Beginnings of Biblical Miracles
WHAT’S IN YOUR HAND?
Have you ever had one of those days? Just one of those days when you can (or have to) push your way through it, or crawl back?
I did.
I started catching the bus to work awhile back. I have never caught the bus before, so let me tell you about my first experience doing so. The morning ride went well. I knew what bus to catch. I was watchful and got off in the right place (I was very proud of myself).
Going home was another story all together. I forgot to check what time my bus would come so I caught the same number bus home (54). I sat on the bus only to realize that 2 seats over was an ex girlfriend that I had separated with a number of years ago on bad terms (yes, even pastors have pasts). The Lord told me to talk to her. I argued with God and tried to reason with him as to why I didn’t need to, but eventually did. Whew! That was tough.
When I got near to home, I realized that I had gotten on the wrong bus (there is an upper and lower 54)! I would be several miles away from where I was supposed to get off! I step off the bus in a grouchy mood (yes, even pastors get grouchy), and called my wife to pick me up. She says that she will be there in a few minutes (praise God). Then I hear a passerby car honking his horn at me. HONK! HONK! HONK! What is wrong with these Honolulu people? I turn and realize that it is my cousin who is driving by and offering me a ride. I graciously thanked him for the offer and tell him that my wife is coming to pick me up. “God bless you, God bless you!”
Shortly after he leaves, I see our van coming down the street and begin to wave it down to let Laura know where I am. I wave the van down like a madman to be sure that she sees me and stops, only to realize that in Honolulu, we are not the only family that owns a blue 1998 Toyota Sienna van. In trying to wave her down, I had just about car jacked a family I don’t know on the side of the street!
One of those days. On those days, you sometimes have to just push through it.
Turn to Exodus 4, put your finger in that part of the bible and then flip to Luke 13 and we will look at the beginnings of the miraculous.
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Have you ever had things not go the way you planned it? Has God ever worked in your life contrary to how you thought He should? You think things will go a certain way, but in the end, it turns out really different from what you expected. You think you know what is going on, but midway through, you realize that things are not turning out how you thought they would. You plan things out, but it doesn’t go as you thought it would.
You come to church and think God will make your problems all go away, but you find that now you have more problems than ever.
You give your heart to Jesus and think that surely He will protect you and your family, and you find out that someone in your family has a terminal illness.
You try to get involved serving in the church because surely church people are the best people to be around, but get hurt because of gossip, jealousy, and some plain mean spirited people in the church.
You’re a student trying to live a Christian life in school, but are finding it so hard because your friends around you don’t share your same values.
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I want to show you today, something the Lord has been showing me about the beginnings of biblical miracles because it does not appear to be the way most of us may think. God doesn’t necessarily work miracles in the way that Hollywood portrays it. When we think a miracle is happening, we think about winning the lottery, an instant healing, someone’s limbs growing back, our bank accounts having an all-of-a-sudden sum of money deposited.
Let’s talk first about Exodus 4.
God is about to use Moses to deliver 2 million Jewish people from slavery in Egypt and to have them journey into a land that He promised their ancestors. Where does God begin? He comes to Moses in what? God comes to Moses in a burning bush (we have all seen the Price of Egypt) and speaks to him. But Moses, unlike the confident heroes in the movies, doesn’t jump up like Superman and gets into action. He is a lot more like you and me. He hesitates. He doubts. He asks a lot of “what if” questions. Let’s take a look at Moses’ calling in Exodus 4….
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What’s in Your Hand?
“1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"
2 Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
3 The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you." …
“10 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
11 The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
14 Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.”
Exodus 4:1-5, 10-15 NIV (emphasis mine)
When God gave Moses an incredible calling to go and free His people from slavery, Moses’ reaction was not one of a courageous superhuman saint who was easily willing to leave behind his life as a shepherd and follow everything God said. Moses came up with questions.
Moses had questions about how people would respond, about his own abilities and eloquence, and finally by rejecting God’s offer and telling God to use someone else.
When we think of the beginnings of the miraculous, it is interesting that God could easily have fixed all the circumstances for Moses’ life. He could have made the people of Israel and Egypt stand at attention to Moses’ words. He could have snapped His fingers and made Moses instantly become an eloquent leader and speaker with the voice of James Earl Jones. But He didn’t.
Instead God kept pointing Moses back to what Moses already had. Verses 1 and 2 summarize it. Moses comes up with the “what if’s?” “What if they don’t listen? What if they don’t believe me?” God responds to Moses’ plea for answers by pointing Moses right back to what he already had. “What is that in your hand?”
