An assassin’s bullet pierced the ear of President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Penn., on July 13, 2024. It should have killed him, were it not for a perfectly timed head tilt, and many were calling the event a “miracle.”

Others explained the dramatic occurrence away: suggesting he may have not even been struck by a bullet (but some other projectile) or that the whole incident was staged. (They reasoned no one having had that brush with death would get up and rally the crowd the way he did.) They also took exception to how his wounded ear looked when the bandage came off. It healed too quickly to have really been clipped by a bullet, they insisted.

The Bible records similar reactions to miracles. These are quite typical of human reasoning. There are multiple ways we can reason around obvious miracles. We should consider these as we reflect on how we respond to miracles.

Not long after being freed from Egyptian slavery, Israelites did just that. They had made it to the base of Mount Sinai after a series of astounding miracles: God had leveled a world-ruling empire with devastating plagues, parted the Red Sea so Israel could escape, and then closed the same sea to erase the pursuing army.

Yet, when they began to worship a golden calf, they declared: “These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:8).

Humanly, it is so easy to take something God did for us and ascribe those miracles to other “gods.” In modern terms, we attribute them to physical circumstances that make more sense to us. Or, as with the first assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, do we explain them away? Do we reason around them?

Forgetful

Even if we do acknowledge miracles as such, the Bible also describes our tendency to forget them not long afterward. (Much of Psalm 78, for example, is about how Israel did just that and then turned away from God.)

Notice how Psalm 106 records this history, and our tendency either to explain away miracles, or eventually to forget them.

Verse 7 describes the Israelites’ inability to understand God’s “wonders in Egypt,” to the point that they provoked God at the Red Sea. Then came the Red Sea miracle. “Then believed they his words; they sang his praise” (verse 12).

They weren’t naysayers of the miracle, but notice what very next verse records: “They soon forgat his works …” (verse 13). Verse 21: “They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt.”

Even so-called Bible scholars who write commentaries about God’s Word deny His miracles by calling them “tales.” In The Former Prophets, author Gerald Flurry writes: “That is the downfall of a lot of Bible scholars: They can’t believe there is a God who performs miracles for man. They have no faith, and they attribute these miracles to exaggeration. In God’s Church, however, we routinely depend on His miracles as a way of life!”

God wants us to depend on Him and His miraculous power routinely as a way of life. So how do you respond to them? As we will explore in Scripture, our human reasoning is so easily prone to explaining away miracles, attributing them to other circumstances, taking exception with how they are performed, denying them altogether. Or, if we do acknowledge them, to soon move on as if it never happened. How should we respond?

A Miracle Ministry

This reasoning-around-of miracles is especially evident in the ministry of Jesus, who performed many amazing, public miracles.

John 12:37-38 read: “But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

God’s true Church understands that God is keeping the world at large from understanding His truth until the proper time—part of His methodical and merciful plan of salvation. But it is interesting to see how people cut off from God react when faced with His wonders. As hard as they were to reason away, people still tried.

In some places, Christ didn’t perform miracles—for example, in the area where he grew up (Matthew 13:57). Verse 58 reads: “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

Miracles are wasted on the faithless—especially, in this case, in an area where there was already a bias against Him.

In the parallel account in Luke 4:25-27, Christ adds that Elijah and Elisha performed their more well-known miracles outside of Israel, because of the nation’s faithlessness.

The modern descendants of Israel are not much different. “The American and British peoples are greatly cursed today because they fail to teach their children about God’s many miracles,” Mr. Flurry writes in The Former Prophets. “Our educational system and most religions today usually teach the opposite. Our children are taught to look upon these examples as Old Testament fantasy. That is why we don’t experience such miracles today!”

John’s Gospel emphasizes a few of Christ’s miracles (some not recorded anywhere else), and particularly the reaction of human reasoning to them. “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man” (verses 23-25).

Though believed and became committed disciples after certain miracles (verse 11), it was more common for people to believe Jesus was someone special but not to go any further than that. Christ knew His Father was not working with them, and, as the end of verse 25 indicates, He knew their belief was shallow and opted not to work further with them because He knew human nature.

