Advent Midweek Series on Miracles Part 1 December 6, 2017

Advent Midweek
Numbers 22:21-35
December 6, 2017

“Miracles: What They Are & Why to Believe in Them”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Balaam’s donkey talks to him. God was thousands of years ahead of Disney on this one. Do you know how many books, TV shows, and movies we have now seen with talking animals? There’s been a few times with my kids that I’ve wondered if we have any books where the animals don’t talk. What’s your favorite talking animal? For a while my brother-in-law had us watching the talking horse, Mr. Ed. You’ve got Bambi, Mickey Mouse, Babe. Then the books. Aesop’s Fables, Winnie the Pooh. Now it’s Piggie and Elephant.

But what about talking donkeys? There’s an Aesop Fable where the donkey dresses up in a Lion’s skin going around frightening everybody. Until he’s asked to roar and he gives himself away. There’s Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. The talking donkey Benjamin in the book Animal Farm. But my all-time favorite talking donkey is Donkey from the Shrek movies. Eddie Murphy does the voice. Hilarious.

Now here’s the thing. Those are all made up. Made up. Pure fiction. But there’s one donkey in the history of the world that has actually talked—in human language, that is. And it’s Balaam’s donkey. What do you think about that? Can you believe it? Can you believe that this donkey actually said, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” Of course he didn’t say those words. He didn’t speak English. But he said those words in another language. Why should you believe that?

Well, you should. And we’ll get to why. But first let’s define our terms. What is a miracle? Many definitions have been given but they all have a common theme. A miracle is something outside the normal laws of nature. It’s super-natural. That is above-nature. Like super-man. Above-man. Miracles are unique events with cosmic significance. That’s how John Warwick Montgomery defines them. Or another Christian apologist calls them, “naturally impossible events”. Normally people just say they “break the laws of nature”. But some don’t like the term “break” there. If God made the laws of nature, He doesn’t break them. He simply does something that’s different from His normal laws.

So God did not make donkeys to talk in human language. That’s the normal law of nature which we know by observation. However, this one time God did something different—He made Balaam’s donkey talk. It was super-natural. Above-nature. A unique event of cosmic significance.

Now miracles must be rare. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be miracles, you see. Tonight we’re not talking about everyday kinds of things that people call miracles. That would be a different definition. We’re certainly not denying or dismissing every day miracles. But that’s not the focus here. We’re talking about rare, supernatural, naturally impossible events of cosmic significance.  And we’re especially talking about the Biblical miracles.

Now here’s a big point we all need to understand about miracles. You will never be able to absolutely prove them, or disprove them, by experience. It’s simply impossible. Because you can always doubt your five senses. You could say, “Well, my eyes deceived me.” Or “I was dreaming.” So to believe in miracles at all, you must first be able to say, “There is something, or some One of course, that is above nature. If someone refuses to believe there is something or someone above nature, then miracles will be out of the question.

Now if we say there’s a God, then the question is, “Do you believe this God does miracles?” Here’s where most Christians struggle with a bit of doubt. We believe in God, yet wonder, “Did God really do these miracles?” Alright, now we can cover some ground. We believe in God, but did God really talk through a donkey?

Many Christians doubt the miracles. It’s not at all uncommon to hear people explaining miracles away in the Bible. One of the most common miracles to be explained away is the feeding of the 5,000. They say, “Well, what happened was that when the boy shared his five loaves and two fish then everybody else decided they could share also and so it was like a big potluck.” So it goes for many Christians. The urge is felt to explain them away.

Well, let me ask you something, “What if there were no miracles?” What if God didn’t do them? What if there wasn’t really a Red Sea crossing, wasn’t a talking donkey, wasn’t any dead raised, wasn’t any fire from heaven? What if God never did those things?

What would be part of the problem there? The problem would be, “How would you know there is a God?” Wouldn’t it be a bit odd to believe in a god that never does anything that only God can do? How would we ever know of Him to believe in Him?

This is kinda what makes God—God. He put the laws there. He created all the laws of nature. And He alone can suspend them when He deems it necessary. He does it rarely, of course. But when He does, it’s important.

And why does God do these miracles? C. S. Lewis tells us that He does the “little” miracles here on earth to direct our minds and hearts to the “big” miracles that we don’t always notice. For instance, the big miracle of the Old Testament—the Exodus. He parts the waters of the Red Sea to show them that He is the God who controls the wind and waves in the first place. Obviously He does much bigger miracles with water and wind then just a “little” Red Sea parting. But we just ascribe those to “nature”. And we don’t notice. But God is God of wind and wave. He directs them all the time. When you heard the wind blowing on Monday, you probably didn’t say, “Oh, that’s God.” But it is, of course.

Or another one. Water into wine. Jesus did a quick “little” miracle at the wedding and turned many gallons of water into wine. But God, of course, does that all the time. He sends down water which is absorbed by plants, turned into a fruit like grapes, and then ferments over time into wine. But you don’t drink a glass of wine and say, “Oh, that’s God.” But Jesus did it instantly to make us say, “Oh, that’s God.”

Why make a donkey talk? It happens to remind us that all the miracles of animals are God’s doing in the first place. For instance, the miracle that a caterpillar turns into a butterfly—God did that. But we don’t always see a butterfly or a rat or a mosquito and say, “Wow, that’s God.” But when a donkey talks, we say, “Oh, that’s God.”

Now to give you a little more background of the talking donkey, why did God do it in the first place? It was a unique event of “cosmic” significance. God was blessing His nation, Israel, who carried the promise of the Messiah. Balak, the king of Moab, wanted to curse Israel. So he hired the local soothsayer, Balaam. Balaam kept saying, “I can only say what God says. I can only do what God tells me to do.” But Balak wouldn’t listen. Three times he asked to curse Israel and it didn’t happen. In the same way, three times Balaam struck his donkey telling it what to do but God was directing the donkey otherwise. Finally, God puts words into the donkey’s mouth so that we’ll get it. God will do and say what God will do and say. And we’re not going to change it. And praise God—what He wanted to say and do was protect and bless His people Israel so that through them He would bless the world with the Messiah, His Son, Jesus Christ.

Miracles direct us to God. Now if we deny miracles, let’s make sure we understand what’s really at the heart of that. The real issue there is that we want to deny God. We don’t like God as He says He is and as He shows Himself in His holy Word—so we deny His miracles.

Friends, if we don’t like what God says, if we don’t like the demands He makes on us, isn’t it quite easy and convenient to dismiss His miracles so that we can dismiss Him? If God is who He says He is in the Holy Scripture, the miracles aren’t the problem at all. It’s our sin that’s the problem.

And that’s truly the best miracle. We’ll talk about those miracles the next two Wednesdays—the miracles of sight, resurrection, and the Virgin birth of Jesus. The miracle is that the God of miracles did all of His miracles to redeem you.  You and I are at the heart of every one of His miracles. You are, of course, His miracle from the very moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb. But even more than that, despite the fact that you are a broken sinner, He worked all His miracles of salvation to save you. And to bring you to His heavenly kingdom. Only a God who works miracles and wonders can work the miracle of your salvation. And He does.

So if there is a God—which there is—then He must do miracles. He does them to direct us to His greatest miracles of love, forgiveness, and salvation.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.