If we know little regarding Barabbas, it seems we know even less regarding Pilate’s wife. We are not even told her name in Scripture. She is just his wife. One supposes that Luke, had he seen fit to cover this aspect of the event, might have given her name. But, Matthew has neither cause nor inclination. One note buried in an unrelated article in the ISBE notes a Greek Orthodox tradition giving her the name of Procla. This name also has the support of Clement. Apocryphal text, the Gospel of Nicodemus, suggests she was a God-fearer, a subscriber to the Hebrew faith, but this is not necessarily a reliable source.

It is remarkable to note that Charles Spurgeon spent an entire, and fairly lengthy sermon upon this one mention of Pilate’s wife. From that, text, which I confess I but skimmed, I will note this point made: The warning to Pilate, arranged by God through the words of his wife, was the final warning he would receive. It was, to use Mr. Spurgeon’s terminology, “God’s ultimatum to Pilate.” The point he draws from this is worth our attention. We know not by what source God may choose to deliver warnings equally as dire to ourselves. We dare not ignore the message because we discount the messenger. I would add that, though dreams and visions no longer suit our more educated tastes, we do well to grant God the capacity to speak through them yet.

One can appreciate how the desire arises to make this woman out to be a believer, and even to grant the supposition that Pilate was eventually brought to faith through her. But, nothing I am seeing requires such a conclusion. She had a dream. That dream was almost certainly a function of God speaking.

We can speculate as to His reasons for doing so, but we must draw up short of supposing it was a last ditch attempt on His part to achieve a different outcome from this trial. No. This trial had been determined from before the creation was begun. The very moment had been decreed while yet all was void. That being the case, what purpose can we suppose except that He is once again acting to top off, as it were, the measure of this man’s sins?

The greater lesson for us is that lesson which Mr. Spurgeon has brought to my attention, that we ought be very cautious in discounting those ways in which God seeks our attention, never knowing but that we may be hearing our own ultimatum, our own final opportunity to get things right. I admit a bit of difficulty fitting this point together with my understanding of our perseverance by God’s own power within us. If our salvation is solely by His will and is therefore irrevocable by His nature, what cause have I to be concerned as to some warning He may issue? And, if it be that we are assured our perseverance, but are not so assured that our belief that we are numbered amongst the elect is accurate, of what value is either belief or assurance?

Yet, there is something in that very uncertainty that prompts one to greater effort. There is something in the possibility of a reversal of God’s plans toward us that stirs up in us a desire to please Him the more. I am not altogether convinced it is a healthy something, but I can understand, certainly, the value one might find in doubt, as those of a more Arminian view must hold. I expect that amongst the most stalwart of Calvinists, if they be honest with themselves, there remains that seed of doubt, that concern that asks, “What if I’m wrong about my status?” It does not, in the end, dissolve the certitude of perseverance. But, it is a valuable goad to conscience, a tool, if you will, in the hands of God to bestir us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling as we have been instructed.

With that in mind, there is sufficient cause to listen for those unusual means by which God may be seeking to speak to us. Let it be no ultimatum, we being satisfied that we sit amongst the elect. But, let it be simple warning, simple instruction. Why should we be any less anxious to hear with obedience if it is the Master Who speaks? Why should we disdain the message because we care not for the means of its delivery?

Honestly, there have been times when I have heard God speaking through an NPR broadcast. It was certainly nothing in the intent of the broadcaster, and nothing that directly related to the topic under discussion. But, there it was, available to be heard by those with an ear to listen. This I shall take as something of a warning from this brief lesson: It is particularly easy for me, at this stage in my life, to discount such things as come in a charismatic package – dreams and visions, prophecies and words of knowledge, what have you. It is something of a reaction, I suppose, to having moved out of that circle into the more staid circles of Reformed practice. Yet, it is an overreaction. It is not that the gifts of the Spirit are invalid. It is that they have been abused. The same could be said of the Law. The same can be said of the Gospels. The same can be said of pretty much any aspect of true religion. The enemy of our soul is repeatedly demonstrated to be willing and able to counterfeit, twist, and corrupt any and every such aspect to the end of our own destruction. It ought not surprise. It also ought not convince us to set aside any aspect of true religion, only to exercise caution and due diligence lest we become purveyors of perversion ourselves.