The Sign of Jonah
 
Certain Scribes and Pharisees said, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."
He answered, "An evil and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous 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.” Matthew 12:38-40
 
How often have I sought the Lord for a miraculous sign. How many times, like Gideon have I complained to the Lord...
“if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Judges 6:13
To this plea, numerous times, I have heard a response that could best be summarized, “For an evil and adulterous generation the only sign that will be given is the sign of Jonah.”
What that means to me is that God is first interested in the foolishness of preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This message and this message alone is how every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. It is Ground Zero: the great leveler. It strips the soul of any boasting except for what God has done, and then clothes that same soul with the fine linen and glory of the blessed Holy Spirit.
The sacrifice of Christ Jesus is the fountainhead of all lesser blessings. When He finds a soul willing to bask in the light of the Lamb only, it is His good pleasure to do whatever that one will ask.
As the old hymn “I’ve Found the Pearl of Greatest Price” says:
Christ is my meat, He is my drink,
My medicine and my health,
My portion, my inheritance,
Yea, all my boundless wealth.
That evil and adulterous generation within us that would like to “wow” people into believing God by performing some miraculous sign would circumvent the Door to the true blessing from God. “I am the Door. If any man tries to come in any other way he is a thief and a robber.”
God is writing some epistles on the tablets of a few hearts once lost in sin, and He is putting them out on open display for anyone to read. In those living letters, He is proclaiming the sign of the prophet Jonah, just as He always has. What more can He say?
God will confirm that Word with other signs and wonders as He promised, but no miracle can surpass the wonder of the sinner who became a willing vessel.
Saturday, February 17, 2007