The destruction of Korah, Num. 16.
The passage of the Jordan, Josh. 3. 14-17.
The capture of Jericho, Josh. 6. 6-20.
Elijah's sacrifice on Mount Carmel, 1 Kings 18. 17-40.
The cure of Naaman's leprosy, 2 Kings 5. 10-27.
The destruction of the Assyrian army, 2 Kings 19. 35.
The shadow on the dial, 2 Kings 20. 8-11.
The three men in the furnace, Dan. 3. 20-27.
We will examine a couple of instances in detail and select first Elijah's sacrifice on Mount Carmel. This is said to have occurred on the most public occasion possible, before the King of Israel and thousands of spectators. And as a miracle, or rather superhuman coincidence, it presents no difficulty whatever. The lightning which struck the sacrifice was doubtless due to natural causes; yet, as before explained ([Chapter VII.]), this would not interfere with its evidential value.
Moreover, it was avowedly a test case to definitely settle whether Jehovah was the true God or not. The nation, we learn, had long been in an undecided state. Some were worshippers of Jehovah, others of Baal; and these rival sacrifices were suggested for the express purpose of settling the point. So, if miracles at all are credible, there could not have been a more suitable occasion for one; while it was, for the time at least, thoroughly successful. All present were convinced that Jehovah was the true God, and, in accordance with the national law, the false prophets of Baal were immediately put to death.
Now could any writer have described all this, even a century afterwards, if nothing of the kind had occurred? The event, if true, must have been well known, and remembered; and if untrue, no one living near the time and place would have thought of inventing it. And (what renders the argument still stronger) all this is stated to have occurred, not among savages, but among a fairly civilised nation and in a literary age.
Next as to the destruction of the Assyrian army. Here it will be remembered that when Sennacherib came to attack Jerusalem, he publicly, and in the most insulting manner, defied the God of Israel to deliver the city out of his hand (probably about B.C. 701).[128] We then read how Isaiah declared that God accepted the challenge, and would defend Jerusalem, and would not allow it to be destroyed. 'I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.' And the sacredness of the city is very strongly insisted on.
[128] 2 Kings 18. 28-35; 19. 10, 34.
Now it is inconceivable that this could have been written after Jerusalem had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar in B.C. 598; though there is no real inconsistency in God's preserving the city in the one case, and not in the other. For Nebuchadnezzar is always represented as being, though unconsciously, God's servant in punishing the Jews; while Sennacherib openly defied Jehovah.
Then comes the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army, probably by pestilence;[129] and the extreme fitness of this, after Sennacherib's challenge, must be obvious to everyone. Moreover, such a very public event, if untrue, could not have been recorded till long afterwards; yet, as we have seen, the narrative could not have been written long afterwards. Sennacherib does not of course allude to it himself in his inscriptions, for kings never like to record their own defeats; but this is no reason for doubting that it occurred, especially as it is confirmed by the Babylonian historian Berosus.[130] And even Sennacherib himself, though he mentions the campaign, and says that he shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem, never claims to have taken the city.
[129] Comp. 2 Kings 19. 35; 1 Chron. 21. 12.
[130] Quoted by Josephus, Antiq. x. 1.