Articles
Necessary Inference in Action
The other day I was backing out of a parking space at the post office. A woman and her two children were walking beside my car, and I was keeping a careful eye on them. Suddenly, she looked behind my car and broke out into an “uh-oh” grimace, like something bad was about to happen. I immediately checked my mirror to see another car backing out behind me. We were on a collision course. I managed to pull forward and avoid a fender bender – all because of a look on her face.
In studying necessary inferences the point has been made that we communicate this way quite frequently. The above is an example of drawing an inference from a mere expression on someone’s face. I knew that she wasn’t looking at a bird, greeting a friend or correcting her children. I inferred correctly.
When the adulterous woman was brought to Jesus under false pretense, Jesus “stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear” (Jn 8:6). He was sending a message by his “body language,” but it went unheeded by His opponents who were blinded by their hatred.
Scripture does not have to overtly spell out what God wants us to know. He communicates in speech patterns and literary mechanisms familiar to us. The problem is that we are sometimes not tuned into His frequency.
