Discerning the Signs of the Times

Taken on July 11, 2010 somewhere between St. George and Cedar City, UT

"The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him
that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
He answered and said unto them, 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 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."
Matthew 16: 1-3

............................................

This photo was taken out of the car window going 75 miles an hour by my wife on our way back from California. She is amazing. (I couldn't pull over to take it, since I had already reached our quoto for stopping and pulling over.)

I have always remembered the old saying: Red at night, Sailors Delight. Red in the morning, Sailors Warning. Christ spoke about this weather adage in the New Testament.

In the above scripture, The Lord is chastising the religious leaders for not being able to discern the "signs of the times" (which I read as meaning: they could not see Christ for who He really is) even though these leaders could see other "signs" like discerning the face of the sky. Why could they not see Christ? Why could they not discern the signs of the times, the prophesies that were in their scriptures? The scriptures that the Pharisees and Saducees read/studied/taught were full of these "signs of the times" pointing to Christ foretelling of His birth, mission, and sacrifice. (Obviously, like us, they didn't read or understand the words of Isaiah like they should have. )

Christ does acknowledge that these learned religious men understood some "signs" or precepts of men like determining what the weather might be like the next day from the color red in the sky. However, they couldn't see the most important sign... those signs that pointed to the coming of Christ. Are we any different?

Are we seeing "signs" today that we should be discerning? How about the lastest oil spill in the Gulf? Could that be one of the things that John spoke about in Revelations? Maybe instead of looking at the color red in the sky, we can see a "sign" or prophesy in the color red in our ocean. (FYI: I did not take the below is a photo. It is oil that has reached the marshlands of Louisiana.)

SAD.