This is evident through John’s Gospel. Some followed Him after a great miracle that fed the masses, but Christ knew their interest was not for the miracle but for the meal (John 6:2, 14, 26). Once He started talking about spiritual bread, most got offended and left.

In one instance, a man named Nicodemus admitted that his fellow Pharisees knew He was a man sent from God “… for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him” (John 3:2).

While visiting Jerusalem during His last Feast of Tabernacles in the flesh, there was some debate about who Jesus was. “And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?” (John 7:31).

Many were still questioning after His famous oration on the Last Great Day (found in verses 37-39). “Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him.”

Some were confused that the Prophet could come from Galilee, when Scripture said He was supposed to come from Bethlehem. Well, 33 years prior, miraculous circumstances had sent His Galilean parents to Bethlehem where He had to be born. So people didn’t look too deeply into it, but they were happy to argue about it.

Born Blind

Not long after this, we see a classic case of a grand miracle and skeptical humans trying to reason around it. This is found in John 9, and you can read the inspiring account yourself.

It revolves around a man who was born blind, through whom Christ told His disciples “the works of God should be made manifest” (verse 3). This is exactly what happened. The man was healed. First, try to conceive what a miracle this is. Someone born blind has not had their brain neurologically wired for sight at all. They would have concept of light, dark, even color—things most of us take for granted.

It’s almost unbelievable. And notice the reaction of some: “The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he” (verses 8-9).

He told them how it happened (verses 10-11), and later recounted it to the Pharisees (verse 15). This religious sect took exception with how Jesus performed the miracle, since it was the Sabbath day (verse 14). So they doubted if a miracle could happen if Jesus (as they viewed it) sinned.

The Jews then ask the parents if the son was even born blind in the first place (verses 18-21). Here is human reasoning again trying to explain that something wasn’t a miracle.

Next naysayers tell the man to admit Jesus was a sinner. His response is simple and profound: “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (verse 25). I don’t know if he’s a sinner. Here’s what I know: I used to be blind, and now I see!

So they question him again as to how Jesus gave him sight, and he replied that they didn’t listen to him the first time, so he wasn’t going to waste his time telling them again (verses 26-27). They had more choice words for him (verses 28-29), to which he gave another incisive reply: “Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes” (verse 30).

Here’s the real marvel: Someone healed a man blind from birth, and you can’t figure out where someone like this is from!

This particular kind of healing had never before been recorded in history (verse 32). Blindness had been healed, but not being born blind.

This miracle continued to be discussed throughout the coming months.

John 10 describes another “division … among the Jews” concerning Jesus (verses 19-20). To defend him, some said: “Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” (verses 21). Verse 22 tells us this was the “feast of the dedication, and it was winter.” This is about two months later.

Unhappy With How

Then, a few months later—less than a week before His last Passover—a man named Lazarus dies. Questioning why Jesus didn’t get there earlier to heal him, some asked: “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” (John 11:37).

Here’s another way we carnally reason around miracles: We question why miracles aren’t performed exactly how we think they should be.

Perhaps we know of a case where someone was clearly and miraculous saved from a fatal accident, but because they were still injured, our human nature asks: If that was a miracle, why didn’t God completely protect from injury?

We can so easily put our parameters on what constitutes a miracle. If Jesus could heal the blind, then why didn’t He prevent Lazarus from dying? Well, the fact that Jesus did not prevent Lazarus’s death set up arguably the greatest miracle anyone had seen from Jesus Christ to this point!

Lazarus had been dead for four days, and would have started decomposing (verse 39). “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me” (verses 41-42).

Did you catch that? Christ told His Father He didn’t need the miracle. He knew who the Father was. He prayed for the miracle so those around Him would believe. We might be selfishly motivated when praying for a miracle. But what faith and selflessness to pray, I don’t need this miracle, but they do.

John’s account aptly gives the drama of this miracle: “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles” (verses 43-47).

Christ’s enemies felt the miracles were too sensational for Him not to gain believers. So they devise a plot to kill Him (verse 53).

John 12:17-18 show there were too many witnesses and documented records to deny the miracle. The Pharisees said: After a miracle like this, how can we keep the entire world from following Him? (verse 19).

A few verses later, Jesus is speaking to a couple of His disciples, after which there “came a voice from heaven” (verse 28). It was audible: “The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him” (verse 29).

