What is an omen?

Following this, we have "all the words which the language contained for the different modes of exploring the future and discovering the will of God" (Keil) practiced by the heathen, brought together under one general condemnation. Nor are we past the need of reviewing them, so constantly does the power of evil work through the need and corruption of man to the same results, — modified only and disguised by the manners of the age, but which in no wise affects their inner meaning. Spiritualism, clairvoyance, and theosophy today have only freshened our apprehension of what has been in some shape always at work, although now energetically working in proportion as the end approaches, and the enfeebled power of Christianity allows them to appear with boldness.*

Menachesh, in both versions, "enchanter." Pember well says, "The word is connected with nachash, a 'serpent,' and is usually explained to mean a 'hisser,' or 'whisperer' and then 'a mutterer of enchantments.' But the use of the verb, of which it is the Piel participle, seems to point in a different direction. In Gen. 30, Laban entreats Jacob to stay with him; 'for,' says he, 'I divine [or, more literally, perceive by observation,] that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.' And again, when, to the pleading of Benhadad's servants, Ahab replied, 'Is he yet alive? he is my brother,' we are told that the men 'divined,' 'took an omen,' from what he had said. Hence the verb seems to have been used primarily of drawing an inference from rapid observation, and then of divining. From the first meaning comes nachash, a 'serpent,' on account of its quick intelligence; from the second, menachesh, an 'augur' — one who divines by observing signs and tokens, such as the singing and flight of birds, aerial phenomena, and other sights and sounds." (Earth's Earliest Ages, p. 156.)

In the land of Canaan the evil of the nations had risen to an intolerable level: their iniquity was full: therefore God was judging them before Israel. So God warns Israel against adopting any of the evil practices that caused His judgment. These included making sons or daughters pass through the fire (v.10), a thing the nations considered a religious ceremony (Deut.12:31), sacrificing their children to idols. To quote from Fausset's Encyclopedia (p.485), "Kimshi represents Moloch as a hollow brass human-like body with ox's head, and hands stretched forth to receive. When it was thoroughly heated the priests put the babe into its hand whilst drums were beat to drown the infant cries, lest the parents should relent." Is seems hard to understand how such wickedness could be justified by religious zeal, yet such is the seduction of satanic power.

Practicing witchcraft or soothsaying was also firmly forbidden, as well as the claim of interpreting omens, that is, anything that appeared to be unusual, to which superstition might attach some hidden meaning. One who pretended to have discernment to interpret such things was the victim of satanic deceit. Sorcery, also forbidden, is the practice of delving into spiritism by the use of drugs.

OBSERVER OF TIMES, or, as others translate it, 'a practiser of augury:' it may have included both. The word is anan, which is also translated 'enchanter, soothsayer, and sorcerer.' An observer of times had his lucky and unlucky days, and nothing must be set on foot without the gods being consulted. We have an instance of this in Esther, when Haman wanted to find a lucky day on which his plans against the Jews should be carried out. They resorted to the lot, but doubtless invoked their god to give it success. Others practised augury for the like purpose of ascertaining the will of their god. Thunder, lightning, observing the clouds, the flight of birds, or the appearance of certain birds, answered their questions.

The lights in the firmament of the heaven are said to be for 'signs' as well as for 'seasons.' Gen. 1:14. A false application has been made of this passage in using the varied positions of the sun, moon, and planets as a means to foretell events. Of what then are they signs? it may be asked. This is perhaps answered in Ps. 19:1-6. The stupendous distance and marvellous regularity in the movements of the heavenly bodies are a sign of the glory of the One that created them, as is stated of God in Rom, 1:20; "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead," or divinity.

Signs were wrought by Moses, first to convince the children of Israel that God had sent him; and then to attest and enforce on the Egyptians God's demands upon Pharaoh to let the Israelites go that they might serve Him. Ps. 78:43. So in other cases, signs were given to show the finger of God.

When Christ was on earth He wrought miracles, wonders, and signs, but the Pharisees and Sadducees demanded of Him 'a sign from heaven,' Matt. 16:1, and it is added that they did this 'tempting Him.' He was Himself God's sign, according to Isa. 7:14, as the manna was the sign of God to Israel in the wilderness. As they had not eyes to see God's signs, they should have no other sign than that of Jonah (Matt. 12:39-40), that is, of a man who was cast into the overwhelming judgement of God, and found deliverance from Him. Christ's death and resurrection is God's way of deliverance. In Matt. 16:4 the Lord does not mention the type being fulfilled in Himself for them, but we have the dreadful words, "He left them and departed": they were left in the judgement of Jonah. See MIRACLES.

oth, 'a sign,' as it is often translated, and in some places 'token.' Num. 14:22; Deut. 11:3.

