Inspired Scripture (part 2)

So as we consider the thought of the holy writings being “God-breathed” or “God-Spirited,” and without getting into a detailed language study, it can be said that it is the Spirit of God that is conveyed through the holy writings of Scripture.  Therefore, the idea that the Scriptures are designed to teach us about God and about how to be His divine image-bearers in His world does not trail too far behind this thought.  The Scriptures, being inspired, convey the nature and the essence of God, to those that have been created for His specific purposes. 

Is this taking things a bit too far?  Isn’t this a complication, or perhaps a distinction without a difference?  Would it not simply be easier to hear the verse as an affirmation that our Bible is inspired in every way and therefore reliable?  Of course that would be easier, but in doing so, and taking what is truly an easy route to a conclusion that falls short of what is intended, we leave ourselves relatively impoverished when it comes to attaining to the full richness of the language employed.  Indeed, if the Scriptures truly are inspired, should they not inspire us to find out what they are telling us about the God that inspires them?  If we want to apply that notion of inspiration to the New Testament writings, all of which were composed within a thoroughly Jewish mindset, and by people that were shaped and given their identity by the narrative of Scripture, then we need to hear the voice of the movement of Scripture, and the understanding of what God expects from His people as a result of His movement, that speaks from behind the text.

When we hear about Scripture being God-breathed, are we not forced to discern what it means to be God-breathed?  What would the recipient of this letter, immersed within a world of self-identification that was shaped by the Scriptural narrative to which the author refers, have understood when he read about the God-breathed nature of the divinely shaped writings that were set apart to be used by God for His purposes (holy)?  Answering this question drives us back to the beginning, to Genesis, and to the creation of man.  In the second chapter of Genesis we read that “The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (2:7).  Here, God breathed.  In the first chapter, we find that “God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.  God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply!  Fill the earth and subdue it” (1:27-28a).  Yes, the second chapter confirms that God breathed life into the being that He created to bear His image into the world---into the being that He intended to tend to His good creation, spreading the knowledge and glory of God as His representatives.  Has this mission gone unchanged?  Is this not a great work for which God trains us, doing so through that which is primarily designed to communicate knowledge of Him? 

Though this would be a more than sufficient basis upon which we could build a doctrinal foundation that should animate us in our representation of and service for the kingdom of God, this is not an isolated occurrence.  Though this study is certainly not designed to an exhaustive presentation of God’s breathing, there are other important instances of such things in Scripture, to which the author of the second letter to Timothy makes reference and most likely expects to be called to mind by this simple reference.  In the book that bears his name, Job makes reference to the general understanding of the creation narrative and of man’s place in it when he speaks and says “for while my spirit is still in me, and the breath from God is in my nostrils” (27:3).  Later on, Elihu will speak to Job and say “But it is a spirit in people, the breath of the Almighty, that makes them understand” (32:8).  He will continue on to say “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (33:8).  In Ecclesiastes, the “preacher” tells us that “the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the life’s breath returns to God who gave it” (12:7).  In Isaiah, as reference is made to God’s creation and His creative power, we find “This is what the true God, the Lord, says---the one who created the sky and stretched it out, the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, the one who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who live on it” (42:5).  Jeremiah, and others, make the point that “There is no breath in any of those idols” (51:17b).  Idols, which are designed to represent a God, have no breath, whereas a human, a divine image-bearer, is animated by God’s very breath.  A stark contrast indeed. 

While we do not take the time to draw all of the possible conclusions that can be teased out from these passages, certainly, these passages from the book of Job, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, which well encapsulates the exile and exodus narrative that appears to be foundational within Scripture, gives us a tremendous perspective from which we can view the words on offer to Timothy.