But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding, Job 32:8. We have seen in the first two posts that inspiration is the process of inbreathing. To be specific, it is God that is breathing in, and in doing so he gives a man's spirit understanding. Understanding is a gift from God.
Whether it be a North Korean nuclear scientist or an a Western botanist, without the gift of understanding all of their knowledge would be useless. These men may never give glory to the God that created them, and they may bask in the praise of men, but speaking of Jesus Christ, John had this to say: That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, John 1:9. It is God that enlightens men and without God no man has understanding.
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation, Daniel 4:34. In God's judgment of Nebuchadnezzar, he reduced him to the intellect of an animal and let him fester in a field for seven years. In his mercy to Nebuchadnezzar, he restored his understanding. We know the process by which God did this, he did it by being inside of him and inspiring. He breathed in and with the intake of the Almighty's breath within Nebuchadnezzar, his spirit was made to understand.
Nebuchadnezzar went a step further then just having understanding. He was given the authority to write scripture. He is the author of Daniel chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.Dan 4:2 I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me, Daniel 4:1,2. Make no mistake, the Book of Daniel is written by Daniel, but in doing so he took Nebuchadnezzar's written statement verbatim. God gave Daniel the understanding that Nebuchadnezzar's words were to be preserved forever and that God himself was the author of those words.
That is double inspiration for those of you who are able to reason. God gave the words to Nebuchadnezzar by the process of inspiration. He then used that same process later to give Daniel the understanding that Nebuchadnezzar's words should be included in holy writ. God used many processes to give us our bible. It is silly and unproductive to think that every word in the Bible came from a direct teletype transmission from God. Yes, there were times when he did so, but there were many times such as we saw in Daniel when he did otherwise.
A person who feels that without direct verbal transmission from God that the Bible could never be inspired is as guilty as a Calvinist who thinks that God is not in control if a man has free will. His god is a peanut that should be discarded for a God with some real power and holiness. In the next post we will explore the transmission of scripture more thoroughly.