9] The twilight as Christ spoke of it    

Matthew 16:1-3. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. He 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 for the sky is red and lowering ….

Consider the phenomenon Jesus was describing.

Perhaps you have heard the saying, "pink sky at night, sailor's delight; pink sky in morning, sailor take warning."

In the evening, after the sun has set and fallen below the western horizon, the period of twilight occurs.

It is during twilight, the sun’s fading light produces a red hue, a “pinkish” color, a blending of an orangish/purplish (red) color, which is evident over the western horizon. When this phenomenon occurs, then you know the next 12 hours or so will likely hold good, fair, non-rain or not cloudy, weather.

Why? Because the sun's fading light (as diffused through the atmosphere, radiating from the sun which is now below the western horizon), the sun’s twilight, is not being blocked by any clouds in the western sky. As a result, the sky looks red.

What is interesting is that Jesus expressed the fact that the activity of “twilight,” which occurs after the sun has dropped (set) below the western horizon, occurs during the “evening” (Greek: opsios, which is equivalent to the Hebrew: erev), which, by its very meaning, is at the end of the day before the night. Here we see the twilight is understood as occurring during the evening of the day, at the end of a day.