Miracles are extraordinary events that manifest divine power, that are wonders to human understanding, and therefore what humans perceive as signs from Elohim (God). They can take the form of unexplainable healing, the dead raised to life, strange encounters with supernatural beings like malakim (angels), wonders in the sky and other unsolved mysteries. The greatest miracle of all is arguably the supernatural transformation of the human heart and character by Yah'shua (Jesus) through the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) into a loving and truly human being.
Etymology
The various Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek words used in the Bible to describe 'miracles' actually denote "wonders", "powers", "signs", and "mighty acts". Thus, for example, the Hebrew word môpet, which is of uncertain etymology, is translated in the KJV by "miracle" (Ex.7:9; Dt.29:3), "wonder" (e.g. Ex.7:3; Dt.4:34; Ps.78:43), and "sign" (e.g. 1 Ki.8:3,5).
The words used by the English translators preserve in general, though not always in particular instances, the three distinctive emphases of the originals. These characterise Yahweh-Elohim's activity as being:
- 1. Distinctive and wonderful: expressed by the Hebrew derivatives of the root pl', 'be different', particularly the participle nipla'ôt (e.g. Ex.15:11; Josh.3:5), by the Aramaic temáh (Dan.4:2-3; 6:27), and by the Greek teras (e.g. Ac.4:30; Rom.15:19);
- 2. Mighty and powerful: expressed by the Hebrew gevurah (Ps.106:2; 145:4) and the Greek dynamis (e.g. Mt.11:20; 1 Cor.12:10; Gal.3:5); and
- 3. Meaningful and significant: expressed by the Hebrew 'ôt (e.g. Num.14:11; Neh.9:10), by the Aramaic 'át (Dan.4:2-3; 6:27), and by the Greek sémeion (e.g. Jn.2:11; 3:2; Ac.8:6).
A. Miracles and the Natural Order
A great deal of confusion on the subject of miracles has been caused by a failure to observe that Scripture does not sharply distinguish between Yahweh's constant sovereign providence and His particular acts. Belief in miracles is set in the context of a world-view which regards the whole of creation as continually dependent upon the sustaining activity of Elohim (God) and subject to His sovereign will (cp. Col.1:16-17). All three aspects of divine activity - wonder, power, and significance - are present not only in special acts but also in the whole created order (Rom.1:20). When the psalmist celebrates the mighty acts of Elohim (God) he moves readily from the creation to the deliverance from Egypt (Ps.135:6-12). In Job 5:9-10 and 9:9-10, the word niplà'ôt refers to what we would call 'natural events' (cp.Is.8:18; Ezek.12:6).
Thus when the biblical writers refer to the mighty acts of Elohim (God) they cannot be supposed to distinguish them from 'the course of nature' by their peculiar causation, since they think of all events as caused by Elohim's (God's) sovereign power. The particular acts of Elohim (God) highlight the distinctive character of Elohim's (God's) activity, different from and superior to that of man and more particularly that of false gods, almighty in power, revealing Him in nature and history.
The discovery of, say, causal connections between different plagues of Egypt, a repetition of the blocking of the Jordan, or increased knowledge of psychosomatic medicine could not of themselves contradict the biblical assertion that the deliverance from Egypt, the entry into Canaan, and the healing works of Messiah were mighty acts of Elohim (God). 'Natural laws' are descriptions of that universe in which Elohim (God) is ever at work. It is only by an unwarranted philosophical twist that they are constructed as the self-sustaining working of a closed system or the rigid decrees on an Elohim (God) who set the universe to work like some piece of machinery.
It has been argued by some philosophers and theologians that the working of miracles is inconsistent with Elohim's (God's) nature and purpose- He is the Alef and the Taw, the Alpha and the Omega, He knows the end from the beginning; He is the Creator who fashioned all things unhampered by any limitation imposed by pre-existent matter; he is the unchanging One. Why, then, should He need to 'interfere' with the working of the natural order?
This objection based on the character of Elohim (God) arises from a failure to grasp the biblical understanding of Elohim (God) as living and personal. His changelessness is not that of an impersonal force but the faithfulness of a person: His creative act brought into being responsible creatures with whom He deals not as puppets but as other persons over against Himself. Miracles are events which dramatically reveal this living, personal nature of Elohim (God), active in history not as mere Destiny but as a Redeemer who saves and guides His people.
A fuller knowledge of the ways of Elohim's (God's) working may show that some supposedly unique events were part of a regular pattern. It can, however, never logically exclude the exceptional and extraordinary. While there is no such radical discontinuity between miracles and the 'natural order' as has been assumed by those who have most keenly felt modern doubts on the subject, it is clear that Scripture speaks of many events which are extraordinary or even unique so far as your general experience of nature goes.