Now I am not the greatest mathematician (I can’t even spell the word). I almost failed math in high school and in college, but there was one rule in math that I understood. ANYTHING TIMES ZERO EQUALS _______? ZERO.
10 X 0 = 0
50 X 0 = 0
1,000,000 X 0 = 0
I have heard preachers say, “God can create something from nothing.” If you read the bible, that statement is true, but He rarely does. God created everything in Genesis 1 and then everything following that, every miracle that God did, all began with a little bit of something, plus God!
When God spoke to Moses, He revealed that all Moses needed, he already had; a shepherd’s rod, a mouth to speak God’s Word, a brother to help him lead, and most importantly, God’s presence in his life.
As I thought about that, I began to realize that throughout scriptures, it is easy to see that God likes to use what His people already have in their hands.
God used what was in David’s hand (5 stones and a sling) to overcome a giant.
God used what was in the widow’s hand when she was with Elisha to multiply oil for her family.
God used what was in Samson’s hand (a donkey’s jawbone) to overcome a Philistine army.
God used a sack lunch in the hands of a young boy’s to feed 5,000 hungry people.
Jesus used mud on the ground and spit from his mouth to heal a blind man.
God answers the plea of His people the same way today. When I cry out for God to all-of-a-sudden, immediately change things, He points me back to what I already have. He points me back to my own gifting, my own resources, my own family, and my own work. He wants me to use and to be a good steward of what I already have in my hands. I have a tendency to think of the answers that God gives me as something outside of my control, but throughout the scriptures God uses His people most greatly when they allow Him to have access to what is already in their hands and act on a reckless obedience.
As I wrote this journal in my devotions, I felt like the Lord was saying to me, “Look in the mirror today. Maybe you will find the answer to your prayers looking right back at you.”
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When I am facing oppression and affliction, could it be that I am not really called to sit and wait on God until everything makes sense but to look at what God has already put in my hands? Could it be that God is really causing me to grow, multiply, and spread the faith? Could it be that He is in the process of making me greater and stronger than I am today and the miracle awaits tomorrow? Could it be that He wants us to look at what we have in order to experience the miraculous rather than waiting for something to happen?
I read recently about a wise man who said:
"There are three kinds of people in all types of organizations -- rowboat people, sailboat people, and steamboat people. Rowboat people need to be pushed or shoved along. Sailboat people move when a favorable wind is blowing their way. Steamboat people move continuously, through calm or storm. They usually are masters of themselves, their surroundings, and their fate."
When God asked Moses what is in YOUR hand, He was challenging Moses to be a STEAMBOAT for Him.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a rowboat or a sailboat for Jesus, I want to be a steamboat for Jesus. I want to press onto maturity in my faith. I don’t want to simply be exposed to the message of Jesus, I want to be transformed by it. I don’t want to be fascinated by His words, I want to be made more into His image by obeying His words.
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The other week Laura and I were watching the Animal Planet. On the show we were watching was a dog that was rescued from a neglectful family. The poor animal had a big chain collar embedded into its neck. It had been a long time since the large animal had outgrown that chain collar, but its owner never bothered to change that collar. It resulted in the dog’s skin growing around the collar and the metal of the collar sinking deep into the dog’s skin.
The kind and hard working people from the Humane Society took the dog in, gave it some pain killers to put it down while they carefully removed the metal chain. They washed the poor animal, cut his hair, groomed him, and restored him to health. After they had done all they could to restore its physical health, the dog had to undergo a test to determine if it could be adoptable. A bowl of food was placed in front of the dog, and while it was chomping down on the food, the worker used a plastic hand connected to a long stick to reach down and pet the dog. Quickly and viciously, the dog jumped and attacked the hand that it thought was reaching to take away its food. The test was re-done a few times in order to determine if the dog would consistently attack or if there was something that could be done. Every time, the dog would pounce at the hand and tear it to shreds. Unfortunately, because of his ferocity, the dog could not be adopted, and would have to be put to sleep.
As I watched that show, I wondered if God is like that trainer and I am like that dog. Maybe that dog bound with a collar that held it captive is like me, bound and held captive by my own sin. The kindly Master takes me in. He shows me compassion and mercy. By His grace, He cleans me, heals me, and restores me.
Then came the test. The dog looks and sees what it values, “food.” I look in front of myself and see what I value. I call it, “blessings.” Put an income in front of me, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a position of authority, or a chance to be popular.
