Quite possibly the most striking moments in Scripture are when the Lord directly interacts with nature. Of course the actions of Yahweh in the Old Testament are well known. Every child who attended Sunday school knows all about the flood, the ten plagues over Egypt, and of course all the events surrounding the time of the prophets and the judges. Including the time Elisha ordered a bear to attack a group of mocking children. (II Kings 2: 23-25) I’ve never fully understood why the bears were totally necessary. I suppose Elisha just could have done something to their voice boxes.
The natural miracles of the New Testament are considerably more palatable to the modern audience. They are primarily composed of Christ healing the sick, raising the dead, commanding nature, and casting out demons. But perhaps the more spectacular and intriguing are the moments where God himself, the eternal, omnipotent Yahweh, enters our human existence. First of all, the notion of the only morally perfect human to ever live being born of a virgin is fairly amazing. It becomes even more incredible when you put yourself in Joseph’s shoes in that situation. But you’ve heard all those jokes before.
Angels sing in fields, and a constant star guides the wise men to the infant Christ. Another example can be found in the Gospel of Luke, when the pregnant Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. (Luke 1:39-45) When Mary arrives, the unborn John the Baptist leaps in his mothers whom for being in the presence of Christ (Even though it’s incredibly irreverent and borderline blasphemous, I can’t help but imagine a Muppet Babies/Rugrats type situation with the infant Jesus and his friends).
Even more striking was the event of Christ’s death. Our God suffers on the cross and dies, paying the price for our sin and imperfection. At that moment there was a terrible earthquake, and the sky went dark in the middle of the day. I, for one, would freak out. Though I suppose living in Michigan has forced me to go weeks at a time without seeing the sun, let alone a few hours. Also, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, it is reported that the dead rose on the day Christ dies. But it says they didn’t emerge until Christ’s resurrection, three days later. So my question is this: If the dead were raised, what were they doing in their tombs for two days? Was there some kind of Ancient Hebrew solitaire around back then? I encourage you all to do some research on this.
And another thing, after they all came out of their graves on resurrection day and walked chatting with friends and family, who told them when it was time to go back to their tombs? Or was it like a Stephen King The Stand situation where they all just kind of fell where they were once their time was up? I guess we’ll never know. I also wonder if there was any confusion regarding whose tomb belonged to who1. I envision a situation where two men reach to roll the same burial stone. “Hey, I’m Obadiah, son of Ezra!” “Obadiah son of Ezra from Tishrei three years ago?” “Oh, my bad2.”
Anyways, I think I was talking about God intervening in nature or something.
1or whom?
2In Hebrew
