Miracles and Mofaith

Discover the Hebrew root of miracle—mophet—pronounced almost like "mofaith." Using the Moses and Pharaoh story where Aaron's snake swallowed the magicians' snakes, this message reveals why true miracles flow from faith in God, not human ability. The call is to put your trust in the miracle worker, not the miracle itself, and to expect great things from a faithful God. --- Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this edition of Camino Chronicles. (laughs) Uh, it's about those paths of life that we travel. Human language is a fascinating thing. A- and we certainly need it. I mean, there are thousands of languages in the world. And they all share the same purpose, right? T- to try and say something (laughs) in a way that it's understood by both the speaker and the hearer. Yeah. I learned the other day that some languages don't just have sounds like, like, th- the ways the words are pronounced, you know, with things like vowels and consonants that we have in English. No. I mean, like a long A versus a short A, as in, "Have a nice day," versus, "Have a nice day." Oh my goodness. But some languages even differentiate their words based on the tone combined with a low, medium, or high pitch. Now, I don't even know how to give an example of this 'cause I don't (laughs) speak that language. But imagine the same tonal sound spoken with low, medium, or higher volume giving three different meanings to the same word. (laughs) No wonder husbands and wives have trouble communicating. (laughs) Which brings me, of course, to Hebrew. (laughs) Okay, I don't speak Hebrew, not even a little bit. In, in order though to study the Bible sometimes, I need to, to look up a word that's printed in English, which, which I kind of speak, and try to discover the deeper meaning that word might have in Hebrew, i- if there is one. And the Old Testament can confuse us at times, right, reading it in English, so it's helpful to use a Hebrew-English dictionary sometimes to get a better grasp on the original text. Because of the translation differences, which could greatly change the meaning of the text, Bible students often take courses in Hebrew, learning the language for themselves, so they could be better scholars. I mean, this can get really fascinating (laughs) and complicated, especially if you add in the cultural differences among the many people groups that the Bible takes us to. Now, (laughs) if you're still with me, what happened the other day was I became interested in the word miracle. Miracle. What a great word miracle is. I mean, it's a wonder, i- it's a sign, a portent of some kind. I- it- it's something we can't really explain. I- miracle, I- it's something that we people of faith credit the Lord God as being the instrument or, or the worker of the miracle. We might say a miracle is a divine thing, or maybe we'd call it an act of God. A- and sometimes we credit God directly for performing the miracle, and other times we might say the miracle done by the hands of a human was no less an act of God, just that this time, He, God, (laughs) used a human to get the job done. One of the earliest uses of this word miracle comes in the Book of Exodus when Moses is sent by the Lord to go to the Egyptian Pharaoh and first request, but then demand, "Let my people go." Here it is in Exodus chapter seven. Let me just read verses eight and nine, and I quote, "Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'Pharaoh will demand, "Show me a miracle," when he does, say to Aaron, "Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh and it will become a serpent."'" End quote. So they did this, of course, and Pharaoh was not too impressed. (laughs) He just called his wise men, sometimes called sorcerers or magicians or whatever, a- and they did the same thing, turning their staffs into snakes. Now, e- you have to understand that Moses wasn't all that keen on the idea of going to Pharaoh in the first place. But his faith in God won the day, so he obeyed. And then when Aaron's rod actually became a snake, Moses was surely emboldened by the power of God and by the fact that God was up to something pretty big. Yeah. But then Pharaoh's magicians seemed to be able to do the same thing.Now, how do you think this made Moses feel? (laughs) Okay, here comes the difference, the huge difference between magic and miracle. You're not gonna read this in a, uh, Hebrew-English dictionary, (laughs) or probably in any regular commentary. I, I just stumbled across this little tidbit yesterday. Hallelujah. (clears throat) Okay. I told you I became interested in the word miracle, and the more I read about it, the more fascinated I get, a- and the more hungry I get for, for the Lord God of Heaven to work in us what only He can do. Those miracles that we encounter that leave us awestruck, wanting more of Him. Uh, not, not for the miracle, but for the very presence of the one actually working the wonder, per- performing the miracle, like the words in that old song, power, power, (laughs) wonder-working power. The more I contemplate Jesus Christ, the more I just want Him to come, not, not because my life is bad o- or hard at times, but because with Jesus Christ, it is well with my soul, right? I don't worship the miracle. I worship the miracle worker. A- and, and I realize that my entire life is in His hands to do with according to His will. (laughs) And, and as I look back over my years, I'm in awe because of so many miracles connecting so many dots to get me to the here and now. Okay. Now, here it comes. Here's the big finish for today's Camino. The English word miracle is translite- literated from the Hebrew word M-O-P-E-T, which we might pronounce Mopet. Now, since I don't speak Hebrew, like I said earlier, I looked up this word M-O-P-E-T to see both its definition and its pronunciation. It is not pronounced Mopet. Why in English we put the accent on the first syllable, I don't know. But at first look, if you write the letters M-O-P-E-T, you're gonna say Mopet. But it's actually pronounced Mofaith, as in more faith. And the emphasis, the accent is on the second syllable, (laughs) which is pronounced faith. Now, (laughs) go ahead, if you want, look it up yourself (laughs) or call a Jewish synagogue and ask for a rabbi to pronounce it for you, or you could do as I did and ask Siri to pronounce it, and you're gonna discover it sounds very much like Mofaith. Now, what a coincidence that miracle is a lot like Mofaith. You, you see, our Camino today, that, that trail we are walking together, is really all about faith. The, the big issue is, therefore, what do we really believe in? U- or hmm- I would pray today that your faith, a- as well as my own, is placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, not some human magician. In the Moses and Pharaoh story, you'll remember that Aaron threw down his staff, it turned into a snake. Pharaoh was not impressed. He called his magicians. They threw their staffs down, they turned into snakes. It's kind of like Pharaoh was saying, "Anything you can do, I can do better." Except that then Aaron's staff snake, ah, ate up all the other snakes. Mofaith. Mofaith. I close with a short verse out of the New Testament, Ephesians 3:20. And Dear One, this is for you today. And I quote, "Now, unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." End quote. God bless you today. Go live it with Mofaith (laughs) and expect a miracle. Hmm. Pastor Skip out.