Miracles day3

 In your opinion, what is the greatest miracle in the Bible?

Is it Creation? God speaking everything into existence? One second there was nothing; the next second there was everything. Pretty great, but that doesn’t get my vote.

What about the Incarnation? The Creator of the universe coming to earth as a tiny, helpless baby? Again, it’s astonishing, but it doesn’t get my vote.

The Resurrection? It’s certainly the pivotal event of human history. The Resurrection of Jesus is the single event that makes sense of all the other events of His life and ours. If there’s no Resurrection, it’s every man for himself. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die — and after that there’s nothing. The Resurrection certainly is an amazing miracle. And yet. 

None of the miracles above get my vote because we wouldn’t know about any of them without the Bible. Maybe the greatest miracle of all time isn’t in the Bible, maybe the greatest miracle of all time is the Bible.

Approximately 40 different authors, writing in three different languages over the span of about 1,400 years worked with God to create, in 66 books, one Story.

There was a group of people who lived during Jesus’ lifetime called the Sadducees. They didn’t believe in any kind of resurrection. As far as the Sadducees were concerned, when you died, you were dead and that was that. They didn’t believe in angels or spirits or anything that sounded supernatural.

If you took off a Sadducee’s robe, put him in a tailored suit, gave him a laptop in exchange for his scrolls, took him out of the Temple and put him into an office building, you’d have a pretty typical white-collar Englishman — a good, solid, tax-paying, church-attending guy.

But Jesus had a question for Sadducees, both old and new: “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mk 12:24). In other words, the reason people don’t believe in supernatural activity is because they are ignorant of the Bible. Lots of people claim to believe in God, but the god they believe in is not the God found in the pages of the Bible. They never expect God to do anything in their lives.

Jesus goes on to say that the God of the Bible is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Mk 12:26). If we want to know what He’s like, we should look at how He dealt with those three patriarchs.

Abraham worshiped idols until God intervened, calling him to leave everything behind and go to a new land. When God says He’s the God of Abraham, He means that He intervenes in our lives to call us to follow Him.

As a young man, Isaac’s father bound him to an altar on Mount Moriah. He was about to be sacrificed when God intervened to save him by providing a substitute. Isaac was released and an animal was offered in his place. When God says He’s the God of Isaac, He means that He intervenes in our lives to save us from death.

Jacob lived a twisted life filled with lies and deceit. He ran from his family and he ran from God. But God never gave up on him. One night, the angel of the Lord appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him. The struggle changed Jacob forever, moving him from a posture of resistance to a posture of dependence. When God says He’s the God of Jacob, He means that He is the God who is willing to fight for His people.

The God of the Bible — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — is the God who calls and saves and fights for us. He is the God who intervenes to change things. Once you know this God of the Bible, miracles aren’t so hard to believe.

That’s why we’ve spent so much time and energy writing this book. We believe that once you come to value God’s Story and embed yourself in it, you’ll be able to see God’s hand at work all around you.

 

Prayer 

 

God, where would I be if You did not reveal Yourself in Your Word? My knowledge of You would be limited to inferences I draw from the natural world, and I could never have known that You love me and have gone to unfathomable lengths to draw me to Yourself. Your revelation of Your works and ways in Scripture is the foundational authority for truth in my life, and it bristles with implications for how I should order my steps from day to day. Grant that I will seek more diligently to expose myself to its teachings and counsel, and that I would meditate on and memorise truths from the Bible. As I read and reflect on the Scriptures, I gain a wisdom and perspective I could never attain otherwise, and my soul is nourished with great thoughts about who You are and what You have done.

In Jesus’s name, Amen