And he said also to the crowds, When ye see a cloud rising out of the west, straightway ye say, A shower is coming; and so it happens.
Now the Lord turns from His disciples to the crowd, and He starts with something everyone there knew: how to read the weather. If people can predict rain from a cloud, why can they not read what God is doing in front of them?
With the crowd in front of Him, the ground shifts to what each person must answer for.
In verses 54-57 the Lord speaks to the crowd about personal responsibility — first from the clear signs of God's dealing with the world, and then from their own moral judgment of what was right. The conclusion was that God was there on the road with the Jewish people. If they did not come to terms with Him then, they would turn Him into their judge, and would have to bear the full penalty of their sins.
A cloud from the west meant rain, and they read it right. That skill is what condemns them.
Men were good enough judges of the signs of the weather. They were shrewd enough in judging what was in front of them. But they failed completely in what a man most needs to do: judging what stands above him morally, judging what touches him most nearly in his relationship to God, judging what concerns his eternal future. In these things they failed completely. They were hypocrites. Their love of evil, covered with a veil of fair religious appearance, made them blind. Their love of their own interests made them quick to spot present things and skilled at chasing them.
They had asked for a sign. He points to a wind that announces the heat behind it — and then to Himself.
In verse 54 He looks back at their demand, "Show us a sign." "You hypocrites," you are asking for a sign; do you not recognise the west wind stored up as the forerunner of heat? So where are you to get your forerunner? From Scripture, of course, which is where they should have got theirs, just as the wind and the cloud told them what was coming. "Look at Me," He says, "in poverty and fullness, and see for yourselves that God has come among you."
Reading a cloud came easily to them. So the plea that they could not read the moment falls apart.
So it mattered a great deal that the Jews should use the opportunity they then had. The Lord presses this on the crowds, for Luke tells us His audience was a large one. He warned them all that a claimed inability to discern or interpret the time would not be accepted by God as a valid excuse for rejecting Him.
A shower is a small thing to forecast. Something far heavier was gathering, and the same eyes that tracked the sky saw none of it.
The crowds were expert at reading the signs of the weather. Yet the signs of a far more serious storm, the judgment of God, were plain, and many people were blind to them. The presence of the Lord Jesus had revealed both the grace and the truth of the heart of God, and the sin of mankind that opposed the truth of God. The serious issues raised by such a clash would certainly not just go away. The day of accounting and repayment must come.
Their rejection of Him decided which role He would take in the case.
By rejecting the Lord they were forcing Him into the part of their "adversary" — the opposing party in a lawsuit. If they kept up that attitude, and the case came before the Judge of all, they would find themselves completely in the wrong, and the penalty would fall on them to the full.
The same appeal reaches beyond its first hearers. Reading the moment takes conscience, not expertise.
In His day the Lord Jesus appealed to the Jews (Luke 12:54-57) to discern "the signs of the times," even by the force of natural conscience, and to judge what was right. His word should find an echo in many a Christian heart today that has fallen asleep among the dead. Everything around us now — religion, the state of men, nations, powers, kingdoms — is taking its place, step by step and in plain sight, for the closing scenes of judgment. The Christian, told of these things beforehand, can watch it all in peace, waiting for the coming of his Lord.
- Audience — The Lord turns from the disciples to the crowd. Each person must read God's dealings and judge in his own conscience what is right.
- Skill — Their weather forecasts were accurate. That accuracy proves the failure was not in their eyesight but in what they loved.
- Sign — They demanded a sign while the forerunner stood in front of them. Scripture had already told them what to expect.
- Excuse — God will not accept "We could not tell." A mind that reads a cloud can read a moment.
- Storm — The shower they predicted was nothing next to the judgment they ignored. By rejecting Him, they made the One who came in grace the opposing party in the case.
And when [ye see] the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it happens.
The crowds around Jesus could look at a wind or a cloud and tell you what the weather would do next. He takes that everyday skill and turns it into a sharper question. Why can they read the sky and not the moment they live in?
They really could read the weather. One writer sets that skill beside the blindness that came with it.
Men were good enough judges of the signs of the weather. They were sharp enough at forming a judgment about the present in what they saw. But they failed completely in what most of all befits a man. They could not judge what is morally above him. They could not judge what touches him most closely in his relationship to God. They could not judge what concerns his eternal future. In these things they failed completely; they were hypocrites. Their love of evil was covered with a veil of fine religious appearance, and it made them blind. Their love of their own interests made them sharp at discerning and skilled at chasing present things.
