<p>16:4 See commentary on 12:38,39,45.</p>
<p><i>An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall be no sign given to it except the sign of Jonah</i>- This sign is defined in 12:38,39 as his figurative death and resurrection, symbolic as it was of the Lord&rsquo;s. But seeing the Lord only appeared to His followers, how was His resurrection such a compelling sign to the Jews? Likewise, the resurrection of Jesus was to give assurance &ldquo;to all men&rdquo; (Acts 17:31). But how? They hadn&rsquo;t seen Him. There was no Euclidean reason for them to believe in His resurrection. How is it an assurance to all men and a sign to the Jews? Surely in that the disciples (and ourselves, in this age) are the risen Lord&rsquo;s representatives &ldquo;to all men&rdquo;, and through us they see the evidence of Christ risen, and thereby have assurance of God&rsquo;s plan for them. This explains how the wicked and adulterous generation to whom the Lord witnessed were given the sign of the prophet Jonah- that after three days, the Lord would re-appear. But that sign was only given to them through the preaching of the apostles- that generation didn&rsquo;t see the risen Lord Himself. But the witness of the disciples was as good as- for in their witness, they represented the Lord.</p>
<p><i>And he left them and departed</i>- The original words suggest that this is more than a mere notice of the Lord moving on. The Greek for &quot;left&quot; can imply a more conscious and formal abandoning (see examples in 19:5; Lk. 5:28; Acts 18:19). This would be in line with how in the similar incident in 12:38-45, the Lord had decided to 'leave' the masses of Israel and instead focus upon a minority. He 'left' the majority in the wilderness and went after the one lost sheep until He found it (Lk. 15:4 s.w.). In Matthew 12, the Lord made clear His change in policy- that He was leaving a wicked and adulterous generation and focusing upon the few who had truly responded, i.e. the group of disciples. But here He is again reasoning with the Jews and again formally leaving them. This is not inconsistency, but rather is such behaviour typical of the love that always hopes, that draws a line and yet revisits it in the hope that some will still change. Paul's behaviour to the Jews was the same- having turned away from them and towards the Gentiles, he still revisits the Jews in hope they will yet respond to Christ (Acts 13:46).&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>