Snow

This word study first appeared in the Standard Bearer (Feb.1, 2024) under the rubric "A Word Fitly Spoken."

Snow

When the snow flurries fall at this time of year, we are often not very happy to see them. The cold can be unpleasant. The shoveling can be a nuisance. The roads become slippery and travel treacherous. The snow causes some extra parental anxiety as the new drivers in the family head off to school. As the winter months wear on, one way for us to be more cheerful is to think upon the snow in a different way and look at it through the lens of God’s Word.

In the snow God reveals something of the great­ness of His power: “for he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth” (Job 37:6). The snow obeys no oth­er. But like the wind and the waves, it knows its Maker’s voice. “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word” (Ps. 148:8). The snow is cold, but the virtuous woman “is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet” (Prov. 31:21). In summer, snow is unseasonable (Prov. 26:1), but the “cold of snow in the time of harvest” is not unwelcome. There is a beautiful divine artistry on display when the snow falls. The Lord “giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes” (Ps. 147:16). With a host of innumerable snowflakes God Him­self blankets the earth, turning winter’s dull browns and grays into brilliant white. The snow is yet an­other character in God’s elegant book, giving glory to the Creator. Who can fully grasp the mysterious ways of God? After all, “hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” (Job 38:22).

The beauty of the snow comes out especially in the symbolism God’s Word attaches to it. The bril­liant whiteness of the snow makes it a suitable pic­ture of unspotted purity, holiness, and cleanliness. Thus Job says “if Iwash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean” (Job 9:30). And Jeremiah, remembering Jerusalem’s former days, laments “her Nazarites were purer than snow” (Lam. 4:7); but now “their visage is blacker than a coal” (Lam. 4:8). When the holy angel appeared from the presence of God to announce the resurrec­tion of Christ, “his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow” (Matt. 28:3). Some­thing of the holy purity of God Himself radiated from the face and garments of His messenger. The glory of our Savior’s deity and His essential purity glowed through the veil of His assumed humanity on the Mount of Transfiguration, where “His rai­ment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them” (Mark 9:3). Jesus our Savior is pure and holy. In the fullness of time He was born of the Virgin, assuming our hu­man flesh, becoming like unto His brethren in all things, sin excepted. The Word made flesh, whiter than the snow. Yet He came to be besmirched with the grime of our guilt and the dirt of our iniquities. Christ came to take our scarlet sins upon Himself and shed His crimson blood upon the cross, that we might be washed whiter than the snow (Ps. 51:7). Christ came to take our filthy rags, and exchange them for the snow-white robe of His righteousness, the spotless garments of salvation. This is the gospel message, the good tidings of great joy to you, Chris­tian reader: “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Is. 1:18).

When the snow falls in the winter, see it through the lens of Scripture. See God’s sign in it. Think upon your scarlet sins and stains of guilt, which no water, not even purest snow water, could ever wash away. Think upon the unspeakable gift of Christ, and upon His blood shed on Calvary for you, which washes away your sins and guilty stains, making you, in God’s holy eyes, whiter than the whitest snow. The snow is a beautiful reminder. What tid­ings of comfort and joy! What peace that passes un­derstanding!