Discernment or Deception?

“…When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.  And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering.  O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”  Matthew 16:2-3

I am sure you have heard the old saying, “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.  Red sky at night, sailors delight.”  Guess from where that saying came.  Storm systems usually move from west to east.  A red sunrise may be reflecting dust particles coming from a storm system in the west headed eastward while a red sunset can indicate the storm has already passed.

The occasion of Jesus’ lesson on discerning the weather was one day when the Pharisees and the Sadducees were tempting Jesus to give them a sign from heaven which would prove His identity.  However, He always “turned the tables” on them.  (I wonder if that saying came from Matthew 21:12-13?)  He was not going to play their game, but instead He desired to show them how they were being deceived by their own self-righteous arrogance.  He called them “hypocrites” because they could plainly see God’s display of weather prognostication, but they refused to see His display of love and compassion in His own Son which would lead them to repentance and salvation.

The world as it continues to forge ahead in its current state of misinformation, deception, and, well, basically, sin, will never run out of hypocrites.  However,  let’s you and me not fall into that old trap of deceiving ourselves, saying one thing and doing something else, the common definition of a hypocrite.  There are plenty of modern day “Pharisees” and “Sadducees” living on earth to fill out those slots of hypocritical behavior.  I see many of them on the cable news stations.  Some folks will say anything to get attention or ratings.  It has been said and has proven to be true that if one tells a lie often enough, people will begin to take it as the truth.  I would hate to come to the end of my life and realized that I had allowed myself to be deceived all along.  It has also been said that the truth hurts, however, a lie can do much more harm that bring pain.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were so self-absorbed in their own deception that they couldn’t see the need of a Savior to rescue a nation that had strayed so far from their Creator.  Sure sounds a lot like our current day.  But before we throw up our hands in dismay or throw in the towel of despair, we have to remember that Jesus never gives up on those who love Him.