English versions differ over what this wind brings. One writer compares them and settles the sense as heat, not wind:
The revisers depart from the simple rendering "scorching heat," not "wind," given to the word in Matthew 20:12 and Luke 12:55.
The appeal rests on more than the outward evidence God had put in front of them. There was a second line of proof, one they carried inside themselves.
He then addresses Himself to the people, to warn them of the signs of the times in which they lived. He puts this testimony on two grounds. The first is the clear signs which God gave. The second is the moral proofs which conscience ought to acknowledge even without the signs. Those proofs therefore oblige them to receive the testimony.
Another writer notes that this inward test is what Luke's account presses:
They were not only blind to the signs that God gave outside themselves. Why did they not even judge for themselves what was right, as it says here? This is peculiar to Luke. Matthew speaks of the external signs God was pleased to give them, but they had no eyes for them. Luke alone speaks of the responsibility of judging from themselves, and not merely from what was given to them from outside.
Because they could already read one set of signs, "I couldn't tell" was not available to them as a defence.
A judgment, then, was near at hand… He warned everyone plainly. Heaven would not accept a claimed inability to discern or interpret the time as a valid excuse for rejecting Him. They could look at a cloud rising from the west and draw a right conclusion from its appearance. They noticed the quarter the wind blew from, and predicted the coming heat.
These same people had asked Jesus for a sign. One writer hears the reply: you already read forerunners in the sky, yet you miss the ones Scripture gave you.
You hypocrites, you are asking for a sign; now do you not discern the west wind stored up as a forerunner of heat? Now where are you to get your forerunner? In Scripture, of course, where they should have got theirs — like the wind and the cloud, to tell them what was coming. "Look at Me," He says, "in poverty and fullness, and witness that God has come among you."
The rebuke does not stop with that crowd. One writer turns the same question on us.
The Lord asks, as a reproach, "How is it that you do not discern this time?" And should we not always discern the time? Surely the Lord might often reproach us by saying, "How is it that you do not discern this time? All the world is rejecting Me, and if they do not repent before they reach the judgment, there is no hope."
- Read the wind. The crowd felt the south wind and called the heat that followed. Jesus does not dispute the skill; He measures everything else against it.
- Read the word. The word here points to scorching heat, not to a wind. It names the burning the wind brings.
- Read the signs. The appeal stood on two grounds. God gave outward signs, and conscience should have owned the moral proofs even without them.
- Read the time. The failure was not ignorance but hypocrisy. They judged present things sharply. They stayed blind to what touched God and their eternal future.
- Read the warning. "I could not tell" was no defence then. The same question reaches every reader now: how is it that you do not discern this time?
Hypocrites, ye know how to judge of the appearance of the earth and of the heaven; how [is it then that] ye do not discern this time?
Jesus turns to the crowd and calls them hypocrites. They can read a cloud or a wind with confidence, yet they cannot read the moment they are living in.
The "present time" had an end. It was the window in which the promised Messiah stood among them.
In our Lord's day men could discern the face of the sky, but were unable to discern the signs of the times. They were too dull to see that it was their great day of opportunity. They had the long expected Messiah among them. If they failed to recognise Him, they must lose Him and suffer Rome's punishment instead.
Pleading that they could not read the moment would not excuse them.
He warned everyone plainly. If they claimed they could not discern or interpret the time, heaven would not accept that as a valid excuse for rejecting Him. They could look at a cloud rising from the west and draw a right conclusion from its appearance. They noticed the quarter the wind blew from, and so predicted the coming heat.
The failure was not a lack of intelligence. It was a failure exactly where intelligence matters most.
Men were good enough judges of the signs of the weather; they were shrewd enough in forming a judgment about the present in what they saw. But they failed completely at the judgment that most of all belongs to a man. That means judging what stands morally above him, what touches him most closely in his relationship to God, and what concerns his eternal future. In these things they failed completely; they were hypocrites. Their love of evil, hidden under a veil of fine religious appearance, made them blind. Their love of their own interests made them quick to notice present things and practised at chasing them.
God had hidden nothing. What they called obscurity was refusal.
Yet God had not left them without witness. His witness was as plain to read as the face of the sky, which they read so skilfully. It was hypocrisy to pretend they did not have what only their unwillingness to see made obscure. All they needed was conscience — the discernment of what was right.
