John Calvin Commentary Matthew 16:3

"And in the morning, [It will be] foul weather to-day: for the heaven is red and lowering. Ye know how to discern the face of the heaven; but ye cannot [discern] the signs of the times." — Matthew 16:3 (ASV)

Hypocrites, you can judge. He calls them hypocrites because they pretend to ask for what, if it were shown to them, they are resolved not to observe. The same reproof applies to nearly the whole world, for people direct their ingenuity and apply their senses to immediate advantage. Therefore, there is scarcely anyone who is not sufficiently well qualified in this respect, or at least who is not tolerably acquainted with the means of achieving their goal.

How is it then that we feel no concern about the signs by which God invites us to Himself? Is it not because everyone gives themselves up to willful indifference and extinguishes the light that is offered to them? The calling of Christ, and the immediate presentation of eternal salvation, were shown to the scribes both by the Law and the Prophets, and by His own doctrine, to which miracles were added.

There are many people of the same description today who plead that on intricate subjects they have a good right to suspend their judgment because they must wait until the matter is fully ascertained. They go further, and believe that it is a mark of prudence purposely to avoid all inquiry into the truth; as if it were not an instance of shameful sloth that, while they are so eagerly concerned about the things of the flesh and of the earth, they neglect the eternal salvation of their souls, and at the same time devise vain excuses for gross and stupid ignorance.

A very absurd inference is drawn by some ignorant people from this passage: that we are not at liberty to predict from the appearance of the sky whether we will have fair or stormy weather. It is, rather, an argument Christ bases on the regular course of nature: that those people deserve to perish for their ingratitude who, while they are sufficiently acute in matters of the present life, yet knowingly and willfully quench the heavenly light by their stupidity.