What happens next? When He brings His hand near to my “blessings”, and I am not sure if my Master may remove it or not, the question arises. Am I quick and vicious in attacking the hand that has provided for me, or do I submit to it? Am I quick to attack the hand that cared for and nurtured me, or do I still submit to and receive its tender care? If He allows an illness to come, an accident to occur, or a recession to rise; am I so quick to turn away from Him or do I realize that I may be at the beginning of an amazing miracle?
In all honesty, from the outside looking in, I see the dog as quite silly to think that he needed to defend himself against those who so carefully nursed him back to health. I wonder if the angels around look at me and think about how silly I am during those times when I question the same One who cares for me in my time of need, the One who gave His life to die in my place.
Here is the thing. If I don’t let God come near my “blessings”, what happened to the dog? He was put to sleep. Am I saying that God will put you to sleep? No. But He may put you on the shelf. God uses those who allow Him, like Moses did, to have access to what is in their hands.
Can you imagine how different we would be as believers if rather than waiting for God to give and do good things for us, we actually recklessly stepped out in faith to try new things for God? How differently would the church look if we as Christ followers put less of our energy into success and more into faithfulness? What if we took Jesus at His word rather than trying to rationalize things according to what we know and understand?
I like what Pastor Rick Warren says about how God wants to use our experiences in life:
“I like chocolate chip cookies. I like them so much I know how to make them. I don’t even need a recipe. But if I eat the individual ingredients, they taste like turtle spit! Ever eat a little shortening? Don’t try it. Raw egg? Bad. Salt and sugar by itself? Yuck. Baking soda? Not good. Chocolate chips? Now that’s good. One out of six isn’t bad. Somehow when you mix five bad things with one good thing and stir them up together, it tastes so good that you eat half the dough before you make the cookies.
Pastor, that’s what God wants to do with your experiences. He wants to take bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, good and turn you into Mrs. Fields! He’s a pro at it. God does not want you to waste your experiences. He wants to use them to make you a more effective minister.”
I’d like to share this with you in closing. This is something the Lord spoke to me about not long ago and I think it’s very important to understand. Let me read you this short parable of Jesus and explain it to you.
God Uses Poop to Bring out the Fruit
“6 Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. 7 Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’
8 “The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. 9 If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’” Luke 13:6-9 NLT
Jesus tells a parable of the fig tree and its inability to produce fruit. Apparently, the gardener came back again and again to see if fruit was growing on the tree. Unfortunately, there was none. Obviously, this story is symbolic of God coming to look for fruit to receive from His people. Jesus probably says this story in reference to God’s own people Israel whom He had given special attention to, but was not producing the fruit that He sought.
What kind of fruit does God look for from me? I assume He looks for the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). It is both encouraging and troublesome to note that although the gardener in the story sought fruit from the tree, he did also give it, “special attention and plenty of fertilizer.” I like receiving special attention from God. That sounds, well, special. To hear that the master Himself will give me special attention in helping me produce the fruit of the Spirit that He wants from me is very comforting and encouraging.
The troublesome part is what else He gives the tree in order to produce fruit. He gave it, “plenty of fertilizer.” I often feel that I have plenty of fertilizer in my life, and I don’t find that all too encouraging. After all, what did they use as fertilizer in Jesus’ day? The same thing they use today. Manure. Poop.
I guess it just goes to show that God literally uses poop to bring out the fruit. Maybe I need to redefine those times when I feel like I am surrounded by poop. Perhaps I need to recognize that it is specifically in those times that I am actually receiving special attention from God Himself. Could it be that God is actually using that poop to refine me and draw out fruit from my life? I have a tendency to reject the poop in my life. I don’t like the smell of it. I don’t like the situation. I don’t like being surrounded by poop! It doesn’t matter if it is yours, mine, or anyone else’s! But what if the poop around me is actually God’s means of giving me special attention and producing lasting fruit from me? Maybe God recognizes that in order to develop lasting fruit, one needs to be exposed to plenty of fertilizer.
Verse 9 gives a sobering warning. “If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.” That is downright scary. Yes, God does give special attention. Yes, He does seek my growth and the fruit that I am to bear. Yes, He is merciful. He does offer grace. Still, there will come a time, when the talking ceases and the judgment comes. Have I experienced lots of poop in my life? Then I ought to be producing great fruit. Too many times I have heard God’s grace emphasized without placing an emphasis on His coming judgment. While it is by Jesus’ grace alone that I am saved, God does not expect that saving faith to come alone.
I never thought I’d say a prayer thanking You Jesus for the poop in my life, but thank You. Thank You for the special attention You give me to grow me into all that I can be and for encouraging me into becoming more like You. Forgive me of the times I have fallen short and of the times that I am resistant to the circumstances You allow to come my way. I trust You Jesus. Amen.
