Why do Miracles Happen?
Throughout Scripture, God uses men called according to His purposes to perform miracles for all kinds of people. Waters are parted, supplies replenished, fire falls from Heaven, the dead are raised to life and so much more all happens by the hand of God through a man chosen by Him. As it is written in the account of one of the most famous miracles, the parting of the Red Sea by Moses, the LORD spoke to Moses. He said, "Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground" (Exodus 14:16). Just as God commanded, "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left" (Exodus 14: 21-22). This scene features powerful imagery to be sure, but why did it happen in the first place? Why does God use men to perform miracles?
An initial response to this question might be that God used men to perform miracles to help unbelievers believe in Him, however countless accounts of Israelites performing miracles for other God fearing Israelites are in abbundance throughout the Old Testament. If Miracles do help unbelievers believe in God, then this is an effect of miracles but perhaps not the central reason they happen. Another guess might be that miracles occur so that God can show He can help those who are in dire need, and though it is true that many miracles occur to save people from what appears to be a hopeless situation, many other miracles occur to help people who are not in dire situations, such as when Elisha made an axhead float to help out a servant (2 Kings 6:1-7). It's not a dire situation, as many other axheads are still available to this servant to help him get his job done, so perhaps helping out others in dire need is not the only reason that a miracle can happen.
So, why do miracles happen? The answer comes from the greatest miracle maker of all, the man who was God in flesh, Jesus the Christ. In the book of John there is an account where Jesus comes across a blind man. The desciples wonder why such a terrible thing as blindness has afflicted this man. Jesus responds, "This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him" (John 9:3). Jesus heals the blind man and the blind man shows himself to others, but he is soon taken before the pharisees to be questioned. The pharisees ask the blind man how it is that he can now see, and the man responds that Jesus healed him. This angers the pharisees, as they believe Jesus is a sinner and is not a man of God, and so they hurl insults at the man. The man says to them, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where [Jesus] comes from, yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (John 9:30-33). Upon hearing this, the man is thrown out of the pharisees' pressence. With great joy, though, the man finds Jesus again and worships Him.
As Jesus stated, the purpose of healing the blind man was to display the glorious works of God, and that is exactly what happened. A man was blind, but now he could see, and so He worshipped the LORD honoring Him by speaking the truth before the pharisees and then worshipping the Messiah. The purpose of miracles is to show the glory of God and bring all the glory back to Him. Jesus illustrates this again, further on in the book of John at the death of Lazarus. Jesus says Lazarus' sickness which lead to his death happened for God's glory and the glory of His Son (John 11:4). Miracles happen, so that God's glory may be shown and He may be glorified.
If you're ever in a situation where you want or need a miracle, ask yourself who would be most glorified if it where to happen. If you're ever in a situation where you believe you are seeing a miracle take place, ask yourself who would be most glorified by this miracle. If the answer to that question is fuzzy or simply does not directly point towards God, then perhaps whatever it was you saw was not a miracle. As the blind man rightly observed, God only listens to a Godly person, so only Godly people can perform miracles. As the life of Jesus reminds us, miracles happen for, above all things, the glory of God. Remember this the next time you or someone you know asks for a miracle.
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| The man born blind worships Jesus (John 9:38) |
Sources
- The Bible (New International Version)
- "The Ten Commandments" (1956) movie clip
- "The Gospel of John" (2003) movie clip