Eyewitnesses

How many eyewitnesses does it take before you believe a story? Is it one? Do you need a second person to corroborate the story? Do you need a group? How big does the group need to be? Today we think of one person with a video camera as a "witness," until flash mobs or internet scams make us cynical. Now we want to know that the video was "verified" or that there were more people there who actually saw the event happen. The people in the Bible were the same.

They didn't believe every person yelling on a street corner to repent, either. They wanted more evidence - proof really - that God was at work. When God performed miracle after miracle in the days of Moses, people saw it. They lived as a result of it. They were eyewitnesses.

These are the Israelites, counted according to their families. All the men in the camps, by their divisions, number 603,550. (Numbers 2:32) The total number of Levites counted at the LORD's command by Moses and Aaron according to their clans, including every male a month old or more, was 22,000. (Numbers 3:39)

Across the 12 tribes, there were 625,550 men of fighting age. That's why they didn't count the women and the children, by the way. They weren't eligible for the draft. Imagine that there was one woman and one child for each man that was counted. There were probably more, but this is a good way to think about it. With one woman and one child per man, that would mean 1,876,650 people walked through the Red Sea with water like walls on either side of them (Exodus 14:22,29). That's a lot of eyewitnesses.

Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish--unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Luke 9:12-17 NIV)

Jesus had eyewitnesses, too.  People saw him healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising people from the dead.  They at the meal that came from five loaves and two fish.  Once again, we have a limited count from that day.  There were 5,000 men.  These eyewitnesses not only saw his miracles and heard his teaching.  They also watched as he died.  They saw the blood and water flow from his side.  They saw him wrapped up and laid in the tomb.  And, after all that, they saw him raised from the dead.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:3-6)

How about you? How many eyewitnesses do you need before you believe a story? Do you believe the stories are true? They proclaimed them, shared them, and carefully passed them down from generation to generation so we would have them today. They went to their death saying these stories were true. Many of them died because they wouldn't renounce that the stories are true. They believed that Jesus died and rose again. Do you?