B. Miracles and Revelation
Messianic Evangelicals reject liberal claims that the miracle stories in the Bible are fictional. Nevertheless it is still important to ask what precise functions these extraordinary events perform in the self-revelation of Yahweh in history. Orthodox Cessationist theologians have traditionally tended to regard them primarily as the authenticating marks of Elohim's (God's) nevi'im (prophets) and apostles and supremely of His Son, Yah'shua (Jesus). Liberal critics argue that the miracle stories of the both the Tanakh (Old Testament) and Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) view them as 'wonder stories' akin to those of pagan deities and their prophets. Both these views fail to do justice to the integral relationship between the miracle stories and the whole self-revelation of Elohim (God). Miracles are not simply an external authentication of the revelation but an essential part of it, of which the true purpose was, and is, to nourish emunah (faith, trusting) in the saving intervention of Yahweh toward those who believe.
B1. False Miracles
Yah'shua (Jesus) consistently refused to give a sign from heaven, to work useless and spectacular wonders, simply to guarantee His teaching. There is frequent reference both in Scripture and elsewhere to wonder-working by those who were opposed to the purposes of Yahweh (cp. Dt.13:2-3; Mt.7:22; 24:24; 2 Thes.2:9; Rev.13:13ff.; 16:14; 19:20), something that still goes on today. The refusal to do wonders for their own sake sharply marks off the biblical miracle stories from the general run of Wundergeschichten ('wonder history').
It is noteworthy that the Greek word teras, which of all the biblical terms has most nearly the overtones of the English word 'portent' ('omen', 'sign of a future event'), is always used in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) in conjunction with sémeion to stress that only significant portents are meant. The only exception is the Tanakh (Old Testament) quotation in Acts 2:19 (but cp. Ac.2:22):
"And I will show portents (NIV 'wonders') in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire, and smoky mist (NIV 'billows of smoke')" (Ac.2:19, NRSV; cp. Joel 2:28-32).
"You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Yah'shua (Jesus) of Nazareth, a man attested to you by Elohim (God) with deeds of power (NIV 'miracles'), wonders, and signs that Elohim (God) did through Him among you..." (Ac.2:22, NRSV).
The mere portent of the false miracle is distinguished from the true by the fact that the true miracle is congruous with the rest of the revelation. It harmonises with the knowledge which believers already possess concerning Elohim (God), even where it also carries that knowledge farther and deeper. Thus Israel is to reject any miracle-worker who denies Yahweh (Dt.13:2-3) and thus also we may rightly discern between the miracle stories of the canonical Gospels and the romantic tales and ludicrous supidities of the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings and mediaeval hagiography (the Catholic biographies of 'saints' or an ecclesiastical leaders).
B2. Miracles and Faith
The working of miracles is directed to a deepening of men's understanding of Elohim (God). It is Yahweh's way of speaking dramatically to those who have ears to hear. The miracle stories are intimately concerned with the emunah (faith) of observers or participants (cp. Ex.14:31; 1 Ki.18:39) and with the emunah (faith) of those who will hear or read them later (Jn.20:30-31). Yah'shua (Jesus) looked for emunah (faith) as the right response to His saving presence and deeds; it was emunah (faith) which 'made whole' (Mt.9:22; 15:28; Mk.6:56; Lk.8:50; Jn.5:4,6,9,14; Ac.4:9, KJV), which made the difference between the mere creation of an impression and a saving communication of His revelation of Elohim (God).
It is important to observe that emunah (faith) on the part of human participants is not a necessary condition of a miracle in the sense that Elohim (God) is of Himself unable to act without human emunah (faith). Mark 6:5 is often quoted to support such a view, but Yah'shua (Jesus) could do no mighty work in Nazareth, not because people's unbelief limited His power - Mark tells us that He healed a few sick people there - but rather because He could not proceed with His preaching or with the deeds which proclaimed His Besorah (Gospel) in action where men were unready to accept His good news and His own person. Wonder-working for the crowds or the sceptics was inconsistent with His mission. as also with ours. It is in this sense that He could not do it in Nazareth.
B3. Miracles and the Word
It is a notable feature - in some cases the chief feature - of miracles that even where the matter of the event is such that it can be assimilated to the ordinary pattern of natural events (e.g. some of the plagues of Egypt), its occurrence is predicted by Yahweh to or through His agent (cp. Josh.3:7-13; 1 Ki.13:1-5) or takes place at an agent's command or prayer (cp. Ex.4:17; Num.20:8; 1 Ki.18:37-38). Sometimes both prediction and command are recorded (cp. Ex.14). This feature emphasises yet again the connection between miracles and revelation, and between miracles and the divine creative Davar (Word).
