Seeking After a Sign
Certain of the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.? (Matthew 12:38-39 WEB)
What did Jesus mean by referring to seekers of signs as an "adulterous generation"? Jesus was being quite graphic here, painting a picture of those asking for a sign as possessing the fickleness of heart and the immoral behavior of a wife having intercourse with someone other than her husband. Considering that Israel was God's betrothed, He was referring to that apostate generation as an unfaithful wife; in this instance an unfaithful wife who still wanted the benefits of her husband.
Among the synonyms of adultery is the word prostitution. In our day a prostitute is referred to by many titles, such as whore, call girl, hustler, harlot, streetwalker, vice girl, tramp, tart, hooker, lady of the evening, and bimbo. Certainly none of these titles are becoming to womanhood. They indicate perversion, a fallen condition in which the mysterious beauty and nobility of woman is marred beyond recognition as her heart is turned from her betrothed to herself. This is the beginning of the perversion that ultimately leads her to seek gratification in other lovers, using both them and her husband for her own ends. Neither possesses her heart.
What husband would not be heartbroken to find out that his wife loved him only for what he could do for her or the thrills he could give her and that he was merely a convenience, an addition to her world. The wife who seeks thrills is adulterous in heart, if not yet in behavior. She is unfaithful first in her heart and then in her actions. She seeks the gold of her husband, not her husband. She knows nothing of what it means to be enraptured by him. She is nothing like the Shulimite maiden, whose heart was so transfixed by her Beloved that she would not rest until she found Him. "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love." (Song of Solomon 5:8 RSV)
Like an adulterous wife, the western church preaches the gospel of hedonism, the doctrine that pleasure and happiness are the highest good. This is a gospel that says in effect, "Get saved and God will bless you, then He will give everything you have always wanted." Converts to this gospel make God a fine add-on to their hedonistic lifestyle; He becomes nothing more than an errand-boy they have added to their entourage of servants, feeding the desires of their flesh. This evil is manifest in a materialistic religion where God is like the great cornucopia in the sky. God also becomes the heavenly entertainer, called upon when His children are bored and in need of excitement.
Like a wife who married a man for His money, many Christians in the church today seek God's benefits, not His person. They want phenomenal spiritual amusements, not His face. It is adulterous to make God only a part of our lives. Rather than entering God's Kingdom, people make Him a wonderful addition to their own kingdoms. It is an adulterous generation that attempts to add the Author of Life to its hedonistic pantheon.
In Matthew 12:38-39 we see that God does not give special-order signs for the amusement of men, but specific signs but that were preordained and unfold in God's timing for His purposes. Jesus had just bound a deaf and dumb spirit and cast it out of a man. As the result, the multitude of witnesses were proclaiming that He was the promised Son of David. The common people saw God in action. They saw the Sign standing in front of them. "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us)." (Isaiah 7:14, ASV).
: Have a good day.