Gospel Prism

Do you remember when the Pharisees demanded of Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you”?  What they wanted was a quick fix on decision-making.  They didn’t want to examine the Scriptures to see if Jesus truly did fulfill the prophecies about the coming Messiah.  Instead, they demanded a sign.

And here was Jesus’ response:

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:39-41)

In other words, the Ninevites simply heard the message and repented.  They needed no quick fix to trust in God.  Signs would not sway them, but instead the word of God through Jonah would lead them to repentance.  But sadly, this is the nature of every human being, to demand signs for decision-making.

In his book, Guide Us, Lead Us, J. I. Packer quotes Bruce Waltke in Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion? (a book I reviewed here):

I think ‘laying out a fleece’ [he's referring to Gideon's request for a sign in Judges 6] is generally the lazy man’s way to discern the will of God. It requires no work, little discipline, and almost no character development.  God has a different program of guidance. (p. 43)

And when you really examine the heart of the sign-wisher, he wants a quick, spectacular way to trust in God.  Much like the Pharisees, this person doesn’t want to do the work of actually examining Scripture and examining one’s heart for pride and self-dependence.  And I speak as one who is as guilty of sign-wishing as anyone else out there.  I remember going to retreats and looking up at the sky asking God for a sign to trust Him.  At the time, it seemed as though my motives were pure.  I just wanted to see a great work of God.  But here is what was in my heart when I think back retrospectively:

1.  God’s Word was not enough for me.

Like the Pharisees, I didn’t want to look through the ‘ordinary’ means of God’s grace evident in Scripture.  It was too ordinary, too plain, too boring.  Oh how miserable I am when I think I thought such thoughts and am still to this day tempted to think such thoughts.

2.  Pride cluttered my heart.

If I saw a miraculous sign, I could let people know how God showed favor upon me.  I wanted my own technicolor dreamcoat that I could show people to make them jealous of me.  If I could have heeded Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

3.  I was lazy.

As Bruce Waltke notes, it is sheer laziness that often drives the desire for a sign.  I didn’t want to read Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17), cry out to Him in prayer (Psalm 5), consider fasting as a means of grace (Matt 6:16), wait upon Him (Psalm 40:1-2).  All of those aspects of life demand active faith, the work that flows from faith.  Instead, I wanted the easy road of the sluggard (Prov 15:19: ” The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway.”).

J. I. Packer gives these wise words:

A myth, that is, a nonfactual fancy, which for some surrounds the subject of guidance, is the idea that as one follows God’s guidance everything falls neatly and pleasantly into place, so that the headaches that unbelievers have to cope with do not arise. (p. 44)

and…

We…[categorically deny] that either in the BIble or in life, today or any day, are those whom God guides shielded from hardships and bewilderments. (p. 44)

This simply is not the Bible’s prescription for trust in a good and sovereign God.

Instead, God usually operates the way in which David protrays in Psalm 40:

I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.