Rightful and wrongful asking for signs.
To ask for a sign is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as indicative of want of faith, and therefore as an offence to God:
"An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" (Matthew 12:39), "This is an evil generation; they seek a sign" (Luke 11:29). "Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given to this generation" (Mark 8:12). "The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom' (1 Corinthians 1:22). On the other hand, it is sometimes spoken of without any dispraise, and seems to be viewed as natural, rightful, even as a sort of proof of faith. Ahaz, in the present passage, is bidden to "ask a sign, and is blamed for refusing to do so. His refusal "wearies" God (Isaiah 7:13). The disciples ask our Lord, unrebuked," What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3). Hezekiah asks Isaiah, "What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day?" (2 Kings 20:8; comp. Isaiah 38:22). Can any tests be laid down whereby the right and the wrong may be distinguished in this matter? We think that some may.
I. IT IS RIGHT TO ASK FOR A SIGN.
1. When a person comes forward and claims our obedience as a Divine teacher or leader. Moses anticipated that his countrymen in Egypt would refuse to listen to him if he presented himself to them without credentials, and was given at once the power of working certain miracles as signs that he was commissioned by God (Exodus 4:1-9). As soon as Jesus came forward to teach and to preach, he was asked, not unreasonably or improperly, "What sign showest thou?" (John 2:18), and responded, without blaming those who asked him, by a reference to the greatest of his miracles, his resurrection. The apostles were authorized to work miracles as signs of their Divine mission.
2. When we have an invitation from God through his accredited messenger, as Ahaz had, to ask a sign.
3. When we feel that much depends on our decision in a practical matter—e.g. the lives of others—we may humbly ask, as Gideon did ( 6:36-40), that God will, if he so please, give us some external indication, or else such strength of internal conviction as will assure us what his will is; only in such cases we must be careful to make our request conditional on its being acceptable to him, and we must be ready, if it be not granted, to act in the matter to the best of our ability on such light as is vouchsafed us.
II. IT IS WRONG TO ASK FOR A SIGN.
1. In a captious spirit, with an intention to cavil at it, and (if possible) not accept it. This was the condition of mind of the Pharisees, who would not have believed even had Christ come down from the cross before their eyes, as they asked him to do (Matthew 27:42).
2. When we have already had abundant signs given us, and there is no reasonable ground for doubt or hesitation as to our duty. This was the case of those Jews who still "required a sign" (1 Corinthians 1:22) after the Resurrection and Ascension.
3. When we ask for it merely to gratify our curiosity, as Herod Antipas just before the Crucifixion (Luke 23:8).
4. When we arbitrarily fix on our own sign, and determine to regard the result, whatever it be, as a sign from heaven. This is the case of those who choose to decide a practical matter by sortes Virgiliance, or sortes Biblicae, or any other appeal to chance. They are not entitled to ask God for signs of this kind, or to regard such signs as significant of his will. To trust to them is not faith, but superstition.