Oseh Niplaowt – Miracle Maker, Job 5:9

Right, so really the name is He who works wonders, does marvelous deeds, or performs miracles. But those are all a bit long and a bit dated. I prefer Miracle Maker. The alliteration is catchy, isn’t it? I often view this title as one which is important in that it indicates that I am unable to see all the responses, exit strategies and solutions. But he not only sees all of them, he can also introduce new ones.

In Job 5:9 and again in 9:10, we have ‘He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.’ It is in Job that we find the story of a man who loses all of his children in one fatal accident. He loses his livestock. He loses his servants. Then he loses his health. His wife doesn’t understand him and isn’t supportive of him in these troubles.

Few are the men and women who garner the direct attention of Satan, but Job did. Job was unable to do anything, but God restored all that he had lost and blessed him more than in the first part of his life.

But maybe because this is the restoration of a life that we could similarly live and imagine, it is not as stunning as other stories. With enemies charging after thousands of people, how could you escape? You have children, aged, infirm all travelling with you and you expect attack at any moment. You can continue fleeing either by fording a river or climbing the mountains. Where do you go? God opens the sea and you cross on dry land. It doesn’t end there. God crushes your enemies by drowning them as the seas roar again. They will no longer pursue you. Wonders.

You reach a place of rest after your group has crossed the river on dry ground. But you find the water is not drinkable. I would gather together the chemists of the day and ask for solutions or simply round everyone, grumbling and complaining as they are, and be on our way. What other choice is there? God tells Moses to throw a tree, or stick, into the water and now you can drink. That is not an option that would ever enter my mind. Wonder.

And while we speak of water, how about the rock that issues forth water when there was none before? Wonder. How do you hang the stars in the sky? Wonder. How do you create manna from dew? Wonder. How do you find the solution for these impossible problems? You don’t. He does.

We have such a limited view of the material world and can’t see any of the spiritual world without His help. So, let him help. We need to understand that we are not capable of solving the problems, but that he is. We need to understand that investigating and figuring out all the angles of the problem will not help us get a better handle on it or on what to do. We can only surrender to his will and his vision of the worlds, material and spiritual. His solution is always beyond what we can imagine, whether in how it comes about or in how it ends. He is capable of the means and the ends.

The Hebrew words behind the phrase ‘who works wonder’ are literally translated accomplish, do, produce or make and to be surpassing or extraordinary, wonderful, wondrous, marvelous, difficult, fulfill a special, show your power. He can accomplish that which is supernatural. We see the natural, and that only limited. He sees and accomplishes the super-natural.

When Elijah visits a widow in Zarephath in 1 Kings 17, he asks for a piece of bread. The woman had been ready to make her last loaf and share it with her son and then wait for death to come. There was only one portion of oil and one portion of flour in their jars. Yet, she does, and this repeats itself all through the drought of the land. Her flour never runs out and the oil never stops. The three of them eat despite a national drought. This is truly not a natural solution to maintaining the household. None of us would get to the bottom of the barrel and expect to continue living on nothing. But God can do the supernatural and make something of nothing.

We have to stop limiting our thinking to that which we imagine and open ourselves to what God can do, what he sees. He knows what is best and works all things for our good (Romans 8:28).

He makes a way where there is no way. He loves you when you feel unlovable. He accompanies you when you are alone. He provides until payday. He shelters you in the storm. He refreshes you in the desert. He protects you from the arrows of the enemy. He can all things. He is Miracle Maker.