Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Full Text

1. Doctrine Detective: God’s methodology for performing miracles comes a surprise, says David Instone-Brewer
2. Introduction
   • There’s something odd about miracles in the Bible. I suppose all miracles might be said to be odd, so perhaps the word I’m looking for is ‘different’. Most of the biblical miracles are more natural than we might expect.
   • Take, for example, when one of Elisha’s disciples was using a borrowed axe and the head flew off and landed in a deep river (2 Kings 6:5-6). A genie or a wizard might have retrieved it by snapping their fingers so that it flew back out of the water or perhaps materialised on the end of the axe handle. But God told Elisha to chop down a branch from a tree then find out where the axe-head had fallen in and throw the branch in at that exact place. The axe-head then floated up to the surface, balancing on the branch, and they were able to lean over and pick it up.
   • When I read this, I ask myself why Elisha had to cut down a branch instead of throwing in something that was already available, like a pebble or a twig. The answer, presumably, is that an axe-head can float on a large piece of wood naturally. But why did he need to lean over and pick it up? Because axe-heads don’t naturally jump off logs onto a riverbank. And why did he need to enquire where the axe-head had fallen in? Presumably, it was to give him a better chance of thrusting the branch in at exactly the right place. Of course, the chance of the branch hitting the axe-head in exactly the right way so that it flipped onto it and balanced there while it floated to the surface is still statistically miniscule. It is certainly miraculous! But this miracle involves nothing chat actually goes against the laws of nature.
3. Miracles Of Multiplication:
   • Even the biblical miracles that are impossible naturally are less contrary to nature than we might expect. For example, a genie granting the wish of a starving woman with debts would snap their fingers and dishes materialise. However, when Elisha met the starving widow, he asked her what assets she had - a small drop of oil left in her jar (2 Kings 4:1-7). He then told her to borrow as many empty jars as she could and to pour oil from her jar into them. Miraculously, the oil kept flowing into the other jars until the last was filled - and then it stopped. The widow sold the oil to pay her debts with enough left over to live on.
   • Why did Elisha ask the widow what assets she had? Presumably, it was because he didn’t know supernaturally. Why did she have to go and borrow jars? Probably to save Elisha having to miraculously create new ones. And why didn’t Elisha just give the widow miraculous money instead of her having to sell the miraculous oil? Perhaps, because creating oil helped the whole community, whereas generating more money would simply devalue all the existing money. Or maybe it was because God is in the business of making natural things like food rather than manufactured things like coins.
   • The miracle of multiplying all that oil was amazing, but it had a deliberate limitation: after the last jar was filled, the oil stopped pouring. A similar limitation happened when Elijah fed the widow at Zarephath: the food stopped being replenished when the drought ended (1 Kings 17:9- 16). And, presumably, when Jesus fed thousands with bread and fish (Matthew 14:13-21), the food stopped multiplying at some point otherwise no one would ever have baked bread or gone fishing again.
   • Those meals were all multiplied out of existing food. A fictional genie or fairy godmother traditionally materialises things from nothing or from something quite disparate - like
     Cinderella’s coach from a pumpkin. But God produced oil from oil, bread from bread, and fish from fish. It seems that he chose to produce food from food just as it happens in nature: grain is grown by planting grain.
   • This kind of consistency in biblical miracles - which are recorded by believers separated from each other by different centuries and cultures - is pretty impressive. None of them
     describe miracles of materialisation or limitless growth. A sceptic might think that this shows that God can’t actually do big miracles. However, it would be hard for them to argue that these accounts were merely made up because made-up miracles would be so much bigger and better.
4. God's Preferred Methods:
   • Why do biblical miracles occur in this natural, even somewhat limited, way? Perhaps God prefers to do miracles like this. He created nature, so he probably likes to use his creation, just as engineers like to use the tools they have made, programmers like to use their own algorithms, and teachers like to use their own lesson plans. God made wood that floats and iron that sinks. He made food to grow for us, so he multiplies oil and fishes, but not money or oil jars. God isn’t limited; but he does have his favourite methods for miracles.
   • God’s main method for getting his will done is to use his creation - the plants, the soil and especially his people. Usually he can rely on us to see what needs doing naturally. But when we can’t see it (or when we don’t want to see it), he prompts us. If we are listening, he could prompt us by his Spirit. But, even when prompting us, God tends to use the most ‘natural’ means by getting other people to point it out or letting us discover it for ourselves.
   • We can celebrate and give thanks for miracles, but scripture hints that they are actually God’s least favourite option; he fiddles with his creation when all else fails. God’s favourite method for carrying out his purposes, is to use people. When it comes to getting things done, we are at the top of God’s list.
5. David Instone-Brewer is senior research fellow in Rabbinics and New Testament at Tyndale House, Cambridge