The word atjjii'iov, sign, tells us in the plainest lan- guage that these works were tokens calling the atten- tion of men to what was then happening ; and espe-
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cially is it used in the Old Testament of some mark or signal confirming a promise or covenant. Such a sign (or mark) God gave to Cain in proof that his life was safe (Gen. iv, 15). Such a sign (or token) was the rain- bow to Noah, certifying him and mankind throughout all time that the worhl should not be again destroyed by water ((Jen. ix, 13). And here learn we incidentally that God's signs need not be miraculous. The laws of refraction probably were the same before as after the Hood, and the fact of the rainljow being produced by the operation of natural laws does not make it a less (it symbol of a covenant between (Jod and man relative to a great natural convulsion. So, again, circumcision was a sign (or token) of the covenant between (iod and the family of Abraham ((ien. xvii, 11). It was to recall the minds of the Israelites to the thought not merely that they stood in a covenant relation to God, but that that covenant implied personal purity and holiness. In the same way tlie Sabbath was a sign (Exod. xxxi, 13 ; Ezek. XX, 12) of a peculiar relation between the Jew and his God.
But there are places where it distinctively means what we call a miracle. Thus Ahaz is told to ask a sign, and a choice is given him either of some meteor in the heavens, or of some appearance in the. nether world : " ^lake it deep unto Hades, or high in the vaidt of heaven above" (Isa. vii, 11). And when the unbe- lieving king will ask no sign, the prophet gives him that of the Immanuel, the virgin's sou. So the sign unto Ilezekiah of his recovery was the supernatural retrogression of the shadow upon the sundial of Ahaz, however significant it might also be of the hand of time having gone back as regards Ilezekiah's own life (Isa. xxxviii, 7). Elsewhere the divine foreknowledge is the sign (Exod. iii, 12; Isa. xxxvii, 30), and generally signs of God's more immediate presence with his people would either be prophecy (I'sa. Ixxiv, 9) or miracle (ib. cv, 27 ; Jer. xxxii, 20 ; Dan. iv, 2).
Very much more might be learned by a fuller con- sideration of the manner in which the word si;pi is used in the Old Testament, but what is said above is enough to explain the reason why John so constantly used the term to express our Lord's miracles. The water changed into wine at Cana he calls " the beginning of signs" (ii, 11), and the healing of the centurion's son is "the sec- ond sign" (iv, 51), as being the first and second indica- tions of Christ's wielding those powers which belong to God as the Creator and Author of nature, and which therefore pledged the God of nature, as the sole possessor of these powers, to the truth of any one's teaching who came armed with them (iii, 2, where again the (ireek is signs). So he tells us that the people assembled at Je- rusalem for the Passover believed Jesus "when they saw the siijns which he did" (ib. ii, 23). It was, in fact, the very thing they had asked (Matt, xii, 38; xvi, 1 ; John ii, 18; vi,30), and candid minds confessed that they were a sufficient ground for belief (ib. vi, 14; vii, 31 ; ix, 16 ; xii, 18) ; in fact, they were wrought for that purpose (ib. XX, 30, 31), though men might and did re- fuse to accept them as proof conclusive of the Saviour's mission (xi, 47 ; xii, 37), and vulgar minds saw in them nothing more than reason for astonishment (vi, 2, 2G). To them they were simply miracles — wonders.
A sign is more and means more than a miracle, for it does not stand alone, but is a token and indication of something else. Thus John's word shows that our Lord's works had a definite purpose. They were not wrought at random, but were intended for a special ob- ject, What this was is easy to tell. Tlie Old Testa- ment had always represented the Jews as holding a peculiar position towards the (iodhead. Tiiey were a chosen people endowed witli high privileges and bless- ings, but so endowed because tliey were also intended for a uniipie ]iurpose. Tlu'v were the depositaries of revelation, and in due time their Tnrah. their revealed law, was to go forth out of Zion (Isa. ii, 3) to lighten the whole Gentile world (ib. xlii, G). This promise of
a revelation extending to the whole world was further connected with the coming of a special descendant of Abraham ((Jen. xxii, 18; Dent, xviii, 15), and projdiecy had gradually so filled up the outline that a complete sketch had been given of the person, the offices, the work, and the preaching of the great .Son of David, to whose line tlie promise had subsequently been con- fined (Isa. xi, 1 ; Jer. xxiii, 5 ; Hos. iii, 8 ; Mic. v,
I 2, etc.).
But how were people to know when he had come?