Based on Luke 11:29-32 (New King James Version)
“And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”
In this passage, the Lord spoke of the wickedness and hardness of heart of the crowd around Him, for He openly declared to them that they were a bad generation. But what was it that made them bad? Their demand for a sign from Him. Demanding signs involved several evil implications before God. To start, they demanded that the Lord do things to prove to them that He was God. And this fact is fraught with many evils. The first thing is the matter of feeling entitled, that the crowd felt they had the right to be owed something. For them, the Lord had the obligation to show them who He was with their demands. And this leads us to the second thing, that the crowd asked for signs or things they wanted, as if the Lord were some kind of magician. And the third thing that can be seen was the issue that they did not value at all what He had already done, all the different miracles, and even several resurrections, and most importantly, the truth that He was teaching them. We could see more evil if we had the time.
A person may ask: What is wrong with these things? If we only see the three things we mentioned, we would understand how wrong they were based on a single fact, that the point is that the Lord was (and is) God. And that is what should put things in order. Does man have any right over God? No, impossible. Does God owe something to man? No, nothing. Does God exist to serve man? No. The Lord did not come to do His will, but the will of the Father. And even though everything He did was of service to man, that did not mean that His position was to be man's servant. That is, we should never take God's goodness and grace as something that God owes us. Neither God the Father owes us anything nor does the Lord Jesus Christ owe us anything. So, the matter of them feeling they had the right to demand, and that God do as they pleased, and that they did not value in the least the works that He had already done, proving conclusively that He was (and is) God, that crowd was only worthy of condemnation with their disrespect and hardness of heart.
Now, the Lord gave 2 examples. The first example we could see is that of the queen of Sheba. This is what the Word says of her: “Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. So, Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. Then she said to the king: ‘It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.’ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great quantity, and precious stones. There never again came such abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.” 1 Kings 10:1-10. The queen was already prepared to give what she had due to the simple fact of what she had heard from third persons. But there is a very profound detail, that the queen valued the work of God in Solomon as it is written: “Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord…” She went searching for the work of the name of the Lord, and that’s why she traveled from distant lands, and brought with her offerings for the same reason.
The second example is Nineveh, and this is what the Word says: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” Jonah 3. The message that the king and all the people of Nineveh valued was really very short: “…Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Nothing more was said. There was no great theological explanation or dissertation, not even how to find grace before God. It was just a declaration of destruction. But the people deduced for themselves that this message came from God, even though they were pagans, totally apart from the people of Israel and their beliefs. And the king thought within himself how to obtain the mercy of God, with the repentance of the nation.
Now, what do we have now to be able to believe in God? We have the greatest thing from God: the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord, and if we repent from all our sins and receive Him into our hearts as what He is, the Lord and God Almighty, we will have eternal life . There is no greater sign not only of God's power, but also of His love for us. But he who does not know how to respect and adopt such faith will be deservedly condemned for all eternity, because there is no greater contempt than that. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36. So then, are you continuing to look for signs from God to bring about your own perdition? Lord bless! John. God bless Israel!