Luke follows the rebuke with a second question: why did they not judge for themselves what was right? The outward signs were only half the case against them.
They discerned the signs of earth and heaven, but they saw nothing of God's dealings with themselves. They had the form of the Lord's people, but conscience was not at work; they were hypocrites. This time, when the Lord was in the way with them and presented to them, they could not discern. Truth is powerful and simple, so the sheer darkness of error and lack of integrity is astonishing. When the eye is clear, the whole body is full of light. It is daylight, and they see and understand nothing! "Yes, and why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?" Conscience ought to have judged the Lord.
Matthew reports the same scene, but stops with the outward signs.
This point is found only in Luke. Matthew speaks of the outward signs God was pleased to give them, but they had no eyes for them. Luke alone speaks of the responsibility to judge from themselves, and not only from what was given to them outside.
Missing that moment carried a cost.
The Lord was among them in humiliation. That was their opportunity. If they let it slip, irreversible punishment would be their lot. They were like men facing a summons to court. They had no answer that would turn aside the punishment they deserved. Their only hope was to get reconciled to their accuser before they stood before the judge. Once they reached that stage, they could expect nothing but judgment.
Writing on the following chapter, Darby looks back at this question and turns it on his own readers.
In verse 56 of the previous chapter the Lord asks, by way of reproach, "How is it that you do not discern this time?" And ought we not always to discern the time? Surely the Lord might often reproach us by saying, "How is it that you do not discern this time? All the world is rejecting Me, and if they do not repent before they reach the judgment, there is no hope."
- The time. The "present time" was the day the Messiah stood among them in lowliness. It was their one great opportunity, and they could lose it.
- The skill. They read a cloud and a wind well. The problem was never a weak mind but a failed judgment about God and their eternal future.
- The hypocrisy. God's witness was as plain as the sky they read so well; only their unwillingness to see made it look unclear.
- The conscience. Luke adds the sharper charge: they should have judged for themselves what was right. Their conscience ought to have judged the Lord, but it was daylight and they saw nothing.
- The urgency. Miss the time, and you meet the Judge unreconciled. The same question still presses today: can you interpret the present time?
And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?
Jesus has just shown the crowds how well they read the sky, then asks why they cannot read the moment they are living in. Here He presses further, past the signs outside them to something inside them: their own sense of right and wrong.
Their skill was real, but it ran in one direction only. They read what was near and visible, and missed what mattered most.
Men were good enough judges of the signs of the weather. They were shrewd enough in forming a judgment about the present in what they saw. But they failed completely in what most of all belongs to a man. They could not judge what stands morally above them. They could not judge what touches them most closely in their relationship to God. They could not judge what concerns their eternal future. Their love of evil, covered with a veil of fair religious appearance, made them blind. Their love of their own interests made them quick to notice present things and practised in chasing them.
These words are found in Luke's Gospel alone. They move the argument from the signs God gave outside these people to what they carried within.
Luke alone speaks of the responsibility of judging from themselves, and not merely from what was granted outside them. The truth is that everything inside them was wrong. That is why they did not judge what was right.
The verdict they failed to reach was about the Person standing in front of them. Their religion had the right shape, but their conscience was not working.
They discerned the signs of earth and heaven. But they saw nothing of God's dealings with themselves. They had the form of the Lord's people, but conscience was not at work; they were hypocrites. This time, when the Lord was in the way with them and presented to them, they could not discern. To the power and simplicity of truth, there is something astonishing in the utter darkness of error and lack of integrity. For when the eye is clear, the whole body is full of light. It is daylight, and they see and understand nothing! "And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?" Conscience ought to have judged the Lord.
The Lord's question leaves no room to plead that the evidence was too hard to read. It asked for nothing specialised, and even so the appeal can be in vain.
Yet God had not left them without witness. It was as plain to read as the face of the sky, which they were so skilful in discerning. They pretended they did not have the evidence. That was hypocrisy, since only their unwillingness to see made it unclear. Conscience alone was needed, the discernment of what was right. The signs God gives are moral in character, and the right is what appeals to every man. Yet the appeal may still be in vain.
The Lord said this to one nation at one hour. Yet the same reproach can fall on us.
Ought we not always to discern the time? Surely the Lord might often reproach us by saying, "How is it that you do not discern this time? All the world is rejecting Me, and if they do not repent before they reach the judgment, there is no hope. Natural conscience ought to tell you Jews not to reject your Messiah. God is going all the way along with you to the magistrate, dealing with you in patient grace."
