Welcome to my ROLLED SCROLL study, where I follow cultural and literary images found in the Bible in an attempt to unearth God’s meaning in His pattern of usage.
SNOW
In the 2008 drama/thriller Transsiberian, an American man and woman travelling on a train from Beijing to Moscow enter the world of drugs and murder, the whole film set in a snowscape as deep and depressing as any Canadian winter I’ve ever lived through. Perhaps my southern neighbours enjoy the flurry they might receive around Christmas, enough for the kids to build a snowman that melts dreamily away. But digