In this episode we make some comments on miracles in the Bible.

The Bible says that God occasionally breaks forth into human history with miracles as evidence and confirmation that indeed, the God of the Bible is involved in the affairs of humankind. Humankind is to know that “this is Yahweh God” by the miraculous event.

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Sometimes the miracles are confirmation and evidence that Yahweh, through a messenger or prophet has spoken. See Exo. 7:5, 17; 10:2, Deut. 4, etc.

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In Deuteronomy 13, however, Israel was warned that sometimes a person may come performing miracles, but he is a false prophet. How was Israel to know? If the person doing the miracle was trying to draw Israel away from the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then Israel would know he was a false prophet. Yahweh allowed the false prophet and the miracles only to test Israel, to see if Israel wholly loved and followed Yahweh his God-

There were three pairs of historical periods when God broke through into humankinds affairs with the miraculous:

1. a) Exodus (Moses) and, b) Conquest (Joshua)

2. b) Elijah and, b) Elisha

3. a) Jesus and, b) the apostles.

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The miracles of Jesus were unique, but also consistent with the way the God of the Hebrew Scriptures worked and promised to work:

1. The overall purpose of the miracles that Jesus performed was the same as previously in Israel’s history: the miracles confirmed and were evidence that Jesus spoke for God, was authorized by God and sent by God. Jesus did not perform miracles because he was God, but because God was with him and Jesus was empowered by God (John 10:24-25, 14:10; Acts 2:22, 10:38).

2. Some of the miracles that Jesus did were unique, reserved for the Messiah and the messianic age. The miracles are evidence that the one performing the miracle is the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5-6; Matt. 11:5).

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We discuss how there were efforts to discredit Jesus and the miracles he did during the time that Jesus was on earth. But in general these efforts failed because there were so many eyewitnesses and evidences that the miracles happened.

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For different reasons, efforts to discredit the miracles of Jesus in modern times also fail. In the end, we are left with real good reasons to believe that the miraculous deeds of Jesus occurred, and that these miraculous deeds are evidence that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.

Anne Alice Beatrice Fleck

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