Matthew 12:38 - Meaning and Application

It is likely that these Pharisees were not the same ones who had already argued with Christ and refused to believe the signs he gave (Matthew 12:24). They seem to be another group, people who could not honestly deny his miracles, but still would not be satisfied unless he gave them some extra proof on their own terms.

Here is their approach to him in Matthew 12:38. They call him “Master” and act respectful, but they mean to insult him. Not everyone who says “Master” truly belongs to Christ. Their request is, “We want to see a sign from you.” It was reasonable to ask for a sign at the start, so that a divine messenger could prove his mission by miracles, as in Exodus 4:8, 4:9. Christ was introducing a form of religion that had been confirmed by miracles, so it was fitting that he should bring the same kind of proof. But it was deeply unreasonable to ask for a sign after he had already given so many. Proud people naturally try to set the terms for God, and then use that as an excuse not to believe him. A person’s own offense will never become a defense.

Christ answers this harsh demand by calling it the voice of an evil and adulterous generation, Matthew 12:39. He lays this charge not only on the scribes and Pharisees, but on the Jewish nation as a whole. They were following their leaders into a long line of wrongdoing. They were evil because they hardened themselves against the proof of Christ’s miracles, and then mocked the miracles themselves. They were adulterous in two ways: like children who have badly turned away from the faith and obedience of their ancestors, so that Abraham and Israel would not recognize them, as in Isaiah 57:3; and like an unfaithful wife who has broken covenant with her husband. They were not guilty of open idol worship as in earlier times, but they were guilty of unbelief and all kinds of sin, and that is spiritual adultery too. They were not asking for idols of their own making, but for signs of their own choosing, and that was another form of unfaithfulness.

Christ refuses to give them any sign beyond the one he has already given, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Christ is always ready to hear true desires and honest prayers, but he will not satisfy corrupt wishes and stubborn pride. Those who ask wrongly do ask, but they do not receive. Signs were given to people like Abraham and Gideon to strengthen their faith, but they were denied to people who only wanted an excuse for unbelief. Christ could have said they would never see another miracle, but his goodness is shown here in a better way. They would still have the earlier signs, repeated for their benefit and greater warning, and they would also have one different sign, the resurrection of Christ from the dead by his own power. That is the sign of the prophet Jonah, and it was still waiting to be given for their conviction. It would be the great proof that Christ is the Messiah, because by it he was declared to be the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4). It was a sign greater than all the others, one that completed and crowned them. If they would not believe the earlier signs, this one should have convinced them (Exodus 4:9). If even this would not persuade them, nothing would. Yet Jewish unbelief found an excuse even here, saying that his disciples stole the body. No one is so blind as the person who has already decided not to see.

Christ then explains the sign of Jonah more fully in Matthew 12:40. Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish and then came out alive, so Christ would be in the grave and then rise again. The grave was to Christ what the fish’s belly was to Jonah. He was thrown there as a ransom for lives that were in danger, and there he lay as if in the belly of hell (Jonah 2:2), seeming to be cut off from God’s sight. He remained in the grave as long as Jonah remained in the fish’s belly, three days and three nights, that is, not three full 24-hour periods, but part of three days, as the Bible often speaks in this way. He was buried on the afternoon of the sixth day and rose on the morning of the first day. Jonah was in the fish as a prisoner for his own sins, and Christ was in the grave as a prisoner for ours.

Just as Jonah, while in the fish, hoped he would again look toward God’s holy temple (Jonah 2:4), so Christ, while lying in the grave, is said to have rested in hope, fully sure that he would not see corruption (Acts 2:26, 27). And just as Jonah was freed on the third day and returned to the land of the living, so Christ would on the third day rise from the dead and go on to send the gospel out to the Gentiles.

Christ uses this moment to show the sad condition of that generation. They would not be changed, and so they could not escape ruin. He speaks of them as they would appear at the day of judgment, when all things are fully revealed and finally decided. Right now, people and events can look different from what they really are. If we want a true judgment, we must measure everything by the last judgment, because things are truly what they will be forever.

He says the Jewish people will be condemned by the men of Nineveh, because the Ninevites repented when Jonah preached to them, and their repentance will rise up in judgment against the Jews, Matthew 12:41. Christ’s resurrection would be the sign of Jonah to them, but it would not have the same result. The Ninevites were brought by Jonah’s preaching to repentance that kept them from destruction, but the Jews would harden themselves in unbelief, which would hasten their ruin. In the day of judgment, the Ninevites’ repentance will be mentioned to make the sin of Christ’s hearers even more serious, and so their condemnation heavier. Christ is greater than Jonah. Jonah was only a man, with passions and weaknesses like ours. Christ is the Son of God. Jonah was a stranger in Nineveh, coming among people already biased against him and his nation, but Christ came to his own people when he preached to the Jews, and even more so when he is preached among Christians who bear his name.