The verse names a failure, but the ability that failed is a good one. Used well, it stores up God's word and brings it out for the moment at hand.
The word ought to be treasured up in the hearts of the saints. Then it can come out with ease and, as with divine authority, seal one occasion after another as it arises. It is a beautiful exercise of the renewed mind. It is of ourselves judging what is right. It is discerning the time as we would the face of the sky.
- The ability. People read the weather well and guard their own interests well. They fail where judgment matters most: what is above them, what concerns God, what concerns eternity.
- The location. Luke alone presses judging from themselves, not from signs given outside. So the failure was inward. It was not a lack of evidence.
- The verdict missed. Conscience should have judged the Lord Himself. Instead, men who had the form of God's people saw nothing in full daylight.
- The excuse gone. Conscience was enough. Pretending the evidence was unclear was hypocrisy, because unwillingness to see was what clouded it.
- The ability restored. In a renewed mind, that same ability becomes a beautiful exercise: judging what is right and discerning the time.
For as thou goest with thine adverse party before a magistrate, strive in the way to be reconciled with him, lest he drag thee away to the judge, and the judge shall deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.
Jesus has just told the crowd they can read a cloud or a south wind, but not the moment they are living in. So He gives them a courtroom scene: a man walks to court beside someone with a claim against him, and commentators ask who that opponent is and whether the prison door ever opens.
The picture is of a debtor with no defence, whose one hope lies in settling before the case reaches the bench.
They were like men in danger of being called before a court. They had no answer to give that could keep off the punishment they deserved. Their only hope was to make peace with their accuser before they stood before the judge. Once they reached that stage, they could expect nothing but judgment, and a punishment that would only end when the whole debt was paid. Mercy would not be found at the judge's bench.
Kelly ties the walk to court to the time when Christ Himself was still with the nation.
In their lawsuit with God, the Lord advised them, as it were, to settle out of court while He was in the way. If they rejected this advice, the result would be prison until the last penny was paid.
Commentators differ. Kelly sees the case as God's own suit with the nation. Others name the accuser as the law itself, and trace each official in the chain through Israel's history.
In the similar passage in Matthew 5:25 the "magistrate" is not mentioned, and I do not know that here he is necessarily different from the judge, unless it is a more general term. The subject here is Israel. The "adversary" — the law, "even Moses in whom you trust" — was bringing them to the Ruler or Judge, God, the Judge of His people... But while that was going on, Israel was still only "on the way to the magistrate." There was still time to be "reconciled" by repentance and by accepting Christ as Messiah. They refused... So what the Lord said has come true. They have been handed over to the Judge, and God has dealt with them in judgment. He has passed them on to the "officer," the one who carries out His will — any instrument He sees fit to use.
The last man in the chain has a rare name — a word found nowhere else in the New Testament.
The word praktor comes from "to do or act," and it occurs only in Luke 12:58. It is used for the officer appointed to collect the money the judge has awarded.
A debt that gets paid off has an end, and so does this prison. Darby says what kind of dealing it pictures.
This is not a question of eternal salvation, but it simply refers to the state of the Jews... Jerusalem will not get out until she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. But she will get out from the chastenings of the Lord when they are complete. It is very evident that this passage refers simply to God's government of His people.
Some pull that limit the other way, as if a person could work off sin after death.
People have wrongly applied the last part of this picture in a spiritual way, and that has caused much confusion. The doctrine of "purgatory" is probably the saddest proof of it. Scripture nowhere teaches that a man must suffer a temporary punishment from God after his death to be eternally saved. No; once death has come, the eternal destiny of the soul is settled: a person is either eternally and perfectly saved, or eternally lost.
The urgency in the verse is the moving feet. Settlement is possible on the road; it is not possible at the bench.
The Lord says here in symbolic language: "There is the opportunity to be reconciled with the opposing party in a peaceful way before it is too late, even though one might find this difficult. But the time for reconciliation will cease. The one who is not prepared to act in this way, however, will have to bear the consequences."
Earlier in the chapter a man had asked Jesus to act as a divider between him and his brother. The closing verses turn the lawsuit back on him — and on everyone listening.
In the last two verses, He glances back at the man who asked Him to be a divider. "You have been dragging your brother to a magistrate. Another is dragging you; and I would advise you to make terms with him: Moses, the law of God. Make every effort. For I tell you: if once you get there, you will not get away until you answer the demands of the throne of God." Could anyone here do it? If you cannot stand before the throne of God, you are not saved.
