Miracles are wonders, signs, types, powers of God (Deut. xi. 3; xxix. 3; Ps. lxxviii. 7, 11, 12, 43; xcv. 9; Mark ix. 39; xxiii. 8; John ii. 11, 23; ix. 3; Acts ii.; vi. 8; viii. 13; see RV). They are not wonderful events, but are also signs, types, powers, works of God. They are not supernatural events like the creation of the world, for God is not represented as bringing the universe into existence as a sign of attestation. Nor are they merely providences which men sometimes term “miracles of providence,” and which are brought about by secondary means, and not signs, such as the storm which dispersed the Spanish Armada. The locusts were blown into Egypt by the strong east wind and blown away again by the west (Ex. x. 13, 19), and the arrival of quails, which migrate in the spring and supply the camp of Israel with meat (Ex. xvi. 13), were extraordinary providences, but with additional elements. They foretold and were intended as signs. The plague of locusts was one of the signs and wonders wrought at Zoan (Ps. lxxviii. 46), and the quails were sent that Israel might know that Jehovah is God and their God (Ex. xvi. 12). In the strict biblical sense, miracles are events in the external world wrought by the immediate power of God and intended as a sign or attestation. They are possible because God sustains, controls, and guides all things, and is personal and omnipotent. Perhaps the manner of these deeds in the realm of the physical universe is illustrated by the power of the human will. Man wills, and muscular force is exerted which controls or counteracts nature’s laws, as when one hurls a stone into the air against the law of gravitation.
Miracles are not to be credulously received, but their genuineness must be tested. The tests are: 1. They exhibit the character of God and teach truths concerning God. 2. They are in harmony with the established truths of religion (Deut. xiii. 1–3). If a wonder is worked which contradicts the doctrines of the Bible, it is a lying wonder (2 Thes. ii. 9; Rev. xvi. 14). 3. There is an adequate occasion for them. God does not work them except for great cause and for a religious purpose. They belong to the history of redemption, and there is no genuine miracle without an adequate occasion for it in God’s redemptive revelation of himself. 4. They are established not by the number of witnesses, but by the character and qualifications of the witnesses.
The miracles of the Bible are confined almost exclusively to four periods, separated from each other by centuries: the time of 1. The redemption of God’s people from Egypt and their establishment in Canaan under Moses and Joshua. 2. The life-and-death struggle of the true religion with heathenism under Elijah and Elisha. 3. The exile, when Jehovah afforded proof of his power and supremacy over the gods of the heathen, although his people were in captivity (Daniel and his companions). 4. The introduction of Christianity, when miracles attested the person of Christ and his doctrine.
Outside of these periods, miracles are rare indeed (Gen. v. 24). They were almost totally unknown during the many centuries from the creation to the exodus. The working of miracles in the apostolic age, although not confined to the apostles (Acts vi. 8; viii. 5, 7), were the signs of an apostle (2 Cor. xii. 12; Heb. ii. 4; cp. Acts ii. 43; Gal. iii. 5).
Illustrated Davis Dictionary of the Bible, edited by John D. Davis, p. 481-482
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