Conclusion

When we look at the panorama of Bible history, both past and future, we find that miracles happen in clusters—and they’re not arbitrary. They have a purpose.

For instance, one cluster of miracles took place during Moses' ministry, another during the overlapping ministries of Elijah and Elisha, a third cluster accompanied the ministry of Yeshua and the Apostles, and (as I said earlier) a fourth one will occur during the coming Tribulation. Miracles at other times have been very few and far-between.

Note that the biblical miracles were always real and verifiable. It wasn’t Grandpa tossing aside his cane and dancing around on a stage, or Aunt Bessie being healed of that annoying bursitis in her elbow.

Instead of someone being "healed" of blurry vision in one eye (the sort of imprecise ailment we tend to see in modern healing meetings), the Lord healed actual blindness (Matt. 9:27-31); and instead of lengthening one leg that was shorter than the other, He repaired birth defects so that crippled people could walk (e.g., Acts 3:2-9).

Furthermore, the messianic and apostolic miracles had staying power. You could go back the next day and verify that a true miracle had occurred (4:14).

There were no bright lights, no mass hypnosis, no swooning crowds, and no Elmer Gantry-style hucksterism. Yeshua and His Apostles healed people who suffered from some of the most tragic diseases of their day—like leprosy, for example (Mark 1:40-45). Leprosy is a chronic condition that was incurable in those days and caused irreversible damage to the skin, nerves, extremities, and eyes.

In looking at the first three clusters, we see that the miracles called attention to something God was doing during each of those three periods. Once the miracles accomplished their purpose, they tapered off and things returned to normalcy.

After all, if miracles were an everyday occurrence, that would defeat their purpose, wouldn’t it? People would just yawn and say, “Look, it’s another miracle. Ho-hum.”

The rarity of miracles is precisely the reason they’re useful. A miracle gets everyone’s attention—and a cluster of miracles, even more so. That’s why magicians like David Copperfield are so popular; they give the illusion of being miracle-workers.

In the first century, God wanted everyone to know that the Messiah had come—and that they could be saved by believing in Him. Hence, the messianic and apostolic miracles. The miracles Yeshua and the Apostles performed weren’t illusions. They were the real thing. They were a code, of sorts, to signal that Yeshua was the One for whom they had been waiting.

Yeshua himself gave this message to the disciples of John the Baptist:

"Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Luke 7:22).

He knew that John would be able to read the code. He would know that it meant the Messiah, at long last, had come.

Bottom line: we need to keep our eye on the ball. We are too easily distracted by carnal sensationalism and religious "dog and pony" shows. Love trumps all of the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 13:1-3, 13), even the sensational, miraculous ones. That means our focus needs to be on love—that is, loving God, loving the Family of God, and loving people all around us who need the Lord.