Articles
Scriptural Adaptation
Scriptural Adaptation
Tyler King
There is a strange experience that takes place within our minds that allows our senses to become numb to the things around us. For example, if you place your hand on a table you will initially notice that your hand is touching something (revolutionary observation, I know). Though, over the course of a few moments of leaving your hand on the table, your mind will numb its senses of touch to that table and you will no longer feel that table as strongly as you did when you first touched it. This is called “sensory adaptation.”
I believe many experience the same in their awareness of scripture’s presence. In 2 Kings 22, we read of Hilkiah finding the book of the Law in the temple. The people of Israel had become so complacent in their history that they drifted from the very words of the Lord and His law eventually found its way to a desolate place in the temple. Despite God’s involvement, revelation, discipline, and encouragement, the people had forgotten about His divinely inspired words.
There have been times where I hear a quote from Philippians 4, or John 3, or Genesis 1, and I think to myself “oh I know what that says.” It is only when I actually read those sections of scripture that I amazingly find things I had never seen. In that same thought, I’ve read the sermon on the mount at least 100 times in my studies. Yet, every time I reread it; I find something new that I didn’t see before. This collection we call the “bible” is unlike any other form of literature in the world. I should never become woefully adapted to scripture to the point that I fail to study it on the basis of “already knowing it.”
In an effort to ignite our zeal for genuine and intense Bible study, I would encourage you to read scripture as if it’s the first time you’ve read it. King Josiah knew of God’s Word by tradition, but upon reading it through fresh eyes it invoked incredible action (2 Kings 22:11). When we become “scripturally adapted” we fail to recognize the awe of God’s Word and the transformative power it wields.
