38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered,
saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no
sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For 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 in the judgment with
this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of
Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up in the
judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the
earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is
here. 43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes
through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house
from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put
in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other
spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state
of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked
generation.”
Vs.
40 “For 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.”
Vs. 41 “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed, a greater than Jonah is here.”
For the queen of Sheba when she heard of the wisdom that God had put in King Solomon she came from the ends of the earth to hear him. Unlike this evil and adulterous generation who will not receive the Lord Jesus Christ nor hear His Words. She so desired and cherished the true knowledge of God that she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon, and when she heard him, and saw all that God did for him she was breathless, captivated by all God did in revealing Himself to her through him. Therefore, she will rise up in the judgment with this evil and adulterous generation and condemn it, for they have (all that she never had, but deeply longed for) and that was the very Presence of the Living Son of God in their midst, speaking all the Words and Wisdom of God to them, therefore at the Judgment there will be no excuse for this evil and adulterous generations unbelief (Rev. 21:5-8).
The Lord Jesus Christ now draws an analogy of a man who having had a demon cast out of him, only goes on to end in a worst state then in which he began, and so the Lord Jesus says that such will be the case with this evil and adulterous generation. For though they may practice their religious practices or try to clean up their persons and lives at different points in their life, their house only remains empty, spiritually unoccupied because of their own unbelief and non-reception of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person. For unless the Lord Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit indwells you, your house will likewise remain vacant an unoccupied. For we as human beings being created in the image of God are spiritual beings housed inside physical bodies and so that spiritual vacuum must be filled either by the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person and Presence dwelling within us by His Holy Spirit, or if left vacant it will be indwelt by demonic spirits, and so this wicked and evil generation who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person and Salvation for them will be like that man, whose end was far worse than his beginning.
Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. (1982). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Commentary
Vs.
38
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered,
saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
The Lord Jesus having warned of the
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and that for every idle word men may speak they
will give an account of it in the day of judgment (Matt. 12:31-37), is now
asked by some of scribes and Pharisees to demonstrate a sign to them so as to
authenticate His Person and Authority as the Messiah. Given that Jesus had just
healed a demon-possessed, blind and mute man in their presence, their request
does not reveal a seeking heart, rather a hardened and evil one. Indeed, anyone
who links faith in God with first seeing a sign from Him is not about to
believe in Him, for the essence of the Gospel is that one believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ with no conditions attached, that is what activates all of God’s
Salvation and Promises in one’s person and life (consider Heb. 11:6).
Vs.
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign, and no sign will be
given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ will have
none of it, and instead calls them what they are, “An evil and adulterous generation…” evil because they
only look and judge the Lord Jesus Christ’s Holy Person and Presence amongst
them with continuously evil thoughts and suspicions about Him, when it is they themselves who are the evil and
adulterous ones. For they were not seeking to know Him or understand Him
as Nicodemus did (read John 3). For all their questions and requests of Him were only meant to try to trip
Him up in some way, so that they could make a claim or lay a charge against
Him. And so, they are evil because they don’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ’s
Person by either His Presence, Words, or Deeds amongst them. Instead they only continually
think evil in hearts about Him and all that He does, no matter how much good He
does in their very presence. For they will not be convinced that He is the Messiah
even when He rises from the dead (consider Luke 16:27-31; Matt. 27:62-66). Now
the Lord also calls them an adulterous generation because they were misusing
their God given authority and perverting God’s Law so as to make it serve their
own evil desires, including divorcing their wives unjustly, which the Lord fully
condemns as committing adultery (Malachi 2:13-16; Matt. 5:31-21, 19:1-9). Though
the full extent of their evil and unbelieving hearts will not be seen until
they appeal to Pilate for the Lord Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion Death through it
(John 19:7). And so, they are just like all those who in every generation who
will not repent and believe even if a thousand signs were shown them. Therefore,
the Lord Jesus Christ says that no sign will given to that generation except
the sign of the prophet Jonah.
The Lord Jesus Christ now draws an analogy between Jonah’s spending three
days and nights in the belly of the great fish (something which requires faith
to believe) with His own death and burial where He will spend three days and
nights in the heart of the earth, (which again requires faith to believe) even
though He rose again from the dead afterwards, but that was then still future.
And so, the sign of Jonah the prophet is the greatest sign of all that the Lord
Jesus could have given us all, for in rising from the dead three days later according
to His own Will (John 10:17-18) there can be no greater sign that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the Son of God!
Vs. 41 “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed, a greater than Jonah is here.”
Therefore, the Lord Jesus says that the
men of Nineveh, who repented at the preaching on Jonah (who preached to them
only the simplest of messages and thus they had only a very basic revelation) will
rise up (that is rise from dead) in the judgment with this generation, when the
Lord Jesus Christ judges all peoples and nations, and they will condemn it,
because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah
is here.
Vs.
42
“The
queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and
condemn it, for she came from
the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than
Solomon is here.”
Similarly, the Lord Jesus Christ says that
“The
queen of the South (Queen Sheba, 1 Kings 10:1-13)
will rise up in the judgment with this generation and
condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of
Solomon; and indeed, a greater than Solomon is here.”
For the queen of Sheba when she heard of the wisdom that God had put in King Solomon she came from the ends of the earth to hear him. Unlike this evil and adulterous generation who will not receive the Lord Jesus Christ nor hear His Words. She so desired and cherished the true knowledge of God that she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon, and when she heard him, and saw all that God did for him she was breathless, captivated by all God did in revealing Himself to her through him. Therefore, she will rise up in the judgment with this evil and adulterous generation and condemn it, for they have (all that she never had, but deeply longed for) and that was the very Presence of the Living Son of God in their midst, speaking all the Words and Wisdom of God to them, therefore at the Judgment there will be no excuse for this evil and adulterous generations unbelief (Rev. 21:5-8).
Vs.
43-45 43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man,
he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house
from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put
in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other
spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state
of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked
generation.”
The Lord Jesus Christ now draws an analogy of a man who having had a demon cast out of him, only goes on to end in a worst state then in which he began, and so the Lord Jesus says that such will be the case with this evil and adulterous generation. For though they may practice their religious practices or try to clean up their persons and lives at different points in their life, their house only remains empty, spiritually unoccupied because of their own unbelief and non-reception of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person. For unless the Lord Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit indwells you, your house will likewise remain vacant an unoccupied. For we as human beings being created in the image of God are spiritual beings housed inside physical bodies and so that spiritual vacuum must be filled either by the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person and Presence dwelling within us by His Holy Spirit, or if left vacant it will be indwelt by demonic spirits, and so this wicked and evil generation who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person and Salvation for them will be like that man, whose end was far worse than his beginning.
Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. (1982). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
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