People heard a voice from heaven, and some reasoned it away as thunder. Though couldn’t believe it was actually a voice!

“Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes” (verse 30). Here again Jesus confirmed He didn’t need that kind of miracle to know God was with Him. He knew it was for those around Him.

Miracles continue to be a major feature in the Church Jesus founded. They were for the first-century Church (see Acts 6:8; 8:6; Romans 15:18-19; 1 Corinthians 12:10, 29; 2 Corinthians 12:12), and they still are today. There are plenty of examples on a collective scale, but also in each of our own lives.

Mr. Flurry wrote: “Anyplace where you find God’s family government, you will find many inspiring miracles!” (The Former Prophets). He also stresses there that miracles, of themselves, aren’t necessarily an indicator of righteousness. That is important too, because there are prophecies about miracles in the end-time that are deceptive (2 Thessalonians 2:9) — Prophecy about the Church in the end time (when falling away). In Matthew 24:24, Christ names a group in the end time, the “very elect,” who are not deceived by “false Christ, and false prophets” performing “great signs and wonders.”

If the miracles elicit any kind of reaction that is contrary to God’s law, such as worshiping anyone other than God (e.g., Revelation 13:13-14), these are not wonders from God.

But there are many other miracles we will see too that are of His Holy Spirit. God performs miracles especially in the lives of His young people, to forge a relationship with them. And the question is, how will you respond?

Will you reason them away? Will you take exception with how they were performed? Will you quickly forget them?

The Right Response

How should we respond to miracles?

Matthew 11 records an instance where Christ tells us the response that godly miracles should produce. “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works [referring to miracles] were done, because they repented not” (verse 20).

He said Himself that if some evil ancient cities had seen the same miracles He was performing then, they would have repented! Ancient Tyre and Sidon “would have repented” (verse 21), and—even more astounding—Sodom “would have remained until this day” (verse 23). History would read differently!

God’s miracles are meant to enact obedience. He wants them to change us.

1 Kings 13 recounts an instance where the evil king of Israel tried to have a prophet of God arrested, the king’s hand dried up and froze immediately. Verse 6 states: “And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.”

This caused the king to recognize the legitimacy of God’s prophet.

“What an amazing event!” Mr. Flurry writes in The Former Prophets. “You would think that this would have been a life-altering experience for Jeroboam. But as with so many people, it didn’t change anything—he still refused to obey. Miracles from God just don’t have much effect on most people. They happen all the time, and yet people remain adamant in their rebellion.”

God wants us to be different than this, and different than ancient Israel—which so quickly forgot all those supernatural things they saw, or dismissed them as being the result of something they could see with their eyes. God is trying to forge a relationship with us.

Psalm 78 commands the older generation to make God’s miracles known to the young generation: “That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (verse 7). Here again is the response God wants: obedience to His commandments. The rest of the Psalm connects Israel’s inability to remember God’s miracles to their turning away from Him!

Do the many miracles you’ve experienced turn you to God?

David wrote: “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (Psalm 40:5).

God wants a relationship with us. His miracles here are connected to His thoughts being about us. God wants to perform the greatest miracle there is: converting us from human beings to spirit members of His very Family!

So He performs miracles to get our attention. We must never forget them. We should constantly praise God for them. Even though we couldn’t even number them, David said, we should declare them (see also Psalm 96:3). They are a cause for new songs (Psalm 98:1). These “wondrous works” should also generate a spirit of gratitude in us (Psalm 75:1).

“O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth” (Psalm 105:1-5).

God’s miracles should cause us to seek Him.

This theme appears in the longest psalm—which is an epic tribute to God’s loving, marvelous law. “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (verse 18). The phrase “wondrous things” is from the Hebrew word that describes what we would call “miracles.”

Verse 27 shows a response: “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.” (See sidebar for the power of relating these kinds of stories.)

Verse 129 calls God’s testimonies “wonderful”—using the same expression for miracles.

This Psalm tells us to open our eyes to see the miracles in God’s law. As the Psalmist does, we can ask God for understanding of the law, so we can talk more about His miracles.

God’s law is, of itself, “wonderful.” It is a miracle that should motivate us to obey.

