Articles
"Low Level" Miracles
Jeff Smith recently used this phrase and it caught my attention. He was referring to the sandals of the Israelites not wearing out during their forty years of wilderness wandering (Dt 29:5). Another example was the inexhaustible food supply of the widow of Zarephath. Every morning when she went to the cupboard there was flour in the bin and oil in the jar (1 Kgs 17:14-16). Through these “low level” miracles God was showing His ability to care for His people without fanfare.
We should not expect such miraculous displays today, not because God is incapable of doing them, but because He has already established what He intended through them. The wilderness wandering was a cursed era caused by the faithlessness of the Israelites. God uniquely sustained them so that a new generation could supplant the rebels who didn’t appreciate Him.
In Elijah’s time Israel was wholly corrupt due to the influence of the idolatrous Jezebel and spineless Ahab. Faithful Israelites were scarce, so God miraculously supplied Elijah through special delivery (ravens – 1 Kgs 17:6) and a Canaanite woman.
Through such displays God has proven Himself to be faithful to His word and the master architect of His redemptive scheme. Miracles verify that the story of Scripture is true, that God is real, that salvation is attainable. Sufficient foundation has been laid to trust in the gospel of Christ. God can and will supply all our needs through non-miraculous means. That belief rests on inspired, ancient accounts of a God who provides.
