Surely I Will Be With Thee

When the scribes and Pharisees came to the Savior and said, “Master, we would see a sign from thee,” He responded, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.” He refused to give them the sign they sought but said instead that they would receive “the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:38-40). This request for a sign was one made with an attitude of rebelliousness; in other words, the intent of these people was not to humbly believe when they saw a divine manifestation but rather that they sought to mock the Lord when such a sign was not given. Korihor in the Book of Mormon surely had the same attitude: “If thou wilt show me a sign, that I may be convinced that there is a God, yea, show unto me that he hath power” (Alma 30:43). Sherem’s request was much the same: “Show me a sign by this power of the Holy Ghost, in the which ye know so much” (Jacob 7:13). In all of these instances it seems that there was no humility or desire even to believe—they only sought to mock the Lord. That kind of sign-seeker is appropriately labeled “an evil and adulterous generation.”

               In our reading this week in the Come, Follow Me program, we see another kind of request for a sign which was in fact acceptable to the Lord. The Lord said to Gideon when the Israelites were being oppressed by the Midianites: “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” To this Gideon responded, “Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” The Lord reassured him, “Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.” Despite this reassurance, Gideon wanted more evidence of the Lord’s help that would be with him: “If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.” He then brought food out on the rock and the angel “put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes” (Judges 6:14-21). Gideon had his sign that the Lord would indeed be with him. The Lord did not condemn this request for a sign but rather fulfilled it. But even then Gideon still sought more evidence of how the Lord would strengthen him as he prepared to go against the Midianites: “God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.” When the Lord did exactly that, Gideon still wanted more assurance, saying to God: “Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew” (Judges 7:36-40). The Lord again complied with the request, instead of condemning Gideon for his lack of trust in the evidence already given, and this Israelite leaders had two more witnesses that the Lord would be with them.

               So why were these requests for a sign from Gideon acceptable to the Lord, and even granted, when the Savior elsewhere condemned so explicitly the seeking of signs? I believe it is because of the attitude and intent of Gideon which were markedly different than those Pharisees and scribes. Gideon was not seeking to mock the Lord and His servants when a sign wasn’t given. Rather, he was seeking a witness from the Lord whom He already believed in and trusted. His intent was not to ridicule the believers or make a fool of a servant of the Lord—which undoubtedly was the intent of Korihor and Sherem—but he only wanted more confidence that the Lord would really help him do this great thing. Perhaps we could more accurately describe his request as a desire for reassurance instead of sign-seeking. I believe this kind of sign is what the Lord was trying to give Ahaz when He said, “Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above” (Isaiah 7:11). He wanted to give Ahaz assurance that He would stand by Judah in the face of their enemies, but Ahaz didn’t want that because he preferred to make an alliance with other nations and trust in man instead. Perhaps then the message of the story of Gideon is that the Lord is willing to reassure us and comfort us and give us evidence of the things He has asked us to do as long as our intent is indeed to follow Him. We can, like Gideon, ask Him for confirmation and assurance in the paths we are taking in life. As we do so we can hear His voice say to us: “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21).