Snow in the Bible!

A great way to star a snowed-in day by guest blogger, Pastor Scott Ferrell.

Snow in the Bible

Jan. 24, 2016

Pastor Scott Ferrell

Did you notice it snowed this weekend?

Since snow is obviously on everybody’s mind right now–the sheer quantity of it has caused us to cancel our worship services and other activities at the church on Sunday–I thought we might have a little fun by playing in the snow of the Bible.

You might want to use this as your meditation for Sunday morning as you worship at home with your family, or over a cup of hot chocolate.

We’re going to take quick look at references to snow in Bible. We won’t plow into great detail, but we will shovel deep enough to be built up in our faith, perhaps at least having accumulated a deeper appreciation for snow puns.

But seriously, there are some good lessons to be learned, because the Word of God is always a blessing.

So let’s dig in.

There are 24 direct references to snow in Bible.

Job leads way with a blizzard of 5; the Psalms pile up 4; Proverbs builds a snowman at 3; Isaiah has 2 snowballs; and Exodus, Numbers, 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Daniel, Matthew, Revelation each have a dusting of one each.

Only two of those references mention snow incidentally, essentially saying, “It snowed.” Both of those references tell same story of how Benaiah, who was captain of David’s body guard, killed a lion in snow (2 Sam. 23:20; 1 Chron. 11:22).

But the remaining 22 references to snow all have to do with spiritual truth. They fall into several general categories, some of them a little surprising, as HS speaks through various writers.

We won’t cover every single one of them here (that would be an avalanche of information), but we’ll at least take a quick look at most of them. (There’s a list below of all them.)

Since many wives have been busy today bundling up the kids, and then unbundling them later, doing laundry, and cleaning floors made slushy by little feet, it’s only fitting to start with Prov. 31:21, which describes an excellent wife:

21 She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.

Red clothes make her unafraid of snow? That doesn’t make a bit of sense, does it? The idea behind this is that because she’s a loving wife and mother, she takes care to clothe her family in garments that will adequately protect them from weather (scarlet clothes would be the clothes of royalty, expensive and high quality), especially when there’s two feet of snow on the ground. It’s an expression of her love, an expression of her dedication to her family.

Next, Jeremiah uses an ironic reference to snow to demonstrate Israel’s unnatural unfaithfulness to God in Jer. 18:14

Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams?

In other words, just as strange as it would be for snow not to cap the Rocky Mountains or Mount Everest, it’s unnatural for Israel to be unfaithful to God. Likewise, our unfaithfulness to God is equally unnatural. Though we’re not perfect, our faithfulness to God should always be growing as we grow and mature in our faith, as we mature in Christ (Eph. 4:13; Heb. 5:14).

That sense of irony is what makes point of Prov. 26:1:

Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.

It’d be foolish to honor a fool by giving him leadership, allowing him charge over others, or to affirm him as competent when he is not. Such affirmation is out of place, just like snow in the summertime.

Old Testament authors also saw snow as a symbol for how God blesses us, as in Prov. 25:13:

13 Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him;

he refreshes the soul of his masters.

This doesn’t mean that Proverbs 26:1 has actually come to pass–that it snowed in summertime. This is a reference to how during harvest time they would carry snow down from mountains to refresh the workers as they labor in the hot fields. This is like that glass of lemonade on a hot day after you’ve cut the grass.

So the point of this Proverb is that a faithful messenger refreshes the soul of his masters. What comes to mind is Hebrews 1:1–2:

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

The refreshment that God’s messengers brought down to us from heaven is in every book of the Bible, and its value and nourishment is immeasurable. When we receive its blessing as we study our Bibles and receive the preaching of the Word is like snow brought down from the mountain to refresh us as we labor in these fields that are ripe for harvest.

That’s the kind of comfort God’s word brings to us in Isaiah 55:10–11.

“10       For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11        so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

As surely as rain and snow brings life, God’s word will accomplish everything God intends. There’s not a chance that God or his Word will be overcome in any way.

Isaiah 40:8

8          The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

But some of us have trouble seeing the blessing of snow (we won’t mention any names, Pastor John!). Maybe we’re of the mind that it’s something to be overcome

That’s part of the thought of Psalm 147:13–20. This is a song about how God heals the broken hearted:

13       For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.

14       He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.

15       He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.

16     He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.

17       He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?

18       He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

So here snow is a gift, soft like wool, yet the cold that accompanies it is something to be dealt with–who can stand before it?–as God hurls down ice in the form of hail and sleet. Yet by the power of God’s word he controls them, and causes snow to melt, and therefore causes even what seems to be a hardship to be a blessing to us.

