"Are miracles possible?"
A 17-year-old high school junior named Julia prayed for her older brother to be healed when he developed cancer. He died after only eight months of treatments. The teen's prayers for a miracle apparently went unanswered--leaving her with the question: "Are miracles possible?"
Exodus describes many miracles, but does that mean they are real? Could there be reasonable scientific, naturalistic explanations for the events the Bible calls miracles as many skeptics would have us believe? Consider the Israelites's escape through the Red Sea (Exodus 14:15-31). Some scholars have suggested that most of the exodus narrative is fabricated. Scholarly skeptics reject the Bible's claim that the Red Sea actually parted. (Note: I'm not recommending this book!)
Are you aware that nine different books of the Bible explicitly claim or clearly assume that the Red Sea miraculously split apart for the escaping Israelites?
To accept a naturalistic explanation of a biblical miracle requires one to assume that the writers of eight other books in the Bible got it wrong. It demonstrates unwarranted pride, crediting us modern readers of the Bible with a better grasp of biblical events than the actual eyewitnesses who recorded the events!
Unfortunately, Julia became biased against miracles due to her personal disappointment--BUT the reality of miracles isn't determined by the fact that the miracle she prayed for never happened. Whether an event is a real miracle or not must be determined by the strength of the evidence surrounding the event. Case in point, if Julia the junior questions the resurrection of Jesus Christ, she is required to investigate the Bible's record on the subject--look at what other historical documents from that time period say--and consider all alternative explanations of Jesus' resurrection.
God might choose to provide a miracle when we ask for it. Then again, he might not. But please remember, the Bible assures us that we can trust God to work in our lives.
Brian's Truth #78--
We have every reason to believe that our God is a miracle-working God!
Reading Exodus last night chapter 9 vs. 29-31 raised a ? so Moses just prayed again for the plague to stop. Then God placed vs. 31 in there about the flax and barley and I thought that was odd. I know God put that there for a reason but it looked odd right there. Just wondering if you knew the significance of that?
ReplyDeleteThanks Melissa
Melissa-
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it is an odd observation that seems out-of-place. It appears to be a notation to emphasize two points:
1.) To show that God spared the future food resources of the Egyptians.
2.) To mark the time of the year this event took place.
Brian O.