Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 147 - The First Miracle! Received this from a friend? Why not join Eternity Daily Bible Study? Go to https://www.aibi.ph/articles/eternity.htm to subscribe. (Genesis 1:1-5 NKJV) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. {2} The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. {3} Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. {4} And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. {5} God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Sometimes people define "miracles" as God's intervention altering the "laws of nature". But Genesis tells us that the Universe itself is the first miracle. The Universe did not come into being by the operation of natural law. Normally speaking matter cannot be created or destroyed the sole exception being nuclear reactions in which matter is transmuted into energy. Similar laws govern the conservation of energy and the conservation of momentum. So the combined total mass, energy and momentum of the Universe has been constant since time immemorial. Some matter may have become energy and vice versa but the combined total would be the same. Recent observations about "dark matter" and "dark energy" making up 97% of the mass of the Universe only adds to the mystery of it all. (see newscientist.com). Even the Big bang Theory has "something" that goes bang. The universe emerging out of chaos and nothing is a miracle - and a very great and inexplicable one. Now dodging around questions of cosmology for a minute the whole point of all this is that miracles are the basis on which nature is built - not vice-versa. God is not an absentee landlord of a clockwork world. He is the very foundation of reason and order and matter and energy and the laws that govern all things. By contrast the Greek Zeus would sit on top of Mt. Olympus and now and then, at unpredictable intervals, interfere in the affairs of men. The Creation ran perfectly well without Zeus. However God is not some ancient and distant bearded idol. God is the one "in whom we live and move and have our Being". The Creation only exists because God wills it to exist. Creation cannot function apart from God. God is not a small spirit that inhabits creation and wanders around within it.. God is vaster than creation. In a sense rather than God dwelling within creation on a mountain top, creation, and all the mountains, "inhabit God" and have their being in Him and because of Him. This is also true of Christ. We must not think of Jesus Christ as merely "within creation" as a finite being with beard and sandals who lived for 33 years. That is one aspect of the Son of God and a very revealing and precious one. But the beard and sandals are long gone. Christ has ascended and been enthroned at the right hand of Majesty and is the mighty Lamb of God with eyes of blazing fire whose Word holds the Universe together (Hebrews 1:1-3, John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-20). Thus miracles are not just aberrations within nature. Rather the Universe is a construction by God, for Christ, and religious and spiritual in every atom and molecule. This is not to say that God and the Universe are identical or that matter is God or that God is matter. But with Scripture we can say: (Colossians 1:16-17 NKJV) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. {17} And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. What is extraordinary is the power of authoritative prayer to make a difference in the created order and to bring about healing, calm storms, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and make the blind to see. What is extraordinary is that you and I are given a certain measure of authority, within creation, to rearrange the furniture. God raising the dead is not a big deal - after all He made the entire Universe. But Peter healing the lame man is. The power over the Universe has shifted and some of it has been delegated to men and women who have faith in Jesus Christ. Believing in miracles is one thing, but believing that you can do them is quite another. But what else did Jesus mean when He said to the seventy-two: (Luke 10:9 NKJV) "And heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' and (Luke 10:19-20 NKJV) "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. {20} "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." Miracles were such a part of NT life that Paul could use them to back up his argument in Galatians: (Galatians 3:5 NKJV) Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Something has happened here. God has got out of the big gold box called the Ark of the Covenant and out of the big building called the Temple and the power of the Spirit is being handled by ordinary believers in back-woods Galatia - and Gentiles at that! Over the next week or so I will look at miracles. But the whole discussion has to start with the right foundation - that Creation is the first miracle and has its existence in God and for Christ. Only on that foundation will the rest make any sense at all. Blessings in Him, John Edmiston Asian Internet Bible Institute http://www.aibi.ph/ Free Online Bible And Ministry Training Try our free ebooks on prayer: http://www.aibi.ph/ebooks/ This devotional may be freely forwarded to others and used for non-profit ministry purposes as long as the following copyright notice is included. © Copyright John Edmiston 2003