To ask for a sign to our Lord! Is it superstitious? Is it childish?
The teaching of the bible is showing that,
on the contrary, it is a way to communicate with the family of our Creator?
Discover in the Bible the truth about signs! The "intellectual" world often tends to scorn or joke about this practice that some decided to ask for a sign before making an important decision in their life.
This practice is often pointed out as being of pagan inspiration, or a behaviour of a weak person unable to make a decision by himself. At the limit, it is a subject of shame.
But we, people of believers, have we already bothered to make an inquiry in order to know what our Father thinks about it in His word? The Bible may surprise you, but it is thanks to many signs that Yehoah, name often translated by the Lord, answered those who were questioning Him: these signs that could seem silly to many today who are thinking that human knowledge has reached a peak of evolution.
It is thanks to a sign asked almost 4,000 years ago by a man that the Jewish people are existing today!
Let's dive far into the past, back to Abraham's time, shortly after the death of his wife Sarah. Abraham wants his son Isaac to be married, but not with anyone. He wants his wife to be from his country of origin and not a Canaanite from the country where he lives as an immigrant. The reason for Abraham's wish is not inspired by racism, on the contrary, when we know how respectful he was when he asked to the locals for a burial place for Sarah. No, Abraham wants to avoid Isaac the risk that a Canaanite woman would turn him away from his Lord Yehoah by seducing him to worship the pagan deities of her nation. Abraham knows that, on the contrary, the people of his family have been educated in the knowledge of Yehoah and His commandments. This is why he makes the decision to send one of his most faithful servants to his country of origin. Abraham is indeed too old for such a long journey.
He therefore entrusts this mission to the oldest of his servants born in his house.
But what a trial for this servant, to go to a foreign country where he does not know anyone, to look for a young girl and convince her to agree to follow him to a foreign and unknown land to live with a man she has never seen before! Even worse, he should ask her to give up a city life because Rebecca lives indeed in town, and to go and live in the desert of the Negev in a tent!
This is the background of the story, but we must also remember that at that time, unlike ours, a servant had a deep respect for his master, a respect tinged with love. With this respect in his heart, the servant does not want to disappoint Abraham and therefore wants to succeed in his mission; he has a terrible fright as many artists before their entry on the scene because they want to please the public and succeed their show.
Let's read this in Genesis 24: 5-9:
“5 And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?”
6 But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there. 7 Yehoah Elohim of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.” 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.”
With faith and hope, this servant leaves Abraham and arrives with the ten camels of his caravan near the city of Nahor located in Mesopotamia.
He asks for a sign from Yehoah Elohim!
Now this servant is at the foot of the wall and humbly calling for Yehoah Elohim to help him find the one who will be Isaac's future wife. He asks for a complex sign and if it comes true, it will be a true miracle. Let's read this request in Genesis 24: 12-14:
“12 Then he said, “O Yehoah Elohim of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”
The spectacular part of this miracle is of course the spontaneous proposal that the selected young girl should make to provide water also to the ten camels of the servant of Abraham, because giving water to ten camels is not a simple matter.
Yehoah had already planned to inspire Rebecca to go to the well and respond to the sign asked by the servant, as it can be read in the following verses:
“15 And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. 16 Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. 17 And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.”
18 So she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. 19 And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” 20 Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels. 21 And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether Yehoah had made his journey prosperous or not.”
It is thanks to this sign asked in faith and miraculously realized that Isaac has received this beautiful wife Rebecca. Rebecca will indeed agree to leave her parents to live in a tent in the Negev desert.
She will give birth to Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jewish people are the representatives of approximately 4 of these tribes: Judah, Benjamin, Simeon and Levi.
The fleece of Gideon.
Here is the story of a series of signs, asked by Gideon, Judge of Israel, to Elohim as a proof that he is indeed the one elected for the liberation to free Israel from the repetitive ravages exerted by the Midianites, the Amalekites and the Bedouins of the East. These ravages which lasted for seven years are the punishment imposed by Yehoah on Israel because they did not keep their word by not living in accordance with laws and commandments given by the Lord.
