Are you someone who doesn’t believe in God, but swears you would if you saw a bona fide miracle happen in front of you? If so, how about we play let’s pretend?
Pretend that you saw the wildest supernatural plagues explode on the land and people of Egypt, including the death of every Egyptian’s firstborn son. You walked on dry ground as walls of the Red Sea’s waters stood on either side of you. You watched the Egyptian army drown as those same walls of water came crashing down on them.
You were led by a pillar of cloud by day and another unearthly pillar of fire by night. Food called manna came to you preternaturally every single day. You drank water that came unexplainably out of a rock multiple times. Your clothing and shoes never wore out over the many years you traveled to a land you were promised.
And yet, after seeing and experiencing each of those things and more, you turned your back on the God who was responsible for all of it. Think that wouldn’t be possible?
Listen to what God’s man back then, Moses, said to the people who witnessed those things: “And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, ‘You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear’”(Deut. 29:2–4).
The bottom line with miracles is, unless your heart is right, they’ll have zero impact and leave you no more enlightened than you were before.
Need more proof? How about we play let’s pretend again, but this time with Jesus and some of His miracles? But before we do, remember that, although Christ’s biographies sometimes make you feel like healings, exorcisms, and other such miracles were a common thing back in His day, nothing could be further from the truth. They were every bit as extraordinary as if they happened today.
Our first stop is a guy with a shriveled and mutilated hand (Mark 3:1–6). Jesus tells the man to stretch it out and it’s miraculously restored. And what’s the effect on the religious leaders who were supposed to know God better than anyone? “The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.”
