“But are not signs Jewish? Are they not intended only for Israel? And,
if so, would not attention to them distract us from our true hope?” A pointed question
may convey a true or false thought in argumentation; it may remind of some true
and fully admitted principle, or it may suggest the adoption of some fallacy as
though it were a revealed truth.
Now, if signs were “Jewish”, indicating the glorious appearing of the Messiah,
since there is but one Christ, and His coming in glory is the promise to His
Church, they would be of equal significance to us, for they would instruct us as
much as they would Jews. But on what ground are “signs” said to be “Jewish”? Our
Lord's words are: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and
there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas” (Matthew
16:4). “Why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you,
There shall no sign be given unto this generation” (Mark 8:12). To the
generation of Israel, rejecting the resurrection of Jesus (“the sign of the
prophet Jonas”), no sign shall be given. This unbelieving generation, from
which Peter exhorted his hearers to save themselves (Acts 2:40), marked by the
same moral characteristics, will not pass away until the things spoken of in
Matthew 24 shall be accomplished in the manifestation of the glory of the Lord:
and thus signs cannot be for them. “This generation” cannot mean the men then
alive merely, for if so Israel would long ago have owned Jesus of Nazareth. “As
the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven shineth unto the
other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in His day; but first
must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24,25).
Unconverted Jews have said from this passage that, if Jesus had been a true
prophet, the next generation of Israel would have believed on Him, for it was
by that generation He was to be rejected. The argument is legitimate; the only
fallacy is that of imagining that “generation” means the men then living. The
future generation of Israel shall believe.
No sign shall be given to
unconverted Israel “this generation” rejecting the Son of Man: and any portion
of Israel converted is essentially a portion of the Church, even as the
Pentecostal saints were all Jews.
But the Lord has promised signs (“there shall be signs in the sun, and
in the moon, and in the stars” (Luke 21:25), and these signs can only be for
His believing people. They are closely connected with our watchfulness. We wait
for the budding of the fig-tree. “When these things begin to come to pass, then
look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh” (verse 28).
