Information or Conversation

I frequently get into discussions about the inspiration of the Bible. These discussions generally center around such texts as 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21, or Hebrews 4:12. Now all of these are good texts from which to study about the nature of scripture, but it interests me that we build theology from these texts which we then try to impose on the remainder of scripture, rarely bothering to spend time observing just how the process of revelation has functioned.

My idea here is not to find a different set of texts from which to extract theological propositions, but rather to look at the narrative, and ask how God has managed to reveal himself at various times and under various circumstances. By observing the narrative of scripture, we can get a better idea of what the propositions of scripture mean in practice. When 2 Timothy 3:16 says that scripture is profitable for certain things, we can ask precisely how scripture was used in accomplishing such things.

I’m suggesting here a focus on the story rather than on the commentary, or one might say the experience rather than the propositions. This is not because the scripture does not contain propositional truth. I believe one can derive propositional truths from the story and from the explicit statements, but if we read these always in the context of the story, we will get better defined and understood propositions. After all, there must be some reason why God put so much story in scripture, and why even all those propositions arrived in the framework of the story.

In a discussion some time ago, I annoyed someone when I made my normal suggestion to look at places other than these standard texts in discussing inspiration. In particular, I was recommending the story of Jeremiah and Baruch as they produced the scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies (Jeremiah 36), to help us understand just how inspiration works.

What can we learn from this story?

• The prophecy itself may occur at some time earlier than the writing.
• It may not be the prophet’s own pen that does the writing.
• The writings of a prophet may be written at more than one time; this may point us toward an explanation for why we have multiple versions of the book of Jeremiah with material in a different order.
• The prophecy in both spoken and written form is produced in response to a need.
• God’s word sometimes comes at a considerable cost to the messenger.

Those are just a few things. As we read the story of Jeremiah we can learn not only about God’s method of revelation but how God’s inspiration works with the inspired person. This is one of the things I mean by participatory Bible study. “Participatory” can mean simply to participate in the process of study–everyone in a group reads a text, makes a comment, looks something up in a reference source, etc. What I mean is investing oneself in the actual story of the scriptures. My question here is not just how Jeremiah heard from God, and what Jeremiah had to say, but how can I hear from God. My question is how I can hear from God, how I can build a relationship with God, and how Jeremiah’s experience can help mine.

We go to the Bible looking for information; God goes to the Bible looking for conversation.

God doesn’t merely want to inform you. That could be done much more easily than the process that brought us the Bible. God wants to relate to you, have a conversation with you.

And if you can see that in Jeremiah, it’s going to help. The agony of his situation as people ignore his message. His horror as his nation continues to follow the path of destruction. His frustration as people won’t listen to his message. Then we get the command to produce this scroll. We see it destroyed and replaced. Live this with Jeremiah! How much is this like our Christian experience as God tries to get through to us, to get us to listen, to get us to persevere in his word?

Off and on I’m going to present essays on this topic. I’ll be following this with one on the three prophets of the exile, but there are many more experiences of scripture that can teach us about God’s revelation and how we receive it.