Read Romans 11:33-36 …
The way that language is used is typically governed by those that use it. Seems straightforward, doesn’t it? Two examples are seen between the major English-speaking societies on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. One society orders fries while the other orders chips; one eats a cookie while the other eats a biscuit; the people in one look for an apartment for rent while the other looks for a flat to let … and that’s just scratching the surface of a small fraction of people in the entire world. Recently, a young man was heard discussing a class he needed to have before graduation. He said, “It was lucky that I got into the class at this time, or I would have had to put off my graduation date.” Then, in conjunction with the same story said that the class had been postponed and now he and his wife were going to be able to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Holy Lands.
Then this bright young man, with a large smile, said, “It was a lucky miracle that everything worked out for us.”
For the Romans, the idea of luck was governed by the goddess Fortuna, who was invoked “whenever chance or luck might play a role in their lives. She was seen as a general goddess of fate who could influence events on both a large and small scale.”[i] So, for the hopeful businessman seeking the upper-hand in a deal, or the gambler asking for at least one winning roll of the dice, or even an entire area asking for a bountiful harvest, any of these and more might make an offering to Fortuna. But not only by offerings, but Fortuna could also be influenced by the virtuousness of a person – so the better a person was, the more likely Fortuna would smile upon them.
Of course, in modern society the idea of appealing to a god or goddess by offering a sacrifice or being virtuous so one might have more luck seems ludicrous, but how often do we hear the phrase, “good luck”? That simple phrase seems to have taken up a permanent residence in our daily conversation, so much so that we wish “good luck” upon each other for the most mundane of activities. From finding the best parking space to avoiding the promised thunderstorms during a picnic, people will offhandedly invoke a better-than-average chance of a particular outcome. Maybe an outcome that, for some reason, would make life better for me but at the unrealized expense of someone else.
Then there’s the miracle! How often do we hear the phrase, or something close to it, “That was a miracle!” The idea of the miracle seems to have become a synonym for any event that might be unlikely or that brings great joy. From finding the closest parking space to the door at Wal-Mart to the birth of a child; from (for some people) getting to work on time or avoiding an accident on the interstate, the words “It was a miracle that I …” come all too easy. The use of the word miracle has become a byword that we too often use in our daily conversation with little thought as to its real use, its biblical sense.
Vine’s Concise Bible Dictionary has two entries under the word “MIRACLE.”[ii] One Greek word describes an event of supernatural origin and as such “could not be produced by natural agents and means.” The other Greek word “is used of ‘miracles and wonders as signs of divine authority.” This is important because we do recognize that God is able to work in our own space time continuum, that has never been a question (at least for most), but miracles in the 1st century were performed for a specific purpose – to confirm the person and the message given. As noted by Cottrell when discussing the purpose of miracles as either explaining revelation or confirming messenger and message, “… then we should expect miracles today only if God is working new redemptive events and giving new revelation to explain them.”[iii] This is not to say that events occur that seem to be outside of normal and natural means, but calling that event a miracle simply because it appears improbable or even impossible is assigning a cause that may not be Scriptural.
What does this mean for us? When one uses language that either appeals to the idea of having an extra “edge” on events that happen by chance, or language that assigns a supernatural means to events that are serendipitous or highly unlikely, the role of God’s providence is placed in jeopardy. The likelihood of the words lucky or miracle falling out of our common language is slim to be sure, even for the Christian, but surely a better course of action would be to give God the glory. Rather than referring to events as either lucky or miraculous, perhaps the better course is to say, “Surely our God moves in a mysterious way” and leave it at that.
[i] Mike Greenberg, “Fortuna: Goddess of Luck in Rome,” Mythology Source (February 2021), under “Roman,” https://mythologysource.com/fortuna-goddess-of-luck/ (accessed 07/06/23).
[ii] W. E. Vine, Vine’s Concise Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005), 243.
[iii] Jack Cottrell, The Faith Once for All: Bible Doctrine for Today (United States of America: College Press Publishing Company, 2002), 298.
the odd weekend preacher 