RED SKY

The “folk saying” attributed to sailor and to farmer alike, “'Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning sailors take warning,” has very old origins. It comes from a time in history when people used to watch nature more closely, especially in order to understand the weather. From these observations people created what was considered common knowledge or “folklore,” and over time and practice, the appearance of a red sky was a sign in the morning signified that something unusual or unexpected was up with the weather.

People of yesteryears didn’t have the advantages of the today’s technology. There were not newspapers and radios with news and information, no data from satellite systems 24/7 as we have today. They didn’t get the Weather Channel on their oxcart pulled wagon or from their control panel on their row boat a digital device attached to their little ol’ fishing pole. Oh no. They actually had to look out over the horizon, and think for themselves.

As such, they were more inclined to use their physical senses and become acquainted with the world around them and thus deductively reason certain, observable things. In fact they were quite good at it and had that a red sky in the evening was a good sign to go fishing; red sky in the morning, was a sign that there was about to be a change in the weather and a fisherman should be careful if he was out at sea. Jesus, (in Matthew’s gospel) is even recorded as having made reference to this popular saying of his day. He knew they knew and therefore practiced a lot of things because of their keen skills in observation, but apparently they failed to observe somethings of major importance.

In Matthew 16, the Pharisees and Sadducees came and asked Jesus to show them a
miraculous sign from heaven, they wanted to know exactly “when” the prophetic things he was talking about would come to pass. They wanted to know when they would actually occur. Jesus told them that they were in fact already very good with interpreting the signs of seasons and weather, and marveled at the request they made of him. He told them that it was an adulterous generation that would seek another sign from heaven (besides all the signs they already had been given) and he said, “none shall be given to it, except for the sign of the prophet Jonas.”

Basically, Jesus rebuked them saying, it was remarkable that they knew how to forecast the weather for fishing by simply judging the appearance of the sky, while in the meantime they looked for some miraculous sign as proof that the things Jesus spoke of would come to pass. The things of heaven and earth and God are not hidden away somewhere, they are laid open for those with eyes to see and ear to hear...

He did offer them one though, Jonas. Jonas is often translated, Jonah.

Remember Jonah? He is the guy swallowed by a big, God-prepared fish who was three days submerged beneath the sea. And not only that, he ended up on dry land when the creature of the deep spit him out

There is a sign for you to consider, oh you who look for signs and wonders to occur! I cannot help but think about Jonahs message to Nineveh too, something like, REPENT!