And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Jesus is responding to a challenge from the Pharisees and Sadducees — two powerful and often rival religious groups in first-century Judaism — who were demanding a miraculous sign from the sky to prove his authority. He points out a sharp irony: these men can glance at the horizon and predict tomorrow's weather with confidence, a skill honed through careful observation of the natural world. But the arrival of the very Messiah their scriptures had promised for centuries was happening right in front of them, and they couldn't — or wouldn't — see it. "The signs of the times" refers to the mounting evidence already before them: healings, fulfilled prophecy, the weight of Jesus's teaching. Their blindness wasn't a shortage of information; it was a failure of willingness.
Lord, I confess I'm often skilled at reading everything except what you're doing right in front of me. Open my eyes to the moments you're present, the patterns that point to you, the invitations I keep rationalizing away. Teach me to pay attention. Amen.
Most of us are remarkably good at seeing what we've trained ourselves to see. A mechanic hears a knock in an engine and knows exactly what it means. A mother scans a crowded birthday party and spots the look on her child's face that says something is wrong. The Pharisees were experts — lifelong scholars of scripture, trained observers of religious life. But Jesus says their expertise had a blind spot the size of the kingdom of God. They had mastered the sky and missed the Son of God standing in front of them. It's easy to read this and think, "How could they miss it?" But most of us live with our own version of this — highly skilled at reading the things we care about while staying carefully vague about what God might actually be saying. Maybe it's a pattern in your relationships that keeps repeating. A restlessness you keep explaining away. A door that keeps closing, or one that keeps opening, that you haven't stopped to consider. The question Jesus is really asking isn't "Can you read the sky?" It's "Are you paying attention to the right things?"
What do you think Jesus meant by "the signs of the times" — what specifically were the Pharisees failing to recognize, and why might that have been hard to see?
What are the areas of your own life where you're most perceptive and attentive — and are any of those skills helping you notice what God might be doing around you?
Is spiritual blindness always willful, or can someone genuinely miss God at work without realizing it? What does your answer mean for how you approach your own faith?
How does it affect your relationships when someone close to you seems blind to something you can clearly see — and how might God feel watching us miss what he's doing?
If you took one week to genuinely ask "What might God be saying through this?" about the recurring patterns in your life, what would you look at first?
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Matthew 11:5
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Matthew 6:2
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Matthew 7:5
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Romans 13:11
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Matthew 4:23
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:1
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Genesis 1:14
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.
1 Chronicles 12:32
And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and has a threatening look.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but cannot interpret the signs of the times?
AMP
And 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.
ESV
'And in the morning, '[There will be] a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot [discern] the signs of the times?
NASB
and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
NIV
and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
NKJV
red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times!
NLT
red sky at morning, sailors take warning.' You find it easy enough to forecast the weather—why can't you read the signs of the times?
MSG