miracle

Good as new

To be healed means that you are restored to normal. The normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees and normally a hand has five fingers, but for some things, normal is not so obvious. For instance, what does it mean to be restored to normal if you have been raped?

David said, “O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed” (Psalm 6:2). The word translated vexed, bâhal (baw – hal´) means “to tremble inwardly (or palpitate)” or figuratively to become suddenly alarmed or frightened (926). To be healed of such a condition could mean that confidence is restored or that David would become calm and peaceful within himself.

After God established his covenant with Abraham, normal for the Israelites was living in the Promised Land in peace and prosperity. Throughout Israel’s history, there were occasions when God remembered his people and would take action to fulfill his covenant with Abraham. David said, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

The word translated mindful, yâkar (yaw – kar´) means to remember (2142). David was pondering God’s covenant with Abraham compared with the vast expanse of the universe. God created millions of stars and planets and yet he focuses his attention on one of them and can focus his attention on one man, one promise, and even one act, to restore David to normal when his bones were vexed and about to become king of Israel.

One of the reasons and maybe the primary reason that God heals people is so that they will praise him. David said, “I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart: I will shew forth all thy marvelous works” (Psalm 9:1). Marvelous works can only be done by God. Pâlâ’ (paw – law´) means to be beyond one’s power to do (6381). When I am extremely sad, I cannot make myself stop crying or if I am terrified, I cannot make myself stop trembling, but God can. It says of the word pala’, “God does not require anything of his people that is too hard for them (Deut 30:11). Although something may appear impossible to man, it still is within God’s power” (6381).

God’s goal for his people is to deliver them from oppression. David said, “LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress” (Psalm 10:18). The word translated oppress, ‘ârats (aw – rats´) means to dread. When I was married, I used to dread having sex because of the fear and anxiety associated with being raped. In one sense, God healed me when I was divorced from my husband because I was no longer sexually active and did not have to dread having sex anymore; but, I believe God wants to do a marvelous work in my life. I believe someday I will have normal sex, when I am married to a man that loves me.

No other name

What does it take to be a savior? David said, “Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength” (Psalm 54:1). The first thing a savior has to do is determine if something or someone is savable. For example, when a doctor discovers that a person has cancer, he has to determine what stage the cancer is in to know if there is anything he can do to treat it and save the person’s life.

When David said judge me by thy strength, he was acknowledging that God’s strength is what determined his ability to save David. Just as a doctor has certain medicines and treatments at his disposal to save his patient, God has certain things that he can do to save a person’s life.

God’s strength or power is limitless. He can literally do anything he wants to, but God does not do just anything, he uses his wisdom to determine the best course of action and does what will bring the best possible outcome. When God determines if someone can be saved, he looks at their sin record to see what stage of destruction the person has reached. Although it is true that no one is beyond redemption, a person’s heart can become so hardened that nothing can be done to penetrate the barrier he has put up between him and God.

The word translated judge, dîyn (deen) “implies a settlement of what is right where there is a charge upon a person. Diym is a judicial word marking the act whereby men’s position and destiny are decided” (1777). David asked that God judge him by his strength because he knew that one day God was going to provide a Messiah that could erase every sin on David’s record and make it possible for him to have eternal life.

When David said, “Save me, O God, by thy name” (Psalm 54:1), he was talking about God’s reputation. The second thing a savior has to do is establish a track record of saving people. It wouldn’t make sense to go to a doctor that has no experience saving lives. If you know your chances of survival are slim to none, when your life is on the line, you are going to look for a doctor with the most experience, the one that has already saved people in similar situations.

God’s reputation for saving the Israelites began when he delivered them from bondage in Egypt. The ten plagues that he brought on Pharaoh, the parting of the Red Sea, and the manna that came from heaven for 40 years in the desert were all miraculous demonstrations of God’s power or capability to save lives. When Moses asked God why he was using miraculous signs to deliver the Israelites, he basically told him it was so that his name would become famous throughout the whole world.

God has revealed himself to us using many names that reflect something of his person and work. David understood that his Messiah would have a name and it would be the greatest name of all because it would reflect God’s work of salvation. Soon after Jesus ascended into heaven, his disciples discovered the power inherent in his name.

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Another man

King Saul is the only person in the Old Testament of the Bible that was “turned into another man” (1 Samuel 10:6). The word translated turned, hâphak (haw – fak´) means to change, transform. Prior to Jesus’ death, people were not able to change. Whatever kind of person you were when you were born was the kind of person you would be until you died.

Saul was a Benjamite. He came from the tribe that was wiped out because of their immorality. The six hundred men that hid in the mountains were the only ones that survived. Saul’s father Anhiah is described as “a mighty man of power,” (1 Samuel 9:1) he was very violent and known for his oppression of others. Today we would say that Saul came from an abusive home and his father would likely have been described as an alcoholic. The Benjamites were probably bitter and resentful about what happened to their tribe and became rebels using extreme violence in order to survive.

It did not make sense to Saul when Samuel said “And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s house?” (1 Samuel 9:20). Saul’s reputation did not match up with what Samuel was saying about him and he was most likely thinking Samuel was talking to the wrong man.

In order to convince Saul to go into a city that had been taken over by the Philistines, Samuel said “And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee” (1 Samuel 10:7). The primary name of Christ, the Messiah, is Emmanuel which means “God with us” (1694). One of the meanings of the word haphak is converted. It appears that Saul had a conversion experience and was transformed as Christians are today. This would have been a miraculous event prior to the death of Jesus, which probably explains why it only happened one time.

It’s a secret

A characteristic of God that differentiates him from man is that he is eternal, there is no beginning or end to his existence. Because Jesus was born as a man, it is natural to assume that he did not exist before he was born in Bethlehem. Perhaps that is why he made several visits to Earth before then to establish he existence beforehand.

“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art baren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son” (Judges 13:3). The woman’s name is not mentioned even though she is clearly a significant person to have had the privilege of a personal visit from God.

The woman describes her visitor as a man of God whose “countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible” (Judges 13:6). The word translated terrible, yârê’ (yaw – ray´) means stand in awe. Today we might say that the angel looked very awesome, but there is an element of holiness that would have been lost in the translation.

After the woman tells her husband, he prays that the man of God will visit him also. “And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her” (Judges 13:9). Eventually, Manoah joins his wife and has a conversation with the angel of the LORD and determines that he and his wife have seen God.

At one point, Manoah asks the angel of the LORD, “what is your name?…And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name. seeing that it is secret?” (Judges 13:17, 18). The word translated secret, pâlîy’ (paw – lee´) means wonderful. So in a sense, the angel was revealing his identity without actually telling Manoah his name. Isaiah wrote of the Messiah that “his name shall be called Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6).

When the angel told Manoah that his name was secret, he may have been intentionally revealing his identity without giving his name away. If the angel had said his name was Jesus, it would not have made sense to Manoah that he was speaking to the pre-incarnate Christ because God was known to the Israelites as Jehovah. Rather than using his name the Israelites often referred to God by the characteristics that distinguished him from man.

The word paliy’ is derived from the word pâlâ’ (paw – law´) which means “to be marvelous, be extraordinary, be beyond one’s power to do, do wonderful acts” (6381). Another word that is derived from pala’ is pele’ (peh – leh´) which means “a miracle” (6382). Only God can do the miraculous and being able to appear on Earth before you have been born is definitely a miracle.