One of the primary themes of this blog is,
"God does not want to circumvent Creation, humanity and the institutions cultivated by humanity to accomplish his purposes."
This does not mean that miracles are not true but that miracles are an intervention into God's natural cultivation of humanity, not a normative or ideal function of how God works. It's the back up plan and at times it's necessary but not normative. Miracles are a way for God to show that he's authoritative in order to build our trust in him and mature us so that he doesn't need to "intervene" as much. Miracles of intervention are caused by a lack of maturity, not the opposite. It is actually disappointing that God has to intervene and show his authority through a miracle rather than receiving simple trust from us. After each miracle that Jesus performs - notice his attitude towards those who receive the benefits of his miracle. Many times he's compassionate, but there are times, he's disappointed. Miracles are necessary at times, but in the history of Israel, there are times when the beneficiaries got so far from interdependence upon God that they had to receive a miracle to remember who God was, who they were and who they needed to have regular dependence upon. Many times the miracle was preceded by eras of pain, oppression and separation from God. At other times, miracles are simply God's gift to us for no reason other than love. What is true in both instances, is that they do build our confidence in God.
The point is that miracles are not always a good thing because many times they are a last resort - they are an intervention (though not all). The hope is that we don't get to the point of intervention. If we do - God is faithful and will rescue us and that is good. We are human and childlike. A parent should never fault a child for having to intervene in that child's life, but the tension of the intervention is that the parent is can grow to be frustrated and hopes that he or she does not have to intervene again, with the assurance that if they have to, they will.
This is done with a lot of patience. There are at least nine passages in the Old Testament that tell us that,
""The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." - Exodus 34:6-7 (also Num. 14:18; Neh. 9:17, Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nah. 1:3).
So can we rejoice in revivals and miracles of intervention - YES - the same way we rejoice when someone is rescued from their own destruction.
Where do we go from here? That is the point of this blog.
In the future we will discuss
1. Deconstruction - Promising Process or Potential Problem?
2. Avoiding God - Do Discipline and Openness promise His presence or His absence?
3. 3rd Way as a Crutch
4. Abraham and Van Gogh
5. AT&T and Tectonic Plate shifting.
6. Dependence, Independence and Interdependence - a movement of maturity, history and theology
I don't read miracles as a 'last resort'. Such an interpretation would imply that somehow we could/do manipulate God in a passive/aggressive way until he relents and does a miracle.
ReplyDeleteThere is some disappointment Jesus expresses over how the disciples continually need their faith reinforced, but I view it as the disappointment of a husband whose wife doesn't think he loves her unless he brings her flowers, even though he does many other things to express his love. The husband will bring his wife flowers because he loves her, not prove his love. And sometime he may do other things to express his love.