Even more, I love what Matthew Henry, a biblical scholar of 300 years ago, had to say about it:

“ Men cannot, but are forced to protect themselves by fires, or furs, or both, and all little enough where and when the cold is in extremity. We see not the causes when we feel the effects; and therefore we must call it his cold; it is of his sending, and therefore we must bear it patiently, and be thankful for warm houses, and clothes, and beds, to relieve us against the rigour of the season, and must give him the glory of his wisdom and sovereignty, his power and faithfulness, which shall not cease any more than summer, Gen. 8:22. And let us also infer from it, If we cannot stand before the cold of his frosts, how can we stand before the heat of his wrath.”

That’s why the Psalmist sees the cold, and yes, even the snow, as a gift. It causes us to be thankful when we’re warm, and to remember that we stand before God, who holds all things in his hands; we depend on him, trusting him to use all things for his good.

And yet snow is used in the Old Testament to describe something fearfully awful. Snow itself isn’t seen that way, but as God deals with sinners, with those who rebel against him, he uses on a few occasions a wretched, then-incurable disease as a means of discipline; this disease is described visually to be “like snow.”

The first reference to this–and in fact it’s the first time the word “snow” is used in scripture–is in Exodus 4:6, when God is giving Moses miraculous signs to use to prove to the Egyptians that he did, indeed, speak for God himself.

6 Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.

So in this instance the miracle is, of course, a sign of God’s power, his is power to cause calamity and to remove it, the calamitous disease is described as being “leprous like snow.”

“Leprosy” lumps several skin diseases together, and includes not only actual leprosy but also a variety of serious infectious skin diseases that were likewise feared in biblical times. So God’s absolute control over this disease, both in causing and curing it, is profound.

The New American Commentary on Exodus says, “For Moses to say, in effect, ‘Look what Yahweh can do with disease!’ was virtually to ask, ‘Can any god you’ve been worshiping heal like this?’”

And God did, indeed, cause leprosy to discipline in two other instances. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Moses oppose Moses:

9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed.

10 When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow.

And the lying, greedy Gehazi, a servant of Elisha, also received the same discipline in 2 Kings 5:27.

Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow.

And so we see in these examples that snow describes sickness–impurity–that God uses as means of discipline for those who ignore and rebel against him.

But we’ve saved the good news for last. Snow also represents purity and holiness.

Psalm 51 is a beautiful prayer of humility before God; David had sinned with Bathsheba, and he’s now broken with conviction of his sin in verse 3.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

He continues his prayer of repentance asking God to verse 10,

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

In verse 7 David also pleads that God would,

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Snow was whitest thing known to man in David’s time. White represented holiness and purity. So David is asking the One who is truly pure to make him pure. He recognizes his own sin and the indelible stain it has caused.

Yet just as only God could cause leprosy to disappear, so could only God remove the guilt of David’s sin and restore him to right relationship with his creator

That’s precisely the point of Isaiah 1:18–20.

18 Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

Only God has the power to remove such a stain as sin. And the great, beautiful and awful paradox of God’s truth is that he has washed us clean with blood. Crimson though it was, he who poured it out is holy, and that’s why his blood has the power to cleanse us (Heb. 9:14).

Finally, speaking of Christ, the Revelator brings to mind Dan. 7:9, where God is portrayed as an old man, the Ancient of Days, whose his hair is compared to pure wool, and whose clothing is white as snow.

Revelation 1:14–16

14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

All of this reflects the ancient Near Eastern attitude toward the elderly, that they are to be held in high esteem and honor because of their wisdom.

That’s how we should regard Christ. He is to be held with reverence and awe in our hearts. Christ is, as he proclaims in verse 17b-18, “the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Our Lord is holy, he is pure, just like new fallen snow.

He died, but he lives. And he lives forevermore. No power can defeat him because he’s got the keys even to the gates of hell; after Christ comes back for his own, those gates shall be locked forevermore.

As we experience this historic snowstorm, my prayer is that it will be for us a reminder of the great and mighty God we have. By his Word he sends the snow and he melts it; his word shall stand forever. He disciplines us. He brings us comfort. He brings us salvation.

How? By washing us with his blood, so that we are “whiter than snow.”

References to Snow in the Bible

English Standard Version 24 results in 24 verses

Exod 4:6

Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.

Num 12:10

When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

2 Sam 23:20

And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen.

2 Kings 5:27

Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow.

1 Chron 11:22

And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two heroes of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen.

Job 6:16

which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.

Job 9:30

If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,

Job 24:19

Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.

Job 37:6

For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.

Job 38:22

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

Ps 51:7

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Ps 68:14

When the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalmon.

Ps 147:16

He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.

Ps 148:8

fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!

Prov 25:13

Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.

Prov 26:1

Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.

Prov 31:21

She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.

Isa 1:18

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Isa 55:10

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

Jer 18:14

Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams?

Lam 4:7

Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.

Dan 7:9

“As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.

Matt 28:3

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

Rev 1:14

The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,