B4. The Crises of the Sacred History
Another connection between miracles and revelation is that they cluster about the crises of sacred history. The pre-eminently mighty acts of Elohim (God) are the deliverance at the Red Sea (Yam Suf) and the resurrection of Messiah, the first the climax of the conflict with Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt (Ex.12:12; Num.33:4), the second the climax of Yahweh's redeeming work in Messiah and the conflict with all the power of evil. Miracles are also frequently noted in the time of Elijah and Elisha, when Israel seemed most likely to sink into complete apostacy (cp. 1 Ki.14:14), in the time of the siege of Jerusalem under Hezekiah (2 Ki.20:11), during the Exile (see Book of Daniel), and in the early days of the Messianic/Christian mission.
C. Miracles in the Messianic Scriptures
Some liberal treatments of the question of miracles draw a marked distinction between the miracles of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament), particularly those of Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself, and those of the Tanakh (Old Testament). Both mroe radical and consevative critics have pointed out that in principle the narratives stand or fall together.
The contention that the New Testament miracles are more credible in the light of modern psychology or psychosomatic medicine leaves out of account the nature miracles, such as that at the wedding-feast in Cana and the calming of the storm, the instantaneous cures of organic disease and malformation, and the raising of the dead. There is no a priori reason to suppose that Yah'shua (Jesus) did not make use of those resources of the human mind and spirit which today are employed by the psychotherapist, though it seems to us highly unlikely. However, other narratives take us into realms where psychotherapy makes no assertions and where the claims of spiritual healers find least support from qualified medical observers.
There is, however, evidence for regarding the miracles of Messiah and those done in His Name as different from those of the Tanakh (Old Testament). Where before Elohim (God) had done mighty works in His transcendent power and revealed them to His servants or used His servants as the occasional agents of such deeds, in Yah'shua (Jesus) there confronts us Elohim (God) Himself incarnate, freely active in sovereign authority in that world which is 'His own'. When the apostles did similar works in His Name they acted in the power of the risen Master with whom they were in intimate contact, so that Acts continues the story of the same things which Yah'shua (Jesus) began to do and teach in His earthly ministry (cp. Ac.1:1).
In stressing the direct presence and action of Elohim (God) in Messiah we do not, of course, deny the continuity of His work with the previous course of Yahweh's dealing with the world. Of the list of works given by Yah'shua (Jesus) in answering John the Baptist's inquiry (Mt.11:5) it is the most wonderful, the healing of the lepers and the raising of the dead, which have Tanakh (Old Testament) parallels, notably in the ministry of Elisha. What is remarkable is the integral relationship between the works and words of Yah'shua (Jesus). The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and at the same time that Besorah (Gospel) is preached to the poor by which spiritual sight and hearing and a power to walk in Elohim's (God's) way (His New Covenant Torah) are given to the spiritually needy.
Again, the frequency of healing miracles is far greater in the time of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) than at any period in the Tanakh (Old Testament). The Tanakh (Old Testament) records its miracles one by one and gives no indication that there were others unrecorded. The Gospels and the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) in general repeatedly claim that the miracles described in detail were but a fraction of those wrought. Isolated instances of the divine exercise of sovereign power here give way to a wholesale onslaught on the forces of evil and disease.
Yah'shua's (Jesus') works are clearly marked off from others by their manner or mode. There is in Yah'shua's (Jesus') dealing with the sick and demon-possessed a note of inherent authority. Where nevi'im (prophets) did their works in the Name of Yahweh or after prayer to Him, Yah'shua (Jesus) casts out demons and heals with that same air of rightful power as informs His pronouncement of forgiveness to the sinner. Indeed, He deliberately linked the two authorities (Mk.2:9-11). At the same time Yah'shua (Jesus) stressed that His works were done in constant dependence on the Father (e.g. Jn.5:19). The balance between inherent authority and humble dependence is the very mark of the perfect unity of deity and humanity.
In general, it may be said of Yah'shua's (Jesus') works that in their integral relation to His mission, their frequency, and their authoritative manner they are distinctively messianic.
Above all, tne virgin birth, the resurrection, and the ascension manifest the newness of what Elohim (God) did in Messiah. He is born of a woman in the genealogy of Abraham and David, but of a virgin. Others had veen raised from the dead, only to die again. He "always lives" (Heb.7:25, NKJV) and has ascended to the right hand of power. It is, moreover, true of the resurrection as of no other individual miracle that on it the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) rest the whole structure of emunah (faith) (cp. 1 Cor.15:17). This event was unique as the decisive triumph over sin and death.
The miracles of the apostles and other leaders of the Messianic Community (Church) spring from the solidarity of Messiah with His people. They are works done in His Name, in continuation of all that Yah'shua (Jesus) began to do and teach, in the power of the Ruach (Spirit) whom He sent from the Father. There is a close link between these miracles and the work of the apostles in testifying to the person and work of their Master. They are part of the proclamation of the Kingdom of Elohim (God), not an end in themselves.
