{"id":63551,"date":"2019-09-25T23:25:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T20:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63551"},"modified":"2023-04-23T13:47:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T10:47:58","slug":"an-especially-miraculous-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-especially-miraculous-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"An Especially Miraculous Miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[384,471],"acf":{"old_id":"63551","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"316","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Perhaps because it happened through the desperation and luck of a few lepers...","content":"

Can God make a rock He can\u2019t lift? A round square?<\/span><\/p>\n

My philosopher father raised me on paradoxes like this one, and we enjoyed discussing them without (on my part, at least) caring much about the answers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, though, questions of potential limitations on God\u2019s abilities can be more serious \u2013 as when a servant of the king of Israel is punished for expressing doubt about a bold prophecy:<\/span><\/p>\n

And Elisha replied, \u201cHear the word of the LORD. Thus said the LORD: This time tomorrow, a seah of choice flour shall sell for a shekel at the gate of Samaria, and two seahs of barley for a shekel.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>The aide on whose arm the king was leaning spoke up and said to the man of God, \u201cEven if the LORD were to make windows in the sky, could this come to pass?\u201d And he retorted, \u201cYou shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it\u201d (7:1-2).<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the servant saw the prophecy fulfilled \u2013 not as a result of any opening of the heavens, but through a[n apparently] lucky find of four individuals, whose conscience moved them to share the wealth they\u2019d discovered just in time for Elisha\u2019s stated deadline. And indeed, the servant did not partake of the discovery himself, as he was trampled by the hordes of people on their way there (v. 17).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lord does work in mysterious, and sometimes ironic, ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

One might wonder what was so awful about the servant\u2019s skepticism. After all, he didn\u2019t express any doubt in God\u2019s existence or in His power to provide rain. According to Radak\u2019s reading, he was even open to the possibility that God might rain down actual food, as He did with the <\/span>manna<\/span><\/i> in the desert. He was fully accepting of God\u2019s miraculous capabilities; his only objection was that even with a miracle, it would be simply impossible for the market to be affected as extremely and swiftly as the prophet had predicted.<\/span><\/p>\n

What he failed to realize was that the Creator of all might have more creative ways to achieve His goals than any one human could necessarily think up. Within his own conceptual box of \u201cfamine-ending-miracles,\u201d it would perhaps have been impossible to achieve the result Elisha predicted. But God is not just omnipotent, but omniscient; even within the realm of logic, He can conceive of scenarios and ways to impact that world that we might never imagine. The royal servant\u2019s mistake was in projecting the limits of his own imagination onto God.<\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s box of possibilities, unlike ours, is infinite. For all we know, it can also be round.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Four lepers bring the news to the guards at the gate of Samaria; by the illustrator of Petrus Comestor\u2019s \u2018Bible Historiale\u2019, France, 1372; Miniature; at the Museum Meermanno Westreenianum, The Hague \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63552,"id":63552,"title":"2kings7-four-lepers-bring-the-news-to-the-guards-at-the-gate-of-samaria","filename":"2kings7-four-lepers-bring-the-news-to-the-guards-at-the-gate-of-samaria.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings7-four-lepers-bring-the-news-to-the-guards-at-the-gate-of-samaria.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-especially-miraculous-miracle\/2kings7-four-lepers-bring-the-news-to-the-guards-at-the-gate-of-samaria\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings7-four-lepers-bring-the-news-to-the-guards-at-the-gate-of-samaria","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63551,"date":"2019-09-25 20:25:44","modified":"2019-09-25 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