Thank the Lord for Accommodation...

Accommodation is a word that for some reason makes me think of komodo, as in komodo dragon... but of course that tells you more about the weird workings of my own mind and less about the actual word in question. Accommodation defined means: adjustment: making or becoming suitable; adjusting to circumstances. Now when we use this word in relation to God it begins to make some people nervous. How could God ever adjust the truth to make it more suitable?? I thought God could never lie???

OK... this is a misunderstanding of accomomodation. What God does and has done for centuries is put his infinite natural into words and images that the human mind could actually grasp. Not only that but he delivers his good news of salvation and redemption into systems of understanding that were already in place. Teachers do this all the time. A teacher will teach differently to a 1st grader than she would to a 10th grader. When teaching on lying to a group of kids, I might mention cheating on a test as an example. However, if I was teaching on lying to a group of businessmen, I might mention dishonest business deals as an example. When we teach knowing our audience is crucial. For God this same concept applies and has applied for all of Judeo-Christian History.

This is why understanding the system from which the original audience of the Bible was working under is so crucial for understanding to deeper meaning of the Biblical texts. People want to say the Bible is untrue because of mentions of the sun revolving around the earth... well everyone believed that was the case back then! It was the system the God was making himself known in. If the Bible said anything else it would be jibberish at the time. Not to mention the Bible was not trying to give deeper truths about astrology but about theology and life!

If we ask the wrong questions we will get the wrong answers. We will not get deep answers of biology, chemistry, physics or mathematics in the bible. Praise Jesus for this! And Praise God that God accommodates himself to us because otherwise we would be lost and have no grasp of who he is and what he has intended for his beloved creation. God doesn't give us all the answers but he gives us the answers we need.