Of the Miraculous:
God’s Sovereign Interventions in Human History.
A miracle is the preserve of the Almighty God. He chooses how and when to exercise His sovereignty in human affairs for His glory alone. When we compare God’s supernatural interventions in history - past with present - we tend to define the miraculous only as the visible spectacular demonstration of God’s power for healing, deliverance, and the provision of material needs. Sure, God does intervene supernaturally in these areas, when He chooses, to prove His sovereignty over all.
Here are three examples of God’s miraculous intervention from history:
First, when threatened by a large army of enemy coalition, King Jehoshaphat turned to God for help. God assured His people, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.” (2 Chronicles 20: 1-13). Recall that soon after God had delivered the Israelites from Egypt - with the Egyptian army in pursuit - Moses encouraged a terrified people:
“Do not be afraid…The Lord will fight for you” (Exodus 14:13-14). This promise was contingent on their obedience to God, to keep his command, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all their heart and soul (Exodus 14:13-14; Joshua 22:5; see also 23:6-13).
So, Jehoshaphat exhorted the people: “Have faith in the Lord your God, and you will be upheld” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
As an alliance of armies invaded his nation, King Jehoshaphat gathered the people for prayer. Judah’s army marched out, with men in the front ranks singing praises to the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:21). It was a demonstration of their faith in the omnipotent God. What followed was a miracle:
The invading armies turned on themselves in self-annihilation, and not a single man escaped.
The plunder was so much that it took God’s people three days to collect the booties (vv.24-25). On the fourth day, the valley where the invading army gathered against Judah changed from the valley of fear and death to Berakah - the valley of “praise and worship”.
Coming close to home, James E. Nabboush, in an article for “The Real Truth“ magazine recounts God’s decisive intervention in a battle, during World War II:
“When rain threatened to halt Third Army’s march across the Rhrine to deal a decisive blow to Nazi Germany’s forces, US. General George S. Patton commissioned a prayer, asking God “to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend.” He asked for the power to “crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish thy justice among men and nations.” The chaplain who wrote the prayer, had 250,000 copies printed for every soldier in the Third army, while the army general insisted they collectively “beseech God for victory.”
A colonel commenting on what followed their prayer had this to say: “Whether it was the help of the Divine guidance asked for in the prayer or just the normal course of human events, we never knew; at any case, on the twenty-third, the day after the prayer was issued, the weather cleared and remained perfect for about six days, enough to allow the Allies to break the backbone of the Von Runstedt offensive and turn a temporary setback into a crushing defeat for the enemy.”
On a personal note: My wife was traveling along with others, on the highway, in a miñi bus used as commercial transportation in our country. She was on her way to shop at the city center several miles away. The tire of the vehicle, running at top speed, burst as it descended a slope, and tumbled. Rolling over, the driver who was sitting beside my wife on her left died on the spot; while another passenger sitting on her right side was badly injured and covered with her blood. The windsheet of the commercial vehicle was broken, creating a safe passage for my wife to creep out. She came out of the accident unscathed. What is that if not a miracle? We can never forget that.
We make bold to say that miracles happen every day, especially in the life of a believer in God. Life is a gift. Our physical makeup and consciousness speak to the miraculous. Humans by nature are finite beings created by an infinite God. So man is limited in knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and ability to function at pristone perfection before the fall.
The difference in the manifestations of the miraculous between the past and present can be explained in terms of differences in knowledge and our faith in what we know. There’s a world of difference in scientific knowledge and technological development between the first century and the twenty-first that have impacted our faith and how our faith works for us.
Humanity’s objects of faith have shifted, over time, from an invisible God to the visible manifestations of God in His handiwork. And God was made manifest in Christ Jesus, His Son.
Sometimes God exercises His sovereignty — by-passing the natural process — to fulfill His purposes (miracles); He also works through natural process. He chose to send ‘bread’ from heaven, but mostly provides our food through planting and growing. He can heal instantly through a miracle but more often heals through the ministration of doctors and medication.
Indeed, medical science and breakthroughs in scientific research, all, speak to the work of God. Science unveils and explains the created order as put in place by God in creation.
The study of science adds nothing to the created order. Faith existed and worked in anticipation of scientific knowledge. In other words, science has merely explained or revealed what God had already put in place in creation. At creation everything was perfect. What was perfect at creation was marred or disfigured with the fall. Faith has always worked for man. Faith is how we access God’s provision and relate with him from the beginning. Miracle is God’s response to our faith.
There are two levels of faith: Faith for living, the anchor on which human life is built; and faith, the spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:7-10, 28) required to access the miraculous. The righteous lives by this faith (Romans 1:17). Every human lives by faith in one god or the other, including faith in man.
Experience has shown that where undue premium is placed on the miraculous, people are prone to fake miracles. Ministries and churches have been founded and are being founded on the claims that ministry/church founders possess special “anointing” for miracles, thus attracting miracle hunters to their fold. People are chasing miracles rather than God.
The Bible warns believers in Jesus to be wary of false prophets (Matthew 7:15); we also have to beware of fake miracle workers.