Gideon has indeed enough to be frightened when he compares the meager means of his troop with the well equipped multitude and armed enemies. He will dare to ask Elohim for two miraculous and contradictory signs to be comforted before accomplishing his mission of liberation. Gideon knows very well that this liberation of his people will not be his doing but that of Elohim; he knows that the few men who will accompany him in the battle are there only for a symbolic purpose! Let's read the story of the request for signs in Judges 6: 36-40:
“36 So Gideon said to Elohim, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to Elohim, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And Elohim did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.”
Let us now read how the miraculous liberation of Israel will take place through the intervention of their Father and Savior in Judges 7: 7-25:
“7 Then Yehoah said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.” 8 So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
9 It happened on the same night that Yehoah said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, 11 and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.
13 And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.”
14 Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand Elohim has delivered Midian and the whole camp.”
15 And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for Yehoah has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.” 16 Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of Yehoah and of Gideon!’ ”
19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of Yehoah and of Gideon!” 21 And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. 22 When the three hundred blew the trumpets, Yehoah set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.
23 And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.
24 Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites, and seize from them the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan.” Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan. 25 And they captured two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.”
A sign asked by a king.
Don’t think that asking for a sign is done only by simple people, here is a king who will ask for a sign from Elohim. This is the story of Hezekiah, one of the great kings of Judah.
Indeed, Hezekiah is no exception. One day, Yehoah announces to Hezekiah, who became proud and arrogant, that he will pass away.
Hezekiah repents of his misbehavior and begs with tears Yehoah to grant him an extension of life. Yehoah touched by his repentance agrees to delay his death and asks Isaiah, the prophet, to inform Hezekiah that he will get another 15 years of life.
But Hezekiah wants a sign as a proof that this will happen. Let us read how Yehoah will grant him a particularly spectacular sign and whose realization is difficult to explain with our normal scientific knowledge.
Let's read that in II Kings 20: 8-11:
“8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that Yehoah will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yehoah the third day?”
9 Then Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from Yehoah, that Yehoah will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?”
10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.”
11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to Yehoah, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.”
Signs of vital importance to the people of the believers at the end of time.
The disciples of Yeshuah-Christ asked also their Savior for signs that will announce the times of the end. But this time, these signs were given by Yeshuah for us today if we are believers. These signs given by Yeshuah himself must be used to stay awake and understand when his reign will start suddenly. These signs should encourage us to cross with perseverance the difficult period we will face against both the wickedness of people and the rage of Satan and his demons that will be great. Let's read this request coming from the disciples and Christ's answer in Matthew 24: 1-39
“1 Then Yeshuah went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Yeshuah said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Yeshuah answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines,pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.
26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that [e]it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
By the way, please pay attention that Yeshuah knew that his words would be written down, since in verse 15 he asks for the special attention of the readers and not of the listeners!
Note also that this chapter 24 of the book of Matthew relates to the times of the end of this world and should not be confused with chapter 21 of the book of Luke which warns believers of the fall and destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies of Titus in the year 70 of our era.
Beware of false signs inspired by Satan!
You read how the signs asked by faithful believers are an additional mean accepted by our Father and His Son to exchange information with us. They are similar to the signs used by the deaf-mutes to communicate between them and there is therefore no need to despise this way of speaking.
I invite you to make use of it but beware, just as the internet network is polluted by a lot of fake news generated by evil beings, Satan, the Devil and his demons will also try to make use of signs to confuse you. They will meet with some success but only for a short period of time but this success might affect those who are not careful and will not make use of wisdom. Let's read a bad example of the use of these signs in II Thessalonians 2: 9-12:
“9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason Elohim will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
So good luck and farewell to you while crossing for a short time the difficulties ahead of us!