Miracle Patterns

 As you read through the Old and New Testament, you frequently find stories and references to miracles.  There are many ways to interpret these miracles, both literally and symbolically. But for now we are looking for common elements.

First, when you are following a story of a series of miraculous events, they very often follow a pattern.

There are two common miracles that involve water.  One involves purification  or transformation of drinking water, or even the procuring of water in a dry area.  For example, In Exodus 15, Moses purified the bitter water of Marah by throwing a log into the spring.

In Exodus 17 and again in Numbers 20, Moses struck a rock in the desert and the rock produced water that flowed so abundantly that all the Israelites were able to drink from it and water their flocks. 

In the plagues of Egypt, God completes the opposite transformation and turns the Nile river to blood, rendering it undrinkable. 

The Old Covenant Miracles

In 2 Kings 2, Elisha and Elijah cross the Jordan River, where Elijah is taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire.  Afterwards, Elisha is alone and must take up the mantle of Elijah, literally and figuratively as the pre-eminent prophet of the nation of Israel.  This journey of Elisha, following the path of Joshua in the original entrance into the promised land, is highly symbolic. The events form the outline of the Old Covenant miracles, or symbols, of Gods presence.  Elisha starts with a transformation scene, where he sees Elijah taken bodily up into heaven, carried by a heavenly chariot and horses.  

He then crosses the Jordan River with a miracle that parts the waters and allows him to cross on dry land.

After the onlookers persist in looking for Elijah for three days, Elisha travels to the city of Jericho where the leaders complain of bad water that leads to infertility, "the land is bereaved."  In this third miraculous event, Elisha purifies the water which allows the city and its inhabitants to prosper.

Continuing on to Bethel, Elisha is met by a rabble of young men, most likely the students of the temple school at Bethel.  These young men taunt Elisha, ("Go up, baldy!") indicating that the respect that they held for Elijah would not be extended to his pupil Elisha.  So he passes by Bethel, turning only to pronounce a curse upon them.  As he leaves, two bears emerge from the wilderness and tear into the boys, injuring a large number of them.  The symbolic implication here is that these boys represent the offspring and descendants of Bethel, and of the temple there.  While Jericho welcomed Elisha and prospered, Bethel rejected Elisha and their children were cut down.

In this condensed form, we find examples of miracles reported throughout the Bible: 

• Transformation
• Crossing Water
  
• Drinking water purification
  
• Children saved
• Wilderness
  

In particular, we find the same experience in the early ministry of Jesus.  His early ministry starts with John the Baptist, when Jesus was Baptized in the Jordan River.  This baptismal scene represents his crossing of water.  At that time, the earthly Jesus experiences a Transformation scene, with the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove.  Next, Jesus performs one of his first miracles in the wedding at Cana, taking ordinary water and turned it into wine.  This was an manifestation of the drinking water transformation.

After the wedding at Cana, a nobleman appeals to Jesus, who heals his son.  In these early actions of Jesus, we see the fulfillment of the miracles of Elisha.  In this way, he is fulfilling the Old Covenant and declaring himself a prophet of the old tradition.

But these same

A second water miracle involves a person or group of people passing through the water.  In this instance, there are many occasions when God's people pass through the water, often with it  pushed up like walls on either side. The most famous of these is when the Hebrews are fleeing from captivity in Egypt, and God causes the sea to be pushed up on either side of the fleeing Hebrews.  But early forms of this  symbol go back to Noah and the flood, where he was preserved through a monstrous flood within his ark.  Elisha caused the river Jordan to part for him.  When Jesus walks on water, he is demonstrating the same control over water.  In the New Testament, the passing through the water is symbolized through baptism, first in Jesus example from John the Baptist but also in Paul's letters discussing how baptism has become a premier sacrament of the early Church.

After the water miracles, one of the common themes is that of the offspring, the descendants, the children of the chosen.  In Genesis, Abraham's story revolves around God's promise to his descendants, starting with making the aging Abraham and Sarah fertile and giving them a child, followed closely by God asking Abraham to sacrifice his new child Isaac and later releasing Abraham from that request and saving Isaac by providing a sacrifice of a ram.

In Elisha's story, God punishes the children of the spiritual leaders in Bethel by causing them to be mauled by lions.  In the great counter-example of the Egyptian plagues, the angel of God passes through Egypt and kills the firstborn of every non-Jewish household.  

In Jesus second miracle, he saves the life of the son of a noblemen at Cana.

In the Hebrew tradition, then, these four miracles, particularly in combination, hold a specific Biblical and cultural significance.   Passing through water, finding or purifying water to make it safe to drink, saving or strengthening children and offspring, dealing with wild beasts.  These four themes have connotations for the establishment of a spiritual leader's authenticity, they denote when a people are dealing directly with God.  As such, they have an epic quality to them, dealing with the story of a people, the founding of a nation, the establishment of a ministry.