133. However, the effect of miracles on good people is different from their effect on evil people. Good people have no desire for miracles, but they believe the miracles in the Word. If they do hear anything about a miracle, they think of it only as a minor argument that strengthens their faith, because they base their thinking on the Word and therefore on the Lord and not on the miracle.

It is different for evil people. They can actually be constrained and compelled to faith and even to worship and devotion by miracles. This lasts only a short while, though, because their evils are pent up inside, and the compulsions and gratifications of those evils are constantly working away inside their outward worship and devotion. In the effort to let them break free of this confinement, these people think about the miracle and wind up calling it a sham, a trick, or a natural event, which enables them to return to their evil ways. People who go back to their evil ways after being worshipful profane what is good and true in worship, and the fate after death of people who profane what is holy is the worst of all. These are the people referred to in the Lord's discourse in Matthew 12:43-44, 45, the people whose last state is worse than the first.

Besides, if miracles did happen for people who do not believe in the miracles in the Word, they would be happening constantly where everyone like this could see them. This shows why miracles do not happen nowadays.

Animals in general represent our spiritual activity. This can mean forming thoughts, ideas, or intellectual concepts; it can also mean having feelings and desires. The variety of the animal kingdom represents the vast variety of our potential spiritual activities, the things we think and feel, and each kind of animal represents something in particular. All life comes from the Lord, and the more we are turned to the Lord and receptive of Him, the more we are truly alive.