"NATURAL" MIRACLES IN THE BIBLE

It is probably an appropriate time to point out that some of the events in the Bible that we view as nature miracles, violations of natural laws, are probably better viewed as miracles of timing, miracles of knowledge (discussed in a separate post appropriately titled "Miracles of Knowledge"), or in a very few cases are perhaps not even intended to be viewed as miracles at all. Let me explain myself before you brand me as a total heretic.

“Natural” Miracles?

Luke 4:28-30 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill...so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

We don't need to believe that Jesus put on some sort of cloak of invisibility in this case. As a boy I was very small for my age and wore glasses. So I was several times confronted with a group of bullies who started harassing me. But even I at that age realized that if I didn't show any fear and walked right past them without making any eye contact, they would let me alone. As an aside, I believe that this is the same technique that Jesus used when the group was going to stone the woman caught in adultery. After saying, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” Jesus began to write in the dirt. Scholars have speculated on what he was writing, but I think Jesus was just doodling to purposely avoid making eye contact with any of the accusers so that they could all sneak out without losing face. The following story is similar.

John 8:59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but he hid from them and went out of the temple [going through the midst of them, and so passed by].

The part in brackets is not in the oldest manuscripts.

John 18:6 Then there is John's account of Jesus' arrest. “When Jesus said to them, 'I am he,' the soldiers stepped back and fell to the ground.”

I have seen this passage included in lists of NT miracles, but it certainly doesn't have to be understood as any sort of violation of a natural law. Just imagine the effect on a group of Roman soldiers and Jewish guards who had been told that they were going to arrest the miracle worker Jesus who might just be the promised Messiah. He turns to them and says in the Greek, “I am,” which is the meaning of the name Yahweh, the LORD himself. We don't have to propose that Jesus employed some sort of force field to knock them down, just his words and the force of his personality would do the trick.

Acts 20:9-10 He (Eutychus) fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up (for) dead. But Paul went down, bent over him and holding him gently in his arms, said, “Don't be alarmed; he is still alive.”

The New English Bible and at least four other translations I have seen take the stance that Eutychus was never really dead to start with. Even those translations which imply that he might have been dead, open the door to considering that when Paul hugged him, it had the effect of resuscitating him.

Now, of course, this type of rationalizing explanation can certainly be taken too far. For example, some people see the story in Mark 5 of Jesus bringing Jairus' daughter back from the dead as a similar case since Jesus says that she is just sleeping. But look at context: (a) she had shown no signs of life for some time. This wasn't a case of temporarily getting the wind knocked out of her, (b) the professional mourners, who had certainly seen their share of death, laugh at Jesus' comment, and (c) throughout the whole event Jesus tries to keep what happened as a secret, as he does after performing other genuine miracles. We'll discuss his possible reasons for doing this at another time.

Miracles of Timing

First, we have several Old Testament accounts of the Jews crossing bodies of water supernaturally. Considering first that the translation “Red Sea” is probably not as accurate as “Sea of Reeds” (a more shallow body of water), and secondly that the dry crossing was said to have been possible due to God using a natural event, an east wind blowing all night long, we should probably wipe out the picture from our mind of Charlton Heston holding his hands out and instantly being is surrounded by high walls of water. And concerning the various crossings of the Jordan River, even in historical times the flow in this river has been blocked temporarily by rock slides due to earthquakes. This happened in 1267 AD and again in 1927. Again, the miraculous element of these events lies in their precise timing.

Then there are the Plagues of Egypt. The first thing to point out is that there is a spiritual rationale for these plagues since each one targets a deity worshiped by the Egyptians. God turns each of these deities against the Egyptians. (See the Appendix below) Also, many commentators have pointed out that all of the first nine plagues are known to occur in the land of Egypt at one time or another naturally and they even form a logical progression in which each disaster leads naturally to the next. High rainfall in the Nile headlands brings down masses of fine-grained red clay and and toxic algae which kills the fish; this drives frogs infected by dead fish on to the shore where they infect the vegetation; the receding flood leaves behind pools of water which breed mosquitoes and flies which spread disease; the cattle contract anthrax ingested from infected pastures while the boils on people and beasts come from infectious bites from the flies. Then in spring, massive hail ruins the early crops followed by locust that strip the later crops. By March, in dryer weather, strong dust-laden winds start blowing, which darken the skies.

