Tag Archives: Signs and Wonders

Day 124: God Eliminates a Couple of Options

Jeremiah 29:15-23

Because you have said, “Yahweh has raised us up prophets in Babylon;” Yahweh says concerning the king who sits on David’s throne, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who haven’t gone with you into captivity; Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that can’t be eaten, they are so bad. I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not listened to my words,” says Yahweh, “with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear,” says Yahweh.

Hear therefore Yahweh’s word, all you captives, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name: “Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he will kill them before your eyes. A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;’ because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says Yahweh.

After considering the ministry of various prophets in the Bible, I started to notice that they appear to have a set of signs that they do repeatedly. Jeremiah has a sign that could very well be the most serious of all. When a false prophet opposed him, that prophet ended up dead. He wasn’t the first to have this sign. God did the same thing through Moses in the wilderness when He was opposed. This sign didn’t stop with Jeremiah, either. It continued into the New Testament in an even more immediate way when Peter spoke to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. There are certain, critical times in which God chooses to remove false prophets in a public way like this. God intends to make His message clear and when a false prophet muddies the waters, it puts large groups of people at risk of not hearing the truth and being saved.

This should also be a warning to those who want to be “neutral.” God won’t allow it. Notice that the people were saying: “Yahweh has raised us up prophets in Babylon.” We read here that these prophets were speaking lies to the people at this critical time and for a while they thought it was a good thing. I believe that God destroyed the neutral approach by removing one of the options from the realm of possibility. Jeremiah predicted that after God destroyed the false prophets, the people would change and it would be evident in their curses when they say: “Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire.” That’s quite a swing in public opinion don’t you think? When it comes to God’s word, there is no neutral approach. There’s no way to avoid trouble by acting neutral either. Eventually, trouble will come and force us to stop pretending.

Day 37: Remote Healing

John 4:43-54 : After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast. Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.” The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

After spending time with the Samaritans, they continued their journey back to Galilee. John mentions that Jesus said that a prophet has no honor in his own town. I am assuming that John is saying this because Jesus didn’t return to Nazareth but ended up in Cana. After looking at the map, I see that they weren’t very far apart. That would explain why John might have a desire to explain why Jesus didn’t stop at home. It mentions here that people did recognize him as the one they saw in Jerusalem at Passover. Perhaps it was the scene in the temple where He drove out the animals and marketers that was still fresh in their memories.

Now Cana was the place where Jesus made wine out of water and it would seem that news got out. If I were a servant, I wouldn’t have kept that miracle to myself either. That might explain why the nobleman from Capernaum looked-up Jesus when his son was sick.

John records Jesus as saying: “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.” This almost strikes me as harsh at first. As I think about it, I realize that the reason it would strike me that way, is because I often don’t look at things in this world as I should. The more critical thing than life is that we believe. If we die in our unbelief we will go to Hell, so believing is more critical than staying alive. Jesus realized that healing this man’s son could help him and others to take the bigger step of believing. Signs and wonders are really not necessary in order to believe, but Jesus realized that these people wouldn’t believe without them. This might have been a let-down having come from the Samaritan city.

Now, Capernaum was quite a distance from Cana according to my map. This man was asking for Jesus to pick-up and go over to heal his son. This is one of the many instances where Jesus said “No” and “Yes.” By His actions, He said, “No, I won’t come to Capernaum.” By his power He said, “Yes, I will heal your son.”

I can really relate to this. Many times in my life, I have been asked to join ministries and do good works in very specific ways. I have said “No” to many of these specific things, but “Yes” to the work but in a different more specific way to what God had put into my heart. God calls us each individually to do the work He has planned out for us specifically. We need to do what God calls us to do, not what others think is right.

This man took Jesus at his word and his actions proved it. He turned and went home. If He didn’t believe, He would have tried harder to get Jesus to come, but he believed and left. At that moment, his son was healed. When we believe in Jesus, we are healed instantly inside too. We may have a journey to take before we realize the extent of what has happened, but sooner or later it is revealed.

Day 36
Day 38