Could We Handle Massive Miracles?

The Bible is chalk full of miracles. What is a miracle anyway? The wise Noah Webster defined it like this:

1. Literally, a wonder or wonderful thing; but appropriately,
2. In theology, an event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event. Miracles can be wrought only by Almighty power, as when Christ healed lepers, saying, "I will, be thou clean," or calmed the tempest, "Peace, be still." (taken from 1828-dictionary.com).

They happen all over the place and the Bible recorded tons of them. What is interesting is that most of the miracles in the Old Testament are massive, large scale ones mainly impacting groups of people. Examples included the deadly plagues in Egypt before the Exodus, fire raining down from Heaven and consuming sacrifices offered to God, an angel from heaven rescuing Israel by wiping out an entire army, the sun standing still for an entire day, and much more.

The ones recorded in the New Testament that Jesus and the disciples performed were much more subtle: individuals getting healed or resurrected, water getting turned to wine at a party, thousands of people getting fed because of a little boy's lunch, a bunch of people praising God in languages they didn't even learn, and much more.

I say subtle because they still did cause awe, but at the same time they caused a different kind of attention. Instead of massively and instantly causing an entire group to turn to repentance, the miracles of Jesus caused some very different reactions in some people. For example, in the New Testament there were people who believed, but there were also people who either doubted, got logical, got angry, or even got scared. When two thousand demon possessed pigs ran off a cliff, the people in that village politely asked Jesus to leave. The Pharisees also saw Jesus' miracles and just got more upset! One of the first remarks out of people's mouths when they heard the disciples speak other languages was: "These people had way too much wine!"

In our Western American society that loves science, we try to rationalize every miracle we see, attempting to put it in this box, hoping to solve it with some complex formula. Television specials on the plagues of Egypt, for example, tried to through science put together this extremely unlikely series of events to try to solve how these plagues happened.

I've seen YouTube videos of people getting out of wheelchairs and walking or crippled people dancing, and then I look down at the comments and they are chalk full of people saying things like, "This kid is faking it..." or even things like "It's a type of hypnosis the preacher is using...."

It makes me wonder how people would react to the large-scale miracles nowadays as well. For example, if an angel came down from Heaven and wiped out an entire terrorist training facility right before American soldiers invaded it, would they get down on their knees and repent to Jesus, or just stand in awe at the time and then later try to rationalize the whole situation saying, "The government was just trying a new weapon...I guess it worked!"

Is that why miracles are hard to find in our society nowadays? Have our "advances in technology and thought" really caused us to be dumber in regards to how we look at miracles?

So let me ask you, if you are someone who wants a miracle to happen in your own life....Would you believe it if you saw it? Or even more importantly....Would you give God the glory? Would it change how you looked at Him, related to Him, and served Him?

Because that's what God's goal is in His miracles....yes, it's for our blessing, but it's also for His glory. Usually, those two things are pretty synonymous. God wants to be glorified, not rationalized. God wants people to stand in awe of Him, not ignore Him more and just explain Him away with science.

I could be way off on this, but it's just something to think about....Any thoughts? Post them on here. Don't be shy!

God bless you!

Steve