Now, of course, all of the details of the account in Exodus can't be explained that way, but for the most part these can be looked at as natural events common in Egypt where the most supernatural element is in their precise timing and location – generally not affecting the part of Egypt where the Jews lived. The last plague of the first-born dying, of course, can't be explained by merely naturalistic means, although some scholars have actually attempted it.

However, even this Tenth Plague can be seen as part of a consistent pattern of God's actions starting with God killing an animal to use its skin to clothe Adam and Eve after they sinned; God providing a sheep for Abraham to slaughter in place of his son Isaac; the need for the first-born of the Egyptians to die in order to free the Jews; the necessity of the Jews to sacrifice a lamb so that their firstborn wouldn't be affected; the first-born of Israel being ransomed by animal sacrifices; the various animal sacrifices required in Leviticus; and finally the necessity of God's own first-born, Jesus – the lamb of the world – to die in our place in order to ransom us from the penalty of death.

    1. And the LORD God made garments of skins for Adam and Eve, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)

    2. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. (Genesis 22:13b)

    3. Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. (Exodus 11:5a)

    When I see the blood, I will pass over you. (Exodus 12:13b)

    4. Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine. (Exodus 13:1)

    5. Every firstborn male among your children you shall redeem. (Exodus 13:13; 34:20)

    6. Animal sacrifices prescribed in the Book of Leviticus.

    7. For God so loved the world that he have his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

In the Indroduction to Miracles, we started out considering the various ways God can act in the world. Here is another popular way of categorizing these different modes of action:

Providence: “the biblical picture of God's care and guidance of His creation and of individual creatures.” (Dictionary of Christianity and Science, p. 530) God cares for all by providing everyday blessings naturally. And in a more direct way he superintends the details of His people's lives. In the Bible, perhaps the best examples are the books of Ruth and Esther. In the first one, God causes a “coincidence” in which Ruth happens to glean in the fields belonging to Boaz, who happens to be a close relative of Naomi. From this supposed coincidence comes a line of descendants including King David and Jesus himself. In the case of Esther, it is a sleepless night by the king in which he happens to open a book that describes how Mordecai had saved his life. From that point on, the Jewish people are saved instead of being wiped out. And in our own lives we can all look back and recognize the various supposedly random occurrences that all came together to bring us where we are today.

Special Providence: This includes those occasions when we couldn't really prove to someone else that a violation of any natural law had occurred in our life, but the odds against a certain event happening exactly in a particular desired way or at the exact time it was needed are very, very slim. We have talked about biblical examples of these in the categories of miraculous knowledge or timing.

Miracles: Lastly are those events that most everyone would recognize as truly miraculous in every sense of the word. While I can't honestly say that I can recount God performing any of these in my own life, twice at churches I attended where someone in the congregation was sick beyond healing according to the medical experts, they were both completely cured after a concerted prayer vigil was held. This is the category of God's actions that we will concentrate on in subsequent blogposts.

Appendix: The Plagues Challenge the Egyptian Gods

1. The Nile turned to blood Nile River = the god Hapi

2. Frogs: symbol of the goddess Heqt

3. Gnats/Mosquitoes: Seth, god of the Earth

4. Flies: symbol of the god Uatchit

5. Cattle diseased: Apis bull, a form of the god Ptah

6. Boils on the people: Sunu, goddess who protected against infection

7. Hail and fire: Isis, goddess of fire

Serapis, goddess of water and rains

8. Locust not clear, although the Egyptians worshiped

the symbol of insects, i.e. scarabs, dung beetles

9. Three days of darkness: Re, the sun god and chief deity

10. First-born as predicted by God in Exodus 4:22-23,

    Egyptians considered the first-born as sacred