Believers today are divided over the issue of continuationism vs. cessationism - whether the function of the miracle was confined to the apostolic age or whether miracles have continued since and are present today. Messianic Evangelicals are continuationists, believing that miracles have always characterised the true Messianic Assembly (Church) even if we are sceptical of vast numbers of the miracles coming out of contemporary Protestant and other continuationist circles, like the pentecostals and charismatics. Many of these are counterfeit or hoax 'miracles' and others which are real are clearly mediated by false spirits and fail the revelation criteria described earlier.
Either way, we can at least say that the New Testament miracles were distinct from any subsequent ones by virtue of their immediate connection with the full manifestation of the incarnate Son of Elohim (God), with a revelation then given in its fullness. They do not, therefore, afford grounds in themselves for expecting miracles to accompany the subsequent dissemination of the revelation of which they formed an integral part.
Table of Biblical Miracles
1. MIRACLES DEMONSTRATING YAHWEH'S RULE OVER NATURE
The ten plagues |
Ex.7:20-10:23 |
The sun stands still |
Josh.10:12-14 |
Yah'shua stills the storm |
Mt.8:23-27 |
The burning bush |
Ex.3:3 |
2. MIRACLES SHOWING YAHWEH'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER PEOPLE & NATIONS
Lot's wife |
Gen.19:26 |
The flood |
Gen.7:17-24 |
The tower of Babel |
Gen.11:3-9 |
The fall of Jericho |
Josh.6:6-20 |
The writing on the wall |
Dan.5:5 |
Daniel delivered from lions |
Dan.6:16-23 |
Jonah and the whale |
Jonah 2:1-10 |
3. MIRACLES DEMONSTRATING YAHWEH'S VICTORY OVER DEATH
The widow's son raised |
1 Ki.17:17-23 |
The Shunamite woman's son raised |
2 Ki.4:19-37 |
A man raised from the dead |
2 Ki.13:21 |
The widow's son raised |
Lk.7:11-17 |
The resurrection of Yah'shua |
Lk.24:16 |
Lazarus raised from the dead |
Jn.11:1-44 |
4. YAHWEH'S MIRACLES IN HEALING THE SICK
Naaman healed of leprosy |
2 Ki.5:10-14 |
Hezekiah healed |
2 Ki.20:7 |
A leper cleansed |
Mt.8:1-4 |
A paralytic cured |
Mt.9:1-8 |
A blind man healed |
Mk.8:22-26 |
5. MIRACLES WARNING OF YAHWEH'S JUDGMENTS
Sodom destroyed |
Gen.19:24 |
Israel's judgment |
Num.11:1-3 |
Miriam's leprosy |
Num.12:10-15 |
A donkey speaks |
Num.12:21-35 |
Drought |
1 Ki.17:1 |
Captains destroyed |
2 Ki.1:9-12 |
The death of Ananias & Saphira |
Ac.5:5-10 |
6. MIRACLES SHOWING YAHWEH GREATER THAN FALSE GODS
Dagon's home pulled down |
Judg.16:13-36 |
Dagon's fall |
1 Sam.5:1-12 |
7. YAHWEH'S MIRACLES OF PROVISION
Manna sent |
Ex.16:13-36 |
Rain sent |
Lev.26:4 |
Elijah fed by ravens |
1 Ki.17:4-6 |
A widow's oil increased |
1 Ki.17:12-16 |
Fire sent |
2 Ki.1:9-12 |
Water given |
2 Ki.3:16-20 |
A widow's oil multiplied |
2 Ki.4:1-7 |
5000 people fed |
Mt.14:15-21 |
A coin provided for taxes |
Mt.17:24-27 |
4000 people fed |
Mk.8:1-9 |
Fish provided |
Lk.5:1-11 |
Water turned into wine |
Jn.2:1-11 |
8. MIRACLES PERFORMED TO SHOW LOVE & COMPASSION
An axhead floats |
2 Ki.6:5-7 |
People delivered from a fiery furnace |
Dan.6:16-23 |
Jonah preserved |
Jonah 2:1-10 |
Peter's mother-in-law healed |
Lk.4:38-39 |
A withered hand restored |
Lk.6:6-11 |
A woman healed of an infirmity |
Lk.13:11-17 |
Malcus' ear healed |
Lk.22:50-51 |
A mother's son healed |
Jn.4:46-54 |
A lame man healed |
Ac.3:6 |
9. MIRACLES PERFORMED TO SHOW PLAN OF SALVATION
Sarah has a sign |
Gen.17:15-18 |
The virgin birth of Messiah |
Mt.1:8-24 |
Elizabeth has a son |
Lk.1:1-13 |
27 January 2018
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