Whose word?

The Bible is unlike any other book on earth for this reason: it was inspired by God. 

Other books may be written by inspiring people or by people inspired by their subject. But the Bible is “God-breathed”, it comes from God. 

God superintended the writing process so that the original authors wrote their thoughts, in their words, in their language, and God made sure that they wrote exactly what he wanted to be written. 

That is why we call it God’s Word. (2Tim.3:16)

So when the prophets wrote their books, they did not dream up their content. Rather, they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, he was the wind in their sails! 

Again, that means that what we have in our Bibles is not just humanly authored but also divinely inspired. (2Peter 1:20-21)

This all means that our goal in reading or studying the Bible is to understand what is there. What did the Author and the author intend to communicate?  Our job is not to be creative, or fanciful, or original. 

We do not get bonus points for making up a meaning nobody has seen before. No matter how clever you are, what you can make it say is not as good as what God made it say!

Peter Mead is mentor at Cor Deo and author of several books. He blogs at Biblical Preaching