Simply put, personification attributes intelligence to plants, to inanimate objects, and even to abstract ideas. As always with figures of speech, powerful images force their way into our thinking. And, as often happens, unbelievers wrest the images to strange ends. Because the scriptures say that 'the morning stars sang together', (Job 38:7) one commentator concluded that Christians think that all stars are living beings!
Putting such simplistic thinking aside, we can get immense satisfaction from the imagery the Bible presents. For instance, God made two great lights, 'the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.' Gen.1:16. Then, in Joseph‘s dream, 'my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.' Gen.37:7.
Perhaps the most personifications in scripture are found in the Psalms: 'The heavens declare the glory of God.' Psa.19:1. 'Will the dust praise you?' Psa.30:9. 'Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls.' Psa.42:7. 'Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me.' Psa.43:3. 'Why gaze in envy, O rugged mountains?' Psa.68:16. 'Righteousness and peace kiss each other.' Psa.85:10.
A few other well-known personifications are 'the mountains and hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands' Isa.55:12; 'When the keepers of the house tremble.' Eccl.12:3; and 'Awake, O sword, against my shepherd.' Zech.13:7.
Moving into the New Testament, we read that Jesus 'rebuked the winds and the waves.' Mat.8:26. When the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke his disciples, He said, 'If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.' Luke 19:40. One final example for now is Paul‘s statement in 1 Cor.15:26: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death.'
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