The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 261

Positivl!IIIl leads us we recoil with horror. Our soul is something more than the concatenation of physical causes and effects ; thought is not the mere product of mo,ements in the particles of brain-matter; and love to eaoh other and to God is higher th1m the ganglionic affection with which it may be associated. We believe that, though we are endued with freedom, God has not renounced all control over us ; that side by side with our plans is a concurrent Providence evolving good; that tho words are profoundly mie, "in him we live, and move, and have our being." It is to those with such a belief we are addressing ourselves, and say the inspiration of Scripture is what you might reasonably expect. If God control the physical world, it is not incongruou~ that he should_ present to human minds, and incline them to regard, and to communicate truths which relate to man's future destiny. If he make his sun to rise and flood the natural world with light, he will not leave the intellectual creation in darkness. In this thought lies the essential truth of inspiration. We shall not attempt to enumerate all the methods of Divine revelation. God's ways are various in this, as in the natural world. He can hurl up an island by volcanic force, or he can build it by the multitudinous labours of coral insects. He can split a rock by the crash of the sea, or let a tiny stream trickle through it till it falls asunder. So in his revelations. Sometimes a voice has spoken, as on Sinai, and during the ministry of our Lord. Sometimes angels have appeared to speak to Abraham in his tent, or to the women at Christ's grave. The future has been revealed, now in dreams, as to Joseph; now in ,isions, a.s to Ezekiel. But we speak not of these revelations (cl1ro1<ml\v,/,1s), but of inspiration (8,mr11,6a-.-..i), the direct internal suggestion given to men who wrote and i;poke for God, giving to us in Scripture an authoritative rule of faith and practice. II. THAT INSPffiATION IS CLAIMED FOB ITSELF BY SCRIPTURE. 1. These writers, who were evidently modest, hwrnble men, dedare that they were imbued with supernatural knowledge; that they knew what they could not recognize by intellectual research, being wrought on directly by the Holy Ghost; e.g. 2 Sam. xxili. 2 ; Matt. x. 20; 1 Pet. i. 11, etc. 2. 1.he truths they mtered jmtify such pretensions. Think fairly of any one of these men. consider his .i->revious culture, his mental capacity, the condition of the world around him, mentally and morally, and see whether the dignity or Mosaic theology, the devout wisdom of the psalms, the pregnancy of prophecy, the nobility of moral tone throughout Scripture, could find source in the writers themselves. Above and behind them all a voice says," I have written the great [or,' multitudinous'] things of my Law." 3. We ma!! rest our belief in the inspiration of the Old Testament on declarations in the New. And these ultimately depend on the authority of Christ, the everlasting Word of God. Our Lord refers to several writers by name, appealing to them as of Divine authority, and using their utterances in his great conflict in the wilderness. He habitually spoke of" the Law and the prophets" as giving a revelation of God's will, saying about these, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." His promises also to his disciples give authority to their utterances (comp. John xiv. 17, 26; x:vL 13). (Note the effects produced in human society by the direct and indirect influence of Scripture.) fil THAT INSPIBATION IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED BOTH FROM (1) GENIUS AND (2) FROM THE ORDINARY WORK OF GRACE m THE HEART OF MAN. 1. Job xxxii. 8 is a declaration that intellectual gifts are of God; and some speak of Shakespeare and of others as "inspired" men. In Job's sense they were inspired; but their thought is not parallel with the thought of Scripture. The Bible writers were not men of extra- ordinary ability; nothing in their history, or claims, or writings would indicate that they were; and sometimes they affirm that it was by giving up their own thinking for trust and prayer that they knew God's will. 2. Nor must the inspiration of the :;acred writers be considered as identical with that being "filled with the Spirit," etc., of which we often read. It was even given sometimes independently of character, as to Balaam-though (as there is congruity in all God's works, so there was in this) usually it was associated with sanctified character. '!'he two were separable, yet true men spoke of truth, pure men of purity, devout men of God. "Holy mon of God hpake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.·' They were not unconscious instruments -mere auunr.ata. God employed their faculties, but did not supersede them. Each man retained his OWll individuality. It is well for us that it was so. We read the psalms and Lear the voice of God; yet we hear also in them the sobs aµ.d ~ongs of man. W@ clt, vnt. 1-H.J TlIE BOOK 01' HOStA. 2fi1