In the Old Testament there is such a level of faith in the promises of God – strongly revealed right through every part of the Scripture! Read the famous chapter on faith, Hebrews 11, it is referring to the Old Testament, the stories and miracles of the prophets! Look how powerful the miracles in the Old Testament were for those who believed!
Paul says, 'It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death... All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.' (Hebrews 11.32-40, NLT)
THROUGH FAITH the elders ‘subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions…’ Daniel in the lions’ den! ‘Quenched the violence of fire…’ The three Hebrew children! ‘Escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens…’ All these were phenomenal miracles, and the more you read the Old Testament, the more you are impressed by the extent, the number and the character of all the miracles that occurred!
But these were BEFORE Christ came! BEFORE the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Yes, the Davids and the Elijahs in the Old Testament were remarkable, unusual, and saw powerful miracles. But look what happened after Jesus comes and anoints the disciples, and tells them to wait – 120 of them were in that Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came – there was an EXPLOSION of miracles! I love the Acts of the Apostles because it is the story of the miracles worked, not by the Davids, not by the Samsons, but ordinary men and women were given the Power to do what only the kings, only the prophets, only unusual people could do in the Old Testament. Suddenly that Power which we have seen all through the Old Testament is now available to all who will believe – through the Holy Spirit!
Surely the writer of Hebrews is showing that what happened in the Old Testament should not just be repeated in our lives, but, because of our personal relationship with God through Jesus and the fact that He sent us that same Holy Spirit who empowered Him on earth, our experience should be greater! In fact, to those who either say that we cannot do the same miracles as Jesus, (but He said that we would do greater than He did), or that miracles ended with the New Testament era and are not for today, what about the 4,000 years of miracles demonstrated in the Old Testament?! If you don’t want to live as a ‘New Testament Church’, then do what they did in the Old Testament! So where are the Abrahams, Moses, Davids and Elijahs? Surely this is the whole point that the writer of Hebrews is making!!!