North. His son had taken the daugh ter of Ahab and Jezebel in marriage, probably to seal the military alli ance. God miraculously intervened at Mt. Carmel. In I Kings 18 Elijah is arrayed against the prophets of Baal. He reminds his people once again that there is only one true living God of Israel. He exposed the futile frenzies of 850 false prophets of Baal. This story never loses its thrill even with numerous retellings. Baal worship was effectively broken by Elijah’s controntation with the false prophets in Israel. Such sinful prac tice never again approached the status of an official religion. To com plete his purposes, the world must know that the God of history spoke through the nation of Israel. When you come to the New Testa ment Church we again see a miracle of God’s wonderful power and grace. After Elijah and Elisha, miracles be came rare in Israel until the coming of Jesus Christ. God’s method is never to multiply wonders for the mere entertainment, gratification, or astonishment of makind. The minis try of Christ was accompanied by miraculous display of omnipotence. He was conceived and born of a vir gin. His identity was established by miracles. The credentials of His apostles were established by the miracle of Pentecost. Miracles are God's “attention-getters.” They cer tify and gain a hearing for His own spokesman. God has preserved the messages of His spokesmen, authen ticating them by His miracles. We can trust the Bible to be inspired be cause of its supernatural character. It is truly the Word of God! P art F ifteen I t is wonderful to see that we have a demonstration of the inspiration of God’s own precious Word in so many areas of validation. One of these is the subject of prophecy. Ful filled Biblical truth testifies to the 29
raculous hand of the Lord. Out of the study of miracles we have the fact that this Bible proves itself to be the inspired Word of God. Not a Scripture can be broken. P art F ourteen H ow w o n d e r f u l it is to know that we have a Book upon which we can depend. The Bible is not mytho logical but rather it contains the im prints of God, the Holy Sp irit, upon it. We can trust it from cover to cover; from Genesis to Revelation. The God of the Old Testament is the God of history. The Lord is inter ested in man. He has a plan for us which He is working out in spite of rebellion and opposition. He sought first to work through Israel, preserv ing His message and bringing forth His Redeemer. Then He worked through the Church designed to spread His truth to a lost world. At every crisis in the destiny of these two institutions, Israel and the New Testament Church, miracles were clustered to prove God’s power and wonderful interest. In I Kings 18:33- 45 we see how God raised up a mira cle nation. Elijah moves in against the prophets of Baal with the Lord’s fire consuming the offerings even though water had covered the altar Elijah used. Israel was born of a miracle, re deemed by means of miracles, and gained its homeland by miracles. Eli jah and Elisha, whose utterances were miraculously attested to, lived in a period of great crises for the chosen nation. The Northern King dom had gone far into apostasy. Be cause of Ahab’s strong-willed wife, Jezebel, a heathen religion was be coming predominant. The true God, Jehovah, was pushed far under ground. At one time Elijah thought he alone was faithful to God. Al though the Southern Kingdom had the godly king, Jehosaphat, he had made the mistake of forming an alli ance with ungodly Ahab in the
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