How do you convince someone that you mean what you say? Repeat it? Say, “I mean it!” I learned a new literary term recently. Adynaton- an expression that refers to an impossibility. Here’s an example: When pigs fly! or Not in a month of Sundays! You can probably think of several others. We use them to help us express how unlikely it is that something will happen.
One student says to another, “I’m going to make an A on the next Algebra test!” “When pigs fly, his realistic friend replys”
A father says to his daughter,” I’ll love you always!” She replies,”Really dad, how long?” “Until he** freezes over,” he responds.
When I read the Bible, I see God using so many methods to convince us of His love. Through stories, in David’s Psalms, in the gift of His Son. He has left no stone unturned in His attempt.
Did you know that God even uses adynatons? Yes He does! Jeremiah was a prophet during a very bad time. Israel had fallen away from God and into captivity. Their country was in shambles. Try this adynaton on for size! This one’s a direct quote, something in God’s own words.
This is what the LORD says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the LORD Almighty is his name:
“Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
declares the LORD,
“will the descendants of Israel ever cease
to be a nation before me.” Jeremiah 31 NIV
Will ocean waves fail? Will the moon and stars cease their shining? Will the sun turn dark? I don’t think any time soon, especially since God is in charge of each of them.
Well, our place in God’s eyes, and our place in His heart, is as constant as the world that He created!
If that’s not enough, God shared another one for Jeremiah to share with us-
This is what the LORD says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the LORD. Jeremiah 31
I love that! Can I take a yardstick to the heavens, to a limitless universe? Can I know everything about the earth we live on, even down to its core? I don’t think so. In that case, God will never, NEVER, reject me, even considering all they mistakes I have made!
As unsettled as our world has become, as unpredictable as the tornadoes and weather disasters are, all of us search for constants in our lives, things we can count on, things that never change no matter what happens.
There is one constant, one thing only, that will never change. That one thing is our Heavenly Father’s love. It is not dependent on our behavior, on circumstance, on whim, on hormones, on politics. Count on it.