Readings for today: 2 Kings 1-3, Psalms 101
A double portion of Elijah’s spirit. I have often wondered what that might look like. Then I started coming over here to Ethiopia. I started meeting men and women who had little to no education, very few resources at their disposal, and seemingly no opportunities to change their station in life. I met men and women who have “nothing” by the world’s standards and yet they have “everything” by God’s standards. Why? They have the spirit of Elijah. They have double and triple portions of his spirit. They perform miracle after miracle on a daily basis. People are healed. Fields become fertile. Water flows in dry and thirsty places. Even the dead are raised. It’s powerful and yet they would tell you the miracles are beside the point. All the signs and wonders are not the main event. The main event is Jesus.
In our reading today, both Elijah and Elisha perform miracle after miracle. Future telling. Pools of water suddenly appearing in the desert. Water purification. Incredible military victories. To the skeptical, stories like these make the Bible seem primitive and superstitious. To the doubter, stories like these can be confusing and frustrating as they wrestle with why they don’t seem to happen much anymore. To the faithful, stories like these encourage belief and deeper trust in God. However, the question still remains...why does God perform miracles?Why does God break through the time/space continuum? Why does He suspend the laws of nature and the universe? Why does He intervene in certain situations but not others? Reach down and touch certain lives and not others? These are important questions that must be faced and thankfully, the Bible provides a clear answer.
First and foremost, miracles are given for the purpose of pointing God’s people to faith. They are not ends in and of themselves. They are signposts. Pointing beyond themselves. They are given to direct our attention heavenward to the Lord of all creation. The Author of all life. They are stark reminders that we are not at the mercy of our circumstances. This world and all the natural laws that govern it - from gravity to thermodynamics to photosynthesis - is not all there is. There is a God who stands above and beyond such laws, who is able to set them aside for reasons only He Himself knows and understands.
Secondly, miracles are given so that God’s people might always cling to hope. Even when circumstances seem their most dire. When evil seems to be on the march. Injustice and oppression winning the day. Persecution at its fiercest. Rage and violence burning white hot. Disease ravaging the body. Famine and poverty threatening our well-being. Even in the darkest of times, we still have hope. Hope in a God who can and does intervene. Hope in a God who draws near the broken-hearted and crushed in spirit. Hope in a God who fights on behalf of the poor and oppressed and outcast and stranger.
Third, miracles are given to remind us how limited and finite we are as creatures. Power. Wealth. Influence. Control. We like to live with the illusion that we are the masters of our own destinies especially in the West. We like to believe we are the captains of our fate. We like to think we are in charge. We like to act like we’ve got everything under control. But miracles remind us who truly holds the power. Miracles remind us of our relative insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Miracles bring us face to face with the power of God and, like Job, we shut our mouths and fall on our faces before Him.
Ultimately, miracles force us to look beyond ourselves. Beyond our needs. Beyond our circumstances. Beyond our wisdom. Beyond our strength. Miracles force us to trust in God. To trust in His purposes and His design. We cannot bend God to our will. There is no magic formula to get God to do our bidding. Miracles happen on His time and in accordance with His will. Our job is to believe. To have faith. To place our lives in His hands and trust Him for the outcome.
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 4-7, Psalms 102