Faithful on Fridays Blog

Living and Non-living 

Does it strike you as odd that God uses both people and inanimate objects to make His point? Take creation. After He spoke a perfect world into being, created a perfect couple from dirt, He jumped into the story having a conversation with a snake! That strikes me as odd; how about you? If that wasn’t odd enough God told Moses (Num. 20:6-9) and the prophet Ezekiel (Ez. 37:4) to both talk to rocks! 

On the other hand, Isaiah wrote under God’s inspiration that there will be singing mountains and applauding hills when He delivers us (Is.55:12). Likewise, during Jesus’ ministry, when the Pharisees rebuked Him for accepting worship, He strangely answered them,

 “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Luke 19:40 

While taking a boat ride a great storm came up (Mark 4:39-40) and how did Jesus handle it? He spoke to the wind and sea like naughty children telling them to just calm down. Living or non-living, God uses many ways to help us understand His nature and character, and that’s the point. 

Moses and Ezekiel weren’t the only ones instructed by God to speak to lifeless things and expect something to change. Jesus’ promised His disciples,

I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. Mark 11:23

Or how about this one?

The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you!” Luke 17:5-6 

I could go on about inanimate objects like Jesus’ prayer shawl (Mark 5:28-34) and Paul’s (Acts 19:11-12) handkerchiefs and aprons that brought powerful healing when people only touched them, or the possibility of the gospel being preached through the stars (Ps. 19:1-5), but I think you get the picture. The Bible is full of odd stories that make you think, find the spiritual significance for your life (the upper story), and get to know God better. He loves hyperbole, that’s when He uses exaggeration to make His point; I doubt if He wants us to go yell at mountains or trees and expect them to disappear, but He does want us to see literal storms, mountains, and trees as obstacles in our prayer and faith walk and command them to leave. God shows us His protective nature, His divine power and provision by using living and non-living examples to evoke a sense of awe in us. I encourage you to read these and many other passages like them to get to know our mighty, sovereign God a little better.