Articles
Inspiration
Melanie and I were able to experience some amazing and memorable sights on our recent trip to Arizona and Utah. For those who believe in God, it is impossible to see things like the vast erosion of the Grand Canyon, the rock formations in Zion and Bryce National Parks and the rugged landscape of the region and not be emotionally moved. Such scenes, we might say, inspire us to higher awareness of God.
Which leads to the topic of inspiration. Like many words, inspiration carries various shades of meaning, and those meanings can seep into other uses of the word. This is one area in which we must be aware in our speech, for we can inadvertently draw wrong conclusions if we don’t carefully define the words we use. Consider these different ideas of inspiration:
Emotional inspiration. There are certain people, events, sights or sounds, etc. that can deeply inspire us. But inspire us to what? What does inspiration mean in such moments? Strong feelings of love may cause us to creatively express ourselves in words unlike our regular speech. We may write a flowery poem or search for metaphorical illustrations of our feelings.
“Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats … Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing, every one of which bears twins, and none is barren among them. Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely …”
[Song of Solomon 4:1-3].
Or perhaps we see a heroic feat and are motivated by that example to emulate the valor they have shown. When Jonathan and his armorbearer defeated the garrison of the Philistines single-handedly, it motivated others in Israel to rise up: “Moreover the Hebrews who were with the Philistines before that time, who went up with them into the camp from the surrounding country, they also joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise all the men of Israel who had hidden in the mountains of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, they also followed hard after them in the battle” (1 Sam 14:21-22).
Emotional inspiration is contagious; it can embolden through example and achievement. This makes it a potential force for good, and it also makes it dangerous. There are people we might call “true believers,” those who are genuinely committed to a cause that is completely fraudulent and misguided. Jesus warned of those who “will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me” (Jn 16:2-3). Saul of Tarsus exemplifies this brand of blind zeal. Thus a boy can be smitten by the wrong kind of girl; gang members inspire others to violence through a twisted sense of approval or honor; religious cults spawn zealous members who promote devilish schemes.
Divine inspiration. A higher level of inspiration is divine intervention that prompts transmission of God’s thoughts and words in writing or orally: “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21). Scripture bears marks of divine origin; that is, it has features that are not adequately explained by emotional or poetic inspiration alone. While it is true that divinely unaided men can discover and write truthfully about important things like relationships, childrearing, politics, psychology, etc., it is also true that, unbeknownst to them, their observations have a basis in Biblical truth. On the other hand, Scripture is the product of prophets inspired by God who wrote poetry, prophecy, history, biography, etc. about things surpassing human insight and understanding.
Only Scripture can reveal the future in startling clarity: “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Is 42:9). Further, only Scripture gives an accurate account of the past. It is said that “history is written by the victors,” i.e., it is not always trustworthy but slanted by those who have leverage to tell the story. Politically-motivated “historic revisionism” attempts to rewrite or tilt the past in favor of one’s present worldview.
But mankind would be better off if we paid closer attention to God’s account of history – the creation of the cosmos and humanity; the deliberate fashioning of two different but complimentary sexes; the origin of marriage and family; the purpose of the Israelite nation; the nature of evil; etc. – for we are often befuddled and misled by modern, humanistic ideas of such things. Consequently, we will never solve the plague of mental and social problems which are often exacerbated by the very solutions designed to ameliorate them.
Spiritual inspiration. Combining the two ideas above, the “ordinary” inspiration that incites the emotions and the special inspiration that shapes the mind and values via the written revelation of God, we see the man or woman who is truly in tune with the world around them and can successfully negotiate the events of the day. When we see something like the Grand Canyon, instead of marveling at some natural phenomenon we observe a vestige of floodwaters that carved out a massive maze of canyons rising above a now-shrunken Colorado River.
Or, as we look at the vast expanse of stars in a remote location on a dark night (as Melanie and I did in Utah), we do not stand in awe of the Big Bang but of the Creator who “made the stars also” and “counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name” (Gn 1:16; Ps 147:4). In somewhat of a comical twist, NASA spends billions of dollars in search of extraterrestrial life via the Hubble and Webb telescopes and all they see is more evidence of a powerful Creator (which they refuse to acknowledge). The truest inspiration is when our spirits soar because we are educated by the truth of God and we can put in proper context all the things that we experience “under the sun.” Inspiration without education is a cheap imitation of the real joy and wonder of encountering God.