- On the road. The case is not yet before the judge. The whole force of the verse rests on those moving feet.
- A real claim. The opposing party is in the right. Commentators name him as the law, or as God pressing His own case against the nation. At the bench there is no answer to give.
- A chain of links. Magistrate, judge, officer, prison — Israel's own history ran down that chain once they refused to settle.
- A measured sentence. The prison is God's government of His people. It ends when the chastening is complete. No one works off sin there after death.
- Settle now. The one thing you can do on the road you cannot do in the courtroom: mercy is not found at the judge's bench.
I say unto thee, Thou shalt in no wise come out thence until thou hast paid the very last mite.
Luke 12 ends with a verdict: once the case has passed the judge, the officer and the prison door, only full payment opens it again. Who is this debtor, and can he ever pay the last coin?
Where the ESV says "penny," older translations say "mite." It was the smallest coin in use — the least anyone could owe.
Luke 12:59. — The mite (lepton) was the smallest coin.
The "officer" in the previous verse is the one who collects what the judge has ordered.
The word comes from "to do or act." It occurs only in Luke 12:58. It is used for the officer appointed to collect the money the judge has awarded.
The picture assumes a legal practice the first hearers knew. The time to settle runs out.
In the past it was common to leave a convicted debtor in prison until all his debts were paid (compare Matthew 18:30, 34). The Lord speaks here in symbolic language: "You can still be reconciled with the opposing party peacefully, before it is too late. But the time for reconciliation will cease. The one who is not prepared to act in this way, however, will have to bear the consequences."
Commentators read the trial as Israel's.
The subject here is Israel, to whom the times should have shown that judgment was coming. The "adversary" — the law, "even Moses in whom you trust" — was bringing them to the Ruler or Judge, God, the Judge of His people. John the Baptist, and our Lord Himself, had been preaching as the adversary or accuser of the people. They showed them their sins and called them to repentance. But while this was so, Israel was only "on the way to the magistrate." There was still time to be "reconciled," by repentance and by accepting Christ as Messiah.
That was the window, and it was open only while He stood with them.
Christ was saying, I am yet in the way with you. "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation."
On that reading, the prison is God's dealing with a nation, not a soul's eternal fate.
This is not a question of eternal salvation. It refers to the state of the Jews: they will not come out until they have paid the very last mite. Jerusalem will not get out until she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. But she will get out from the chastenings of the Lord when they are complete. It is very evident that this passage refers simply to God's government of His people.
Commentators differ here. Others press the same words on the individual, where no payment is possible at all.
In this case prison would be the lake of fire, from which there is no release, for who can fully pay the debt of his own sins? This emphasises the unbending, inflexible justice of the law. One must face God about his sins and have them forgiven, by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ. If he does not do this before God summons him to judgment, he can expect no mercy then.
People have made the word "until" carry a doctrine it cannot bear.
Wrong spiritual applications of the last part of this example have led to much confusion. The doctrine of "purgatory" is probably the saddest proof of that. Scripture nowhere teaches that a man must suffer a temporary punishment from God after his death to be eternally saved. No; once death has come, the soul's eternal destiny is fixed: one is either eternally and perfectly saved, or eternally lost!
Read of the nation, the sentence has an end — and past its end comes comfort.
The guilty debtor still lies in that prison, until his heart turns to the One he despised. Then the word will go out, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her time of suffering is finished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
The law's full demand is what Christ met as surety — the one who takes on another's debt.
Christ, having risen from the dead, became the living witness that the justice and truth of God were satisfied for ever. Had there been one sin unatoned for, the surety must have stayed there. "You shall not depart from there until you have paid the very last mite." That is what the law demands. But the penalty was paid in all its demands, and eternal justice perfectly satisfied.
- The debt. The mite was the smallest coin. The officer's job is to collect the exact sum, and he writes nothing off.
- The window. Settlement belongs to the road, not the courtroom. While Israel was still "on the way," reconciliation was open.
- The refusal. Israel despised the One who came to them, so the case went past the Judge to the prison.
- The limit. The imprisonment is God's governmental dealing, measured and finite; when payment is complete, the word is "Comfort, comfort my people."
- The payment. No prisoner can pay his own debt. Christ met the law's full demand, and His resurrection shows He left no mite owing.