God Communicates through Signs and Wonders: Deuteronomy and Acts

Signs and Wonders, Part Four

Throughout the Bible God communicates through signs and wonders.

Before one takes up the question, “Can people, under the power of the Holy Spirit, accomplish signs and wonders?” we must recognize that GOD communicates through signs and wonders.

Consider signs and wonders (collocation) in the book of Deuteronomy.


Deuteronomy 4:34

“Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?”

Others, in both the Old and New Testaments, understand God’s communication through a “…mighty hand and an outstretched arm…”

In this passage signs and wonders are about God taking “a nation for himself from the midst of another nation…”

Israel was the beneficiary of God’s action: “All of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes.”

Luke especially features God’s communication in this manner.  Acts 4:30

Deuteronomy 6:22

“And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes.”

These signs and wonders were against those resisting God’s wishes.

Deuteronomy 7:19

“the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.”

God’s signs and wonders of Israel’s recent past are a recognition of His future work among them.  “So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.”

Deuteronomy 26:8

“And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders.”

This passage views the signs and wonders from the experience of Israel.  “And the Lord brought us out of Egypt…”

Deuteronomy 29:3

“the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders.”

Your own eyes have seen God’s signs and great wonders, but you are not yet responding properly.

Deuteronomy 34:11

“none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,”

Moses is honored as a man especially accredited by God.  Notice the author informs us that the Lord sent Moses to do these signs and wonders.  God sent.  Moses accomplished.

Signs and Wonders Tour of Acts 

Paul rebukes the Magician                             Acts 13:8-12

Unnamed Signs and Wonders                        Acts 14:3

Paul heals a lame man                                    Acts 14:8-10

Paul left for dead, lives                                   Acts 14:19-20