Special interventions by God on behalf of humankind. Miracles are closely associated with the creative and salvific deeds of God throughout OT tradition. The mighty power of God, manifested throughout the history of Israel, is understood to be unique (Josh 4:23-24; Ps 77:14-15; Ps 145:10-12; Jer 16:21). “Miracle workers” of the OT, such as Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, were empowered with God’s Spirit to act as agents of God on behalf of God’s people. In the NT, the miracles of Jesus are understood to be one of the ways in which the final, decisive reign of God has come into history. Jesus’s miraculous healing and exorcistic activity freed broken human lives from the bonds of demonic possession and restored diseased and corrupted human bodies to their intended state. Jesus’s miracles demonstrated that the end-time kingdom of God, in which God would overthrow the power of Satan, had now arrived in the person of Jesus (Matt 12:28; Luke 11:20). Likewise, the miracles performed by the disciples of Jesus served as signs of God’s overthrow of Satan (Luke 10:17-18).