Jonah preached only one short sermon, and he did it with little ceremony, as he walked through the streets. Christ kept calling people again and again. He sat and taught, and he taught in the synagogues. Jonah warned only of coming wrath and ruin within forty days. He gave no guidance, no instruction, and no promise of welcome if they repented. But Christ, besides warning us of danger, also showed us how to repent and assured us that we will be received when we do, because the kingdom of heaven is near.

Jonah did no miracles to support his message, and he showed no kindness to the Ninevites. Christ worked many miracles, and all of them were miracles of mercy. Yet the Ninevites repented when Jonah preached, while the Jews were not moved by Christ’s preaching. The good response of people who have fewer helps and less light will make the bad response of those with much greater help even worse. Those who can see the things that make for their peace in the dim light will put to shame those who grope for them at noon.

The queen of the South, the queen of Sheba, will also stand in judgment against this generation (Matthew 12:42). The Ninevites would shame them for not repenting, and the queen of Sheba would shame them for not believing in Christ. She came from a far country to hear the wisdom of Solomon, yet people will not come to hear the wisdom of Christ, even though he is greater than Solomon in every way.

She had no invitation to come to Solomon, and no promise that she would be welcomed. But we are invited to Christ, to sit at his feet and hear his word. Solomon was only a wise man, but Christ is wisdom itself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom. The queen of Sheba also had many difficulties to overcome. She was a woman, and travel was not easy for her. The journey was long and dangerous. She was a queen, so her absence raised another concern, what would happen to her own country while she was gone? We have no such obstacles to keep us back.

She could not even be sure the trip would be worth it. Fame often flatters people, and perhaps she already had wise men in her own country or court. Still, when she heard of Solomon’s fame, she went to see him. We do not come to Christ under such uncertainty. She came from the farthest parts of the earth, but Christ is among us, and his word is near us. He stands at the door and knocks. It also seems that the wisdom she sought was only philosophy and statecraft, but the wisdom found in Christ is wisdom that leads to salvation.

She could only hear Solomon’s wisdom, because he could not give her wisdom. But Christ gives wisdom to those who come to him. More than that, he himself is made by God to be wisdom for them. So if we do not listen to Christ’s wisdom, the eagerness of the queen of Sheba to come and hear Solomon will rise up in judgment against us and condemn us. Jesus Christ is greater than Solomon.

This generation is also like people who are determined to keep Satan in power, even after every effort has been made to drive him out and rescue them. That is why they are compared to someone from whom the devil has gone out, only to return with greater force (Matthew 12:43-45). Here the devil is called the unclean spirit, because he has lost all purity and promotes every kind of impurity among people.

This picture first speaks of the way he possessed people’s bodies. Christ had just cast out a demon, and the people had said that he had a demon. That gave occasion to show how fully they were under Satan’s power. This also proves that Christ did not cast out demons by making a deal with the devil, because then the devil would soon have returned. Christ’s expulsion of him was final and shut the door against his return. We read of Christ ordering the evil spirit to come out and never enter again (Mark 9:25).

The devil likely used to toy with those he possessed. He would go out and then come back with even more fury. That is why times of relief in such cases were often followed by more violent attacks. When the devil goes out, he is not at ease. He cannot rest unless he is doing harm (Proverbs 4:16). He wanders through dry places like someone deeply unhappy. He looks for rest but finds none until he returns. When Christ cast the legion out of the man, they asked permission to enter the swine, where they did not stay long in the dry places but went at once into the lake.

The parable also points to the Jewish church and nation as a whole. So it would be with that wicked generation, which then resisted Christ’s gospel and would finally reject it. The devil, who had been cast out of many Jews through the work of Christ and his disciples, looked for rest among the Gentiles, from whose people and temples Christians would everywhere drive him out, as Dr. Whitby says. Or, as Dr. Hammond says, he found nowhere else in the Gentile world such pleasant and fitting homes for himself as in the hearts of the Jews. So he would enter them again, because Christ had not been welcomed among them, and because their terrible wickedness and stubborn unbelief made them even more ready than before to receive him.

Then he would take lasting possession there, and the condition of that people would likely become more hopeless and more guilty, as Dr. Hammond says, than it had been before Christ came to them, or than it would have been if Satan had never been cast out. The nation is shown here first as an apostate people. After the captivity in Babylon, they began to reform. They left their idols and appeared to have some religion. But they soon became corrupt again. Though they never returned to idolatry, they fell into every kind of wickedness and irreverence, grew worse and worse, and added to all their other sins a willful contempt for Christ and open opposition to his gospel.

Second, they are shown as a people marked for destruction. A new sentence of judgment was being sealed against that hypocritical nation, the people of God’s anger, like the one in Isaiah 10:6. Their destruction by the Romans would be greater than other judgments, because their sins were more open and serious. Then wrath came upon them to the very end (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16). Let this warn all nations and churches to be careful not to lose their first love, not to let a good work of reform fade, and not to return to the wickedness they seemed to have left behind. The final condition of such people will be worse than the first.