11 1 Ki 13.5 Jeroboam’s altar split apart

1 Kings 13:1–6 (ESV)

1And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings.

2And the man cried against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’ ”

3And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’ ”

4And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself.

5The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

6And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before.

The verse five event where the altar was “torn down”, literally split apart[1], though improbable in its timing, did not violate any natural laws and therefore was not a miracle. It was an act of Divine providence, defined by Dr. Archer as, “God, involved in His creation, intervening in history without breaking natural laws.”

[1]The ESV translation of vs 5, "torn down" translates "qara qara".  Qara means to split or separate.  A better English translations are "split apart" (NASB, NKJV, NIV), "rent" (KJV, Young's Literal Translation, Darby), "ripped apart" (Holman Christian Standard Bible).