Matthew 12:39-41

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. 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. 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.

This was the answer to a question. What was the question?

Matthew 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

Some answered a question with a question. This is a sign of lack of understanding. What did Jesus ask of them that they could not answer?

Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

It all begins with the condition of the heart and that evil generation did not know their own hearts.

Luke 18:9-14 English Standard Version

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The one who knows the condition of his heart and confesses he is unworthy and seeks mercy will find it.

While it was too late for the Pharisee, it is not too late for any sinner who confesses and seeks mercy from God through faith in the Lamb who was slain as the sign of Jonah.

How is your heart?

Luke 4:23 “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.”

After conferring with a trusted source it is apparent that the parable referenced here is not a biblical proverb but is a saying commonly used by Jews in social situations. An antidote as it were. Which brings me to the issue today, good advice is good advice even if we cannot find it in scripture.

I had a nightmare two nights ago and it was so upsetting I refused to go back to sleep for fear it would come back. Eventually I talked to the Father about my deep seated fear and His answer came back to me as it often does in the issues of remembrances of scripture.

Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,

This was the Father’s way of telling me “Trust me!”

A memory of my past comes to mind when I prayed about my fear in Vietnam. When I went to “the garden” and prayed there was no scriptural remembrance, that night I was wounded and taken to a hospital. I know that does not sound like being under the shadow of His wings but then while in the hospital a fellow soldier came to be a patient there.

While I was in the hospital safe and sound with a minor wound my unit had their first nasty encounter with the enemy and I had been spared a worse fate that might have happened. His wounds were devastating and others had died. At the moment I was shot, it did not feel like God’s protective covering, but later it appears it was exactly that.

Whatever fate befalls us we need to trust God. We must not allow fear to drive us to anything except prayer.

I know this present danger is fraught with possibilities but we must not allow fear to control us.

Trust God for the possible in view of the probable because Jesus has overcome the world and everything is in His capable hands.

John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,

He is seated on the throne where the enemy cannot come and since our lives are hidden in Him, we have nothing to lose. Trust Him.

Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.