Inspired

One of the words that people use to describe the Bible is “inspired.” I’ve heard folks use the phrase “the inspired word of God” to encapsulate what the Bible is. I think for many, the assumption is that the people who first recorded the words in our Bible were inspired to choose exactly those words. I’ve even seen pictures of people with quill in hand, looking at a dove that hovers over their heads. This dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, guiding the writing as it takes place.

There are a lot of theories about how the Bible was formed. Scholars know that the different books in the Bible were written at different times, by different people. Many of them began orally, as stories told and retold long before they were ever written down. In some of them, we can see traces of multiple stories with different viewpoints stitched together. And frequently, we can tell that the authors’ culture and time and worldview seem to have shaped the stories they told. This is part of what makes the Bible challenging for us to read — we come out of a different culture than the original authors did, so we have different assumptions.

I often wonder if we are limiting the ways in which the Bible can be understood to be inspired if we link that word exclusively with the origin of our scripture. Why must the inspiration we associate with God’s Word be limited to the time of its creation? I am convinced that the Holy Spirit inspires us when we read and listen to the Bible, too. How many times have we had the experience of coming across verses that seem to speak directly to us, that seem to address exactly the situation in which we find ourselves? How could books that are more than a thousand years old pierce our hearts in this way unless our reading wasn’t also inspired by God?

Whether we are reading a family Bible at home, or standing in church on Sunday listening to the gospel, or searching for a particular verse on our smartphones or computers, let us remember to pause and ask for God’s inspiration as we encounter these ancient texts. There’s a prayer that is sometimes shared before scripture readings in worship: “Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today.” Indeed — may God continue to open our minds and hearts, and inspire us to hear what God wishes to communicate through the books of the Bible.

-Heather Josselyn Cranson