Examples from the Bible

• The animal-like beasts in Daniel’s dreams and visions symbolize actual events (Daniel 7).
• Marriage is a metaphor for Jesus’ love for the church (Ephesians 5:22-33).
• The idiomatic expressions like “grains of sand,” “stars of heaven,” or “specks of dust” were used to describe a very large, “impossible to count” number (Genesis 13:16, 22:17, 41:49, Numbers 23:10, Judges 7:12). In Deuteronomy 1:10, the number of Abrahams descendants already was like the “stars in the sky.” Also, the Philistine army is described as “sand on the beach” (1 Samuel 13:5).
• Isaiah challenges his audience to see the irony of a woodworker worshiping his own creation (Isaiah 44:15-16).
• It had symbolic meaning when Jesus said, that the Good News will be preached to “all nations” (Matthew 24:14). During Pentecost people “from every nation under the sun” (Acts 2:5) have been present.
• God asked Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole so that anyone that was bitten by the snake and looked up to it would be healed. Jesus used it to illustrate how he will be raised on the cross, and we can be saved through him (Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14).
• The Bible contains anthropomorphic images describing God (Exodus 7:5). This metaphoric language also extends to trees, mountains, rivers, etc. (Psalms 98:8, Isaiah 55:12), clapping their hands and singing to praise God.
• Paul describes the church as a field where God is the owner, and different people work on it to cultivate it (1 Corinthians 3:9).
• Jesus told his followers to take his cross daily. The cross was a symbol of death and suffering (Luke 9:23).
• Paul deliberately explains to the church in Corinth that they (the church) were built (established) by God as the master’s builder. Jesus is laid as the foundation, and the Holy Spirit dwells within them (1 Corinthians 3:10-17).
• God asked Israel to specifically choose colors for the tabernacle that, describes royalty for the purple color, blue that symbolizes God’s divinity, and red that is a metaphor for sacrifice (Exodus 26:31-37).
• Paul shook out his clothes as a symbol of leaving the Jewish community in Corinth when they started to oppose the gospel presentation of Paul. He then focused on the Gentiles (Luke 9:5, Acts 18:5-6).
• Lampstand in God’s temple symbolizes God’s presence among his people (Exodus 25: 31-40).

Real-life examples

• In an Alangan community in Mindoro in the Philippines, people communicate and explain things using metaphors. One day, relief goods were given to a community, and some members of other communities came. The community members asked their chieftain if they would provide relief goods to those who came but were not community members. The chieftain asked the community, if you are feeding your free-range chicken, and the chickens of your neighbors come to feed, do you drive your neighbors’ chickens away or let them feed?

• When a Filipino or Indonesian eats, and someone passes by, he will always be invited to join. To know if it is an actual invitation or a gesture of courtesy, one must “read” the situation. If the invitation is genuine, it will be repeated several times. A Filipino applied the same logic in Germany. He rejected the first invitation because he expected a second one to ensure the invitation to join was real. For the German, the first invitation was genuine, and his Filipino friend never got the second invitation and stayed hungry.
• The worldwide emergence of emojis in digital communication is a clear indicator that even LOR cultures are not just relying on words.
• The International Electrotechnical Commission (iec.ch) and the International Organization for Standardization (iso.org) aim to create universally understood icons. These symbols can be used by multinational companies by multinational companies in manuals and on technical devices.