That is how God wants us to respond to His mighty miracles!

Sidebar: Tell Miracle Stories

Psalm 107 outlines many miracles of God and says this five times: “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men” (verses 8, 15, 21, 24, 31).

After the fifth refrain it reads: “Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.” Practically for us, it is saying, when you come to Church services, talk about these kinds of things!

Sharing stories might seem unimportant, but there is some astounding research into how our brain responds, and how enormously beneficial they are to our lives.

Chip and Dan Heath wrote about this (the power of stories, not miracles) in their book Made to Stick. It is a book about what makes some ideas more memorable than others.

In their chapter about stories, they relate a story told by a Xerox repairman to his buddies at lunch. If you’ve ever used a copier, you know they are notorious for having a lot of problems. After all, it’s an everyday machine that “combines optical, mechanical, chemical and electrical technologies,” they write.

They quote the story which has a lot of technical details in it. In short, there was an update to the copier that was causing a certain error code (E053). But this code makes you think the problem is in another area. The repairman told his buddies about the 4 hours he spent trying to sort it out—when the solution was something far simpler, and much different. It was just a burnt out “dicorotron”!

Yeah, I don’t know what that is either, but here is the point the authors make. The repairman could have told his buddies: “I had a real bear of a problem today—it took me four hours to get to the bottom of it.” Or he could have leapt straight to the punch line. “After hours of hassle, I traced the problem back to a measly burned-out dicorotron. How was your morning?”

But instead he tells a story.

And the format “allows his lunch partners to play along. He’s giving them enough information so that they can mentally test out how they would have handled the situation. … Before there was only one way to respond to an E053 code. Now, repairmen know to be aware of the ‘misleading E053’ scenario.”

Made to Stick authors add: “The Xerox story is not functionally equivalent to an email sent around the company that contains the line ‘Watch out for false E053 codes related to burned-out dicorotrons.’ Something more profound is happening here.”

And this is the power of stories— and here I mean passing on real-life events.

Here is something astounding from the book: “Being the ‘audience’ for a story seems like a passive role—audiences who get their stories from television are called ‘couch potatoes,’ after all. But ‘passive’ may be overstating the case. … One team of researchers has produced some exciting evidence suggesting that the line between a story’s ‘audience’ and a story’s ‘protagonist’ may be a bit blurry.”

The authors go through some experiments done to show how active our brains are in all this.

“Brain scans show that when people imagine a flashing light, they activate the visual area of the brain; when they imagine someone tapping on their skin, they activate tactile areas of the brain. … People who imagine words that start with a B or P can’t resist subtle lip movements, and people who imagine looking at the Eiffel Tower can’t resist moving their eyes upward. … When people drink water but imagine that it’s lemon juice, they salivate more. Ever more surprisingly, when people drink lemon juice but imagine that it’s water, they salivate less.”

They mention this because stories are like a mental “flight simulator.” It causes you to think: How would I have acted in this situation? It ignites our brains to engage in problem-solving. It teaches us: This is the outcome for these series of choices.

“Mental simulation is not as good as actually doing something,” they write, “but it’s the next best thing. And, to circle back to the world of sticky ideas, what we’re suggesting is that the right kind of story is, effectively, a simulation. Stories are like flight simulators for the brain.”

The Heath brothers ask the reader why hearing the Xerox story is better than a warning in a training manual. “It’s better for precisely the reason that flight simulators are better for pilots than stacks of instructional flash cards. The more that training simulates the actions we must take in the world, the more effective it will be. … The E053 story builds in emotions—the frustration of failing to find the problem and being misled by the machine’s code.” It teaches a “code skepticism”—which “is something the repairman can apply to every future job they undertake.”

Section concludes: “Being the audience for a story isn’t so passive, after all. Inside, we’re getting ready to act.”

My point is, we should be sharing our miracle stories. Put the listener in the same sequence of choices and outcomes you went through. Get them emotionally invested. Then they will learn so much more from it. They can apply it similar circumstances. And, ideally (in the case of sharing miracles) we all can become more reliant on God’s miracles!

Psalm 107 tells us to share miracles in the “congregation.” Or we could say, let others go through a simulation of what really happened to you!