Sign! Sign! I just want a Sign!"

"And it will be a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand."  Exodus 13:16

"Sign!  Sign!  I just want a sign!"
By Rev. William Dohle

Getting directions is a tricky business and different depending on where you are going.

If you're going to go someplace in a city, the directions are usually designated by signs.

"Turn right on University Avenue.  Go down two whole lights to Willow Knolls.  Turn left there.  Go down three blocks..."

If you're in the city or from the city, you can usually find your way around pretty easily because city directions are designated by signs.

But try asking directions to a country place sometime...and you'll hear directions like this...

"Turn right at the first white fence on your left.  That's old Jedd's place.  Then keep going past his place to the old barn on the corner there.  It's green.... I think unless they've painted it.  Then turn right there and go down there until you hit the corner with the old oak tree.  Don't turn there.  Keep going..."

Directions there can be pretty confusing.  And for someone who gets lost A LOT like I do, it can be downright impossible.  Sometimes even GPS doesn't work because the road they're on is named after a family and isn't on any map!

It's times like these that you wish and dream for a good sign!

Moses too had this problem as he's conversing with God.  In probably the longest conversation anyone in the Bible has with God, Moses asks God at one point for a sign.

"What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"(Exodus 4:1)

God understands what Moses is needing.  He's needing a sign.  He's needing something clear that will point the people of Israel to God.  So God gives his "signs."

"Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it.  Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail."  So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.  "This," said the Lord, "is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob--has appeared to you."(Exodus 4:2-5)

The first sign God gives Moses, he ironically runs away from.  (Didn't know Moses was afraid of snakes, did you?)  Then God gives him another sign.  Moses' hand becomes leprous when it is put inside his cloak and clean when it is placed inside again.  Then the Lord says, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second.  But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground.  The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."(Ex. 4:8-9)

Three signs!  Three ways that Moses can tell Israel where God is and how God is working in the world.  Three things that will point to God's presence here!

Sounds cool, huh?  Sounds amazingly awesome?  No one get lost with these signs, right?

Yeah...but how well do these signs really point to God?  How well do these directions work?  Are these signs like street signs?  Are they lit up at night?  Or are they more like the signs an old country man might give some pastor as he's coming out to his house?

God doesn't give Moses good enough directions.  That's why Moses goes searching for another excuse not to go.  God isn't as straight forward about who he is and why they should believe as Moses would like for sure!

And he's definitely not as straight forward to us!

You see, we like Moses want a sign.  We want something concrete that we can point to and say that "God was here!" or "God is there!"  We want good directions to find God in our lives...and we really want signs.

But God doesn't work that way.  Not anymore it seems.  And where the people of Israel had concrete signs of God's presence, we're left wondering "Is God here!?"  and "Is God listening?"

But there is a sign that we've been given.  A concrete reminder of God's love for us.  That sign is the cross.  Paul tells us, "Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, but Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."(1 Cor. 1:22-24)

Christ crucified is our sign.  He is the signpost pointing the way to God.  He is the neon sign in the night, calling us like moths to the light of God.  He is the way we get to the Father.  He is the road we take, the path we walk.  He is the gate when we get there.  And he is the shepherd who welcomes us home.

Christ Jesus is our sign.  He's how we get to God.

So, if you're wondering the countryside, searching for God's presence in your life, why not stop in sometime at your local church.  Ask them if you can sit in their sanctuary a while.  And then stare up at the sign of God's love for you...and for the world.  That's the sign that shows us just how much he loves us!

God, I ache sometimes for a sign to point me back to you.  Open my eyes that I may see Christ crucified for me.  Help me follow his grace, in Jesus name.  Amen.