Sign Of Jonah

                 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we                   want to see a sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:38-41)

 

One of the things agnostics and atheists often demand is some physical evidence that God exists. Usually, they want some highly dramatic bit of silliness, like a giant Charlton Heston standing in Time Square and announcing, “I am God,” then performing 19.2 miracles. In other words, they’re doing exactly what the Pharisees and teachers of the law did when Jesus walked the earth.

I have challenged them with the question of how long they would believe God had indeed revealed Himself to them before they decided that the event was all a figment of their imagination or that they were temporarily insane. I may not have called them liars, but I wanted to. Those who are honest admit that it wouldn’t be long. This is what Jesus was talking about when He challenged the Pharisees and teachers of the law. He told them of a future event that they would not believe, just as the agnostics and atheists would not believe the same event in the past.

But, lest we pat ourselves on the back too quickly, how often do we doubt that God cares for us, or doubt that something is His will? How often do we want some special sign to prove God to us? Over the past couple of days, I’ve found myself thinking about how rebellious my heart it because it refuses to believe God despite the signs He’s given in the past.