BIBLE RECORDS | 124 MIRACLES (59)

1. What are "Miracles"?

a) Miracles are those acts that only God can perform; usually superseding natural laws. Baker’s Dictionary of the Bible defines a miracle as “an event in the external world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition of God.” It goes on to add that a miracle occurs to show that the power behind it is not limited to the laws of matter or mind as it interrupts fixed natural laws. So the term supernatural applies quite accurately.

b) Miracles are also known as Signs and Wonders.

c) Here we have one of the 124 miracles recorded in the Bible.

2. Miracle 59: DEATH BY BEARS—2 bears miraculously destroy 42 “young men” immediately after they mocked the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2:24). 

a) 2 Bears mauled 42 of the youths.

2 Kings 2:24 New King James Version (NKJV)

²⁴ So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

b) Bear.

i) This animal is native to the mountain regions of Western Asia. Bears are frequently mentioned in Scripture.

ii) David defended his flocks against the attacks of a bear (1 Samuel 17:34-37). Bears came out of the wood and destroyed the children who mocked the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2:24).

iii) Their habits are referred to in Isaiah 59:11; Proverbs 28:15; Lamentations 3:10.

iv) The fury of the female bear when robbed of her young is spoken of (2 Samuel 17:8; Proverbs 17:12; Hosea 13:8).

v) In Daniel’s vision of the four great monarchies, the Medo-Persian empire is represented by a bear (7:5).