Divine Intervention

By the early 20th century, divine intervention entered into secular discourse to describe any event that appeared to have been guided by a greater force, especially for troubled events that suddenly, as if miraculously, turn out well. The phrase has become familiar enough to inspire various popular media titles. Musical artists from Slayer to the Backstreet Boys have used it as titles, for instance, as has Palestinian director Elia Suleiman for his 2002 film and Bette Midler for her 2015 tour.

Divine Intervention

This is not meant to be a formal definition of divine intervention like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of divine intervention that will help our users expand their word mastery.

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 radiant damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

This type of intervention, as I said, is big and showy. Some of the most well-known examples are the 10 plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7:14-12:36), God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24-25), and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-44).

See also God Is Good. Likely to overlap with Prayer Is a Last Resort, and most often the result of an Answer to Prayers. On the other hand, may overlap with Divine Punishment if the intervention occurs because God Is Displeased with sinful behavior. If whether there was an intervention is debatable, see Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. Then again, God is well known for working In Mysterious Ways.

• Video Games Divinity: Original Sin II: Early in Act I, the Player Character(s) and their potential companions are shipwrecked at sea, but are saved from the depths of the ocean by a mysterious voice that delivers them to shore. It turns out to be their Patron God(s), who have chosen them to be Godwoken."I have plans for you, child. Rise!"

• In The Elder Scrolls, many of the universe's various divine beings have done this at one point or another. While most prefer to do so subtly or to act indirectly through mortal agents, a few have intervened directly in the affairs of mortals. A few prominent examples of intervention include: The various Shezarrines throughout history. They are theorized to be the soul of the dead creator god Shezarr/Lorkhan/Shor/many others manifesting in mortal form as one of the races of Men when they are threatened and then advancing their cause, usually by killing lots and lots of Mer (Elves). Tiber Septim was rumored to be one such manifestation before he himself ascended to godhood as the Ninth Divine, Talos, possibly by "mantling" Shezarr and/or as part of a Merger of Souls situation.

• Azura, the Daedric Prince of Dusk and Dawn, has acted much more subtly in her instances of intervention, but not without leaving a major impact on the mortal world. She, along with Boethia and Mephala, convinced the prophet Veloth to lead the Chimer people to Morrowind from the Summerset Isles. When their leaders, the Tribunal, later betrayed her by being involved in the death of her faithful servant Nerevar and then using the power of the Heart of Lorkhan to ascend to godhood, she cursed them and left a prophecy foretelling their downfall. Thousands of years later, in Morrowind, she aids the Nerevarine in fulfilling that prophecy and bringing down the Tribunal once and for all.

• Mehrunes Dagon is a villainous version of the trope whenever he manifests. His doing so led to the destruction of Old Mournhold and the Imperial Battlespire, and very nearly the destruction of Mundus entirely in Oblivion had he not been stopped by Akatosh, the chief deity God of Time of the Nine Divines pantheon, pulling a direct intervention of his own to end the Oblivion Crisis.

• Akatosh pulled another during the Planemeld. He intervened when one of the Vestige's companions gave their life, allowing the Vestige to gain Akatosh's Blessings and challenge Molag Bal in single combat.

• Kynareth, the Divine Goddess of the Air and Heavens, pulled a few to help early mankind in their battles against the dragons and elves. When the ancient Nords prayed for aid against the dragons and their Dragon Cults, she sent Paarthurnax to teach them the Thu'um so they could use the dragons' own weapon against them. She was also perhaps the most active Divine in supporting the Alessian Revolt, sending her "son" Morihaus to join the conflict on Alessia's side. She sent rain to cleanse the blood from Ayleid forts and villages after Pelinal Whitestrake came through so that they could be used by Alessia's forces.

• The Daedric Prince Meridia granted a form of Resurrective Immortality to the Ayleid sorcerer-king, Umaril the Unfeathered. Umaril was initially defeated by Pelinal Whitestrike, himself a form of divine intervention as one of the aforementioned Shezarrines, but his spirit simply "went adrift" in Oblivion until reforming, not unlike an actual Daedric being. (He would be defeated for good by the Champion of Cyrodiil in Oblivion's Knights of the Nine expansion.)

• St. Jiub the Eradicator, Morrowind's Ascended Extra Ensemble Dark Horse, was attempting to eradicate the much reviled Cliff Racers from Vvardenfell in atonement for his past "sordid" lifestyle. After being led into a trap by the smarter-than-he-thought Cliff Racers, the swarmed him with numbers in the hundreds. Jiub, according to his opus, was certain that this was going to be his Last Stand. After two days of fighting, all of the Cliff Racers lay dead and Jiub collapsed, exhausted and wounded. He was sure that he was going to die, when the Dunmeri Physical God, Vivec, saved him and declared him to be a saint for his actions.

• Godville: The only way to actually influence your hero is to write commands for him to carry out (which have a sizable chance of being ignored) or intervene more directly by encouraging or punishing (which makes things happen more reliably but wastes more Godpower).

• Journey (2012): At the end of the penultimate level, you and your companion are caught in a fierce storm and freeze to death after losing track of the mountaintop that has been your guiding beacon throughout the game. Then, after a Fade to White, you are greeted not with a Game Over, but with six giant white-robed figures, who have appeared to you in visions earlier, and who now raise you Back from the Dead and even max out your scarf, so you can fly all the way to the mountaintop in one go and finally complete your journey.

• In NetHack the player can pray for divine intervention if he is in trouble. If you don't annoy your god (by praying too often), have a good alignment record (Karma Meter), and are not in Hell your god can heal you, feed you, cure delayed instadeaths like food poisoning or stoning, lift curses, etc.

• Scribblenauts: There are a few situations in which summoning a deity is a viable solution.

• Tears to Tiara 2 begins with Ashtarte joining Hispania's rebellion against The Empire. Throughout it Tanit her Super-Powered Alter Ego offers guidance and once saves Hamil's life. In the end, Ishtar, her mother, leads all the Ba'al gods in saving her life.

• Unlimited Adventures: In the debug mode, the designer can instantly win every battle by pressing a button called "WIN". This destroys all enemies, with the announcement "The gods intervene!"

• Webcomics College Roomies from Hell!!!: When David and Chester are about to have their souls spliced back together, which Chester wouldn't survive, a bright light shines out nowhere, knocking out their captor and letting them escape.

• Dumbing of Age: The Fundamentalist Carol Brown says that Becky doesn't have to take Communion if she's worried she's not right with God (due to being gay). After a beat, Becky points out that when her life was in danger, her girlfriend and a superhero showed up to save her, so she's pretty sure He still likes her. Then she takes Communion. Loudly.

• Played with in El Goonish Shive. Nanase's guardian form looks angelic, is supremely powerful, and can only be used if someone is about to die. She isn't sure if gaining it was the result of divine intervention or just the will of magic, but she thanked God for it anyway.

• Return To Player has this all the time, from chosen Avatars to just messing with people for their own pleasure.

That all changed when a family Bible belonging to Olander was discovered and led to police cracking the case and arresting the men responsible. Some of the investigators told \"20/20,\" which is exploring the case with a special episode on Nov. 11, that the break was divine intervention.

The history of Peter Reininger, a leader of the UIW Grounds team and HVAC Superintendent who retired this week, and his family, has interwoven with the history of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, the University, and their respective missions for generations. Their story, which begins more than 130 years ago, has seen five generations of their family leave their mark on the Incarnate Word community. Their remarkable story of divine providence began with an act of compassion. 041b061a72