The Jew Seek a Sign

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 When we went to Russia to be intercessors for a music festival in St. Petersburg, we heard many testimonies of Jewish people. As they shared how their lives had been changed when they received Yeshua (Jesus), these testimonies all had a common theme. I do not recall hearing one testimony that did not include some type of sign that God used to reveal His Son Jesus to them as their Messiah. In our reading today we see Paul’s insight into those with whom he was sharing the good news. He says,”For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:22-24).

Paul knew how to reach the Romans, Greeks and Jews. God gave him great wisdom and discernment about people as he preached in different cultures. The way to reach a Jewish person with the gospel is entirely different from the way to reach an intellectual. Paul was able to do both in an effective way because I believe he asked God for wisdom before he preached to different cultures. We need to do the same.

As we toured Israel, our Jewish guide shared an example of a dramatic testimony of a Jewish person and how God used signs to reveal Himself to him. His name was Dror, and our entire tour group was touched when he shared God’s supernatural sign to him. He had received a four-year scholarship to study music in Germany. He came from generations of fishermen and carpenters who lived on the Galilee. His grandfather and grandmother were some of the earliest pioneers from Russia who came to Israel to ready the land for future generations. While he was studying in Germany, the Lord appeared to him in a vision. He saw the face of Jesus framed by the Sea of Galilee, which is shaped like a harp. He heard the words, “Why are you here? My presence is more at the Galilee than here. Return to the Galilee.” He was not a believer, but this vision began his search for the Lord. Dror obeyed the voice, quit school and returned to the Galilee. Each day he rode his bike out to the sea from his kibbutz to seek the Lord. On one of these days he saw several people by the sea who were pulling an old boat out of the water. His cousin was among those who had been digging for months to recover a boat that dated back to the time of Jesus. You can see this boat now on display in a museum by the Galilee. As soon as the boat was lifted out of the water, a rainbow stretched from one side of the sea to the other side. It was midsummer, a time when there is usually no rain. This was Dror’s dramatic sign that Jesus was real, and even the Jewish people on the dig confessed that the rainbow was a sign that this boat was very special.

I believe it was one of the boats Jesus used many times to cross the Galilee.

READ: Ezra 1:1-2:70; 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5; Psalm 27:8-14; Proverbs 20:22-23