same condemnation! Here He says that He will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. This does not mean the tomb, which was not in the heart of the earth, but on the surface. Remember, the soul is the man, and not the body. When our Savior expired on the cross, His human soul, evacuating His body, went into Hades (1Pe 3:21; Act 2:27-31), proclaiming His victory in hell, and entering the intermediate paradise, meeting the thief (Luk 23:43), and on the third morn leading up the Old Testament saints (Eph 4:8-10), entering the tomb, and receiving His risen body. Some are disposed to be a little critical because the body of Jesus was not in the tomb three whole days. That is certainly very silly criticism. We speak of a ten days meeting when we are only in it a few hours every day, thus estimating a part for the whole. The Jews did likewise. If you do not wish to fall under the condemnation of a wicked and adulterous generation, do not hold on seeking signs, demonstrations, and evidences, but take God at his word, and raise the shout of victory, inspired by simple faith in His Infallible Truth, and you will see every Jericho the devil can ever rear up in your way fall down flat. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here. A simple matter of fact, when Jonah thus appeared, miraculously, after three days, from the stomach of the whale in the bottom of the sea, and preached to the Ninevites, they repented in sackcloth and ashes. Our Lord here assures them that His resurrection from the dead will be to them the climacteric sign of His Messiahship. He knew that those critical preachers and Pharisees would not believe on Him, even after He had risen from the dead, and therefore the Ninevites would condemn them in the day of judgment. The queen of the south will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. This was the Queen of Sheba, whose country was at the southern terminus of Asia, bordering on the Persian Gulf. She prosecuted this long and weary journey on a camel, back, through Arabian sands, that she might enjoy the ministry of Solomon. Hence she will be a swift witness against the unbelieving Jews in the judgment-day, and will also condemn you if you do not repent.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 12:38-42. The Request for a Sign Refused (Luk 11:29-32. From Q. Cf. Mar 8:11 f.*=Mat 16:1-2 a, Mat 16:4).Mt. uses the incident here as an additional illustration of the hostility between the Pharisees and Jesus. They ask for some more authentic and unique attestation of His claim than a miracle of healing or an everyday exorcism. But to a people that has been Gods unfaithful bride no sign shall be given but that of Jonah. As he, coming from a foreign land, appeared in Nineveh preaching doom, so has the Son of Man arrived in Israel proclaiming judgment. Luk 11:30 is much to be preferred to Mat 12:40, which is an obvious gloss (cf. its omission in Mat 16:4), and one that enshrines an inaccurate prediction. The heart of the earth is Hades. In Mat 12:41 f. read shall stand up in judgment (omitting the), i.e. shall accuse. Jonah was a prophet, Jesus the consummation of prophecy; Solomon a wise man, Jesus Wisdom itself (Mat 11:19 b, Mat 11:27).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 38

A sign, a sign from heaven; some stupendous miracle to prove his divine mission, more imposing than the miracles which he had performed upon the sick.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

12:38 {8} Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

(8) Against perverse desires of miracles.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. Conflict over Jesus’ sign 12:38-45

The fourth incident and the third type of conflict concerned a sign that Jesus’ critics requested.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Matthew’s connective again was weak. This incident was not a continuation of the preceding controversy chronologically but thematically. Some of the scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus to perform a sign, not just a miracle. He had performed many miracles, and they had concluded that they were satanic (Mat 12:24). A sign was an immediate tangible assurance that something prophesied would surely happen. They requested a particular type of miracle. Evidently they believed Jesus could not produce one and that His failure would discredit Him.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)