Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
God's Divine Intervention
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Genesis 31:8-13
Jacob is speaking to his wives, Leah and Rachel, reminding them of how their father, Laban, had deceived him and changed his wages ten times. Yet, God had been with him, and whenever Laban had changed his wages, God had ensured that Jacob had been blessed in spite of his father-in-law's underhanded schemes. So when Laban had tried to undercut Jacob's wealth by assigning to him the sheep or goats with recessive coat patterns—speckled or streaked rather than the dominant solid colors—God blessed the production of the sheep that Jacob needed to prosper. What is clear is that Genesis 30-31 are describing divine intervention, a miracle, an event that would not occur naturally apart from God's involvement. Many commentators have tried to explain how Jacob used "rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods" (Genesis 30:37) to entice the flocks to conceive and produce "streaked, speckled, and spotted" offspring (Genesis 30:39). But when all the evidence is presented, every theory of how this could be possible fails the test of known science. External objects like branches of trees with white strips in them cannot influence the markings of the next generation of sheep and goats. Even if Jacob was trying only to entice his flocks to mate, the use of these rods makes no scientific sense. So what was the purpose of the rods? No one really knows. Some have suggested that Jacob's use of the rods was a superstitious practice he learned from other shepherds, something akin to Leah and Rachel's beliefs about the use of mandrakes. Certainly, there is no biblical evidence that God instructed Jacob to do this. Maybe the best supposition on the matter is that Jacob used this method to "help" God bring His promise to pass. What is clear from Genesis 30:41-42 is that Jacob was controlling the breeding of the flocks, at least in terms of breeding the strong for himself and the more feeble for Laban. It would not take long for the two flocks to be significantly different in terms of both numbers and quality, as the stronger would produce more and healthier offspring, while the weaker animals' offspring would be fewer and inclined to frailty. Even without God's intervention, Jacob was using selective breeding to improve his livestock. There is no doubt, however, that the credit for Jacob's breeding success story belongs to God. Jacob says this himself in Genesis 31:9: "So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me" (emphasis mine). He goes on to relate a dream he had had in which God had assured him that the rams that impregnated his ewes "are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me" (Genesis 31:12-13). This is the Bible's second-millennium BC way of saying that God Himself was manipulating the gene-pool of Jacob's flocks, causing the recessive coloring genes to dominate for Jacob's sake. God's mention to Jacob of his vow at Bethel (Genesis 28:10-22)—and of the fact that He is the God with whom he made that promise—is a reminder that God was still with him and continuing to uphold His side of the agreement. In fact, He is essentially saying that He was willing to bend the laws of nature to ensure that Jacob prospered. God was building the man's faith toward his real conversion moment, wrestling with the Man at Peniel (Genesis 32:22-30).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
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Amos 4:6-13
In the book of Amos, God shows that He uses "natural" disasters to teach people lessons, to bring them to repentance, to correct their ways. In this passage, He also admits that most people fail to make the connection between the disaster and their sins. Secular Americans snicker at insurance policies that refer to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters as "acts of God," when they, in their scientific arrogance, prefer to call them "acts of nature" or "weather events." Even those who are moderately religious, like the Deists of the Enlightenment, do not believe that God is active in earth's events, whether natural or human. To them, He may be watching, but He certainly is not involved in human affairs. This points out how utterly blind to God most people are, even Christians. For starters, because they are not looking for God's hand of intervention in their lives, they are certainly not going to see it. Having become so secular and scientific in their outlook, the miraculous is totally off their radar. They consider those who report of miracles to be medieval in their thinking and the miracles themselves to be mere coincidences of natural phenomena or overstatements of what actually occurred. To them, miracles are impossible because, by definition, they are unverifiable by scientific methods and therefore do not and never have happened. Today's thoroughly modern Christian does not derive this negative view of God's intervention from His Book. In the Bible, divine involvement in human affairs occurs from cover to cover—in fact, it is the central fact of human existence, which the Bible takes great pains to reveal. At every critical point in man's history, God has been involved. At Creation, before and after the Flood, at the dispersal of the nations from Babel, in the history of Israel, among the great empires of ancient history from Egypt to Rome—God was instrumental. God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, came to this earth and lived among us, bringing us the good news of His Kingdom and dying for our salvation. Then He sent His apostles to the four corners of the globe to spread the word among those He would call. That sounds as if God is active and involved in human affairs. As Creator, He certainly has power over the various elements of His creation. Manipulating the weather is like child's play to Him. He can send rain or drought anywhere, anytime. He flooded the entire earth to a depth greater than the height of the tallest mountain of the time, so flashfloods, coastal floods, and river floods are easy. Spinning tornadoes is like breathing to Him, and earthquakes rumble and tumble at His command. The Bible makes many claims about His power over the elements (Job 26:7-12; Psalm 147:15-18; Nahum 1:3-6; etc.). Jesus Himself calmed the storm with a word (Matthew 8:24-26). He also says that in His Millennial Kingdom, He will send drought on areas that refuse to keep His feasts (Zechariah 14:16-19). Are we to assume that, for some reason, He does not punish for sin now?
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Divine Intervention
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