These "signs of the times," or sealings of God's hand upon the passing hour, it is the duty of faith to discern, because they are always according to the premonitions of Scripture. Indeed, current events are only "signs," as they are according to, or in fulfilment of, such previous notices.

Verses 1-5. The heathen paid attention to the signs of heaven, such as eclipses, comets, meteoric showers, etc. They were dismayed at these things. All they did, their customs and observances in connection with idol worship, was nothing but vanity.

Verses 6-18. Idols are nothing, but the Lord God of Israel is all. He is the King of Nations, who rules over all. He is the true God, the living God, the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth trembles and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. He made the earth by His power; He established the world by wisdom; He stretched out the heavens by His discretion. But what is man? Brutish in his knowledge.

"The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting, desired that He would show them a sign from heaven." They were beginning the same story over again; but now it is higher up the source, and, of course, therefore, worse in principle. It is an awful thing to find opposed parties with one only thing uniting them — dislike of Jesus; persons who could have torn each other to pieces at another time, but this is their gathering point — tempting Jesus. "The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting," etc. There was no conflict between the scribes and Pharisees, but a wide chasm separated the Sadducees and Pharisees. Those were the freethinkers of the day; these the champions who stood up for ordinances and the authority of the law. But both joined to tempt Jesus. They desired a sign from heaven. The most significant token that God ever gave man was before them in the person of His Son, who eclipsed all other signs. But such is unbelief, that it can go into the presence of the full manifestation of God, can gaze at a light brighter than the sun at noonday, and there and then ask God to give a farthing candle.

But Jesus "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 today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" (vers. 2, 3). Their own moral condition was the sign and proof that judgment was imminent. For those who could see, there was the fair weather, the Day-spring from on high that had visited them in Jesus. They saw it not! But could they not discern the foul weather! They were in the presence of the Messiah, and were asking for a sign from heaven! The God that made heaven and earth was there, but the darkness comprehended it not. "He came to His own and His own received Him not." They were utterly blind. They could discern physical changes, but had no perception of moral and spiritual glories actually before them. How truly — "A wicked and adulterous generation seek after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And He left them and departed."

In the next verses He appeals to the people, and convicts them of the greatest moral blindness: "He said also to the crowds, When ye see a cloud rising out of the west, straightway ye say, There comes a shower; and it happens so. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat, and it happens. 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?" Men were good enough judges of the signs of the weather; they were sufficiently shrewd in forming a judgment as to the present in what they saw; but they utterly failed in what most of all becomes a man — judgment of what is morally above him, judgment of what touches him most closely in his relationship to God, judgment in what concerns his eternal future. In these things they utterly failed, they were hypocrites. Their love of evil, cloaked with a veil of fair religious appearance, made them blind; their love of their own interests made them sharp in discerning and practised in the pursuit of present things. They utterly failed in conscience; and so the Lord goes on to reproach them. It was not only that they were blind as to the signs that God gave outside themselves; but why did they not even of themselves, as it is said here, judge what was right? 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 vouchsafed outside them. The truth is that all was internally wrong with themselves: therefore they did not judge what was right.348 "A cloud": so Edd. after ℵABL, etc., 1, 33, 69. DE, etc., have "the c." †"Ye do not discern": so ADΓΔΠ, later uncials, most cursives and Old Lat. Syrr. Edd. (Revv.) adopt "ye do not know how to discern," according to ℵBL, 33, Sahid. Memph. Aeth.

They understood the signs of nature, the warnings of the coming storm and the harbingers of a beautiful day. The Jews in general closely observed the seasons and signs in nature. ("In the going out of the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, all observed the rising of the smoke. If the smoke bended northward, the poor rejoiced, but the rich were troubled; because there would be much rain the following year and the fruits would be corrupted; if it bended southward, the poor grieved and the rich rejoiced, for there would be fewer rains that year, and the fruit would be sound; if eastward, all rejoiced; if westward, all were troubled." From Talmud, Bal. Ioma. -- Horae Hebraeicae.) All the changes in nature they observed, but the signs of the times they did not discern. They were blinded to these. If their eyes had been open they would surely have known that a great change of seasons in another realm than nature had come. They could have seen the evidences of a fast approaching judgment upon the apostate nation and likewise the blessed evidences of the visitation from on High, by the Presence of the Lord, which had taken place.