Inspiration Analogy

I've been thinking more about inspiration since my Bibliology seminar in the Spring. While reading a blog recently (http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/05/the-bible-and-knowledge-5---i.html) on the subject, a good (at least I think so) analogy came to mind.

In my first ever "faculty interview" for a part-time position teaching Greek, the question was posed to me in regards to how effective I considered myself in being able to take material that is often quite complex and difficult, and present it in an understandable manner to undergrads who are otherwise unfamiliar with it. I don't recall my exact response, but do remember, unconsciously at the time, seeking to emulate the spirit of the instructors who were most effective in my education, realizing the reason for their effectiveness was their knack for this very practice; taking a complex idea, well understood by them through their years of study and intellectual wrestlings, and explaining it to their students in a obtainable manner.

It was this analogy that came to mind while pondering the issue of inspiration. We must keep in mind that if the Bible truly contains God's words, we must realize that they have been given through human instrumentation in order to communicate a divine message to finite minds. Though the incarnational model may not be flawless, it does help to illustrate the way in which we must think of inspiration... not a dictated text, or a text dropped from heaven and penned by the hand of God, but a text generated by divine inspiration through human instrumentation, given through a medium (as any good teacher must do) understandable to the original audience.