David Bahn – Reflections

On the one hand we are to test God. That’s what Malachi tells the people of his day to do. Four hundred years before Christ was born God says, “Test me in this…” (Malachi 3:10).  But this testing was never to be an arrogant challenge of God. Malachi also laments, “‘But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape’” (Malachi 3:15).

Matthew 16:1-12

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. ²He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ ³And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. ⁴ An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

I would never think of myself as evil or adulterous. I would never imagine myself demanding a sign from God. That’s not my nature. Or so I say. One thing I’ve learned over the years, however, is that whatever we most strongly disavow we often simply blind ourselves to in ourselves. If I would never do that, it may be that I do it but in a way that I’m simply blind to. I don’t see it in myself.

That’s why John says, “If we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). More often than not we are blind to our sin rather than free from it. So today I’m going to ask God to search my heart and show me how I might have an arrogant attitude toward him, testing him as a challenge rather than as an act of faith. Perhaps you might join me in this quest. And when we discover that we have sinned, remember also: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Perhaps the sign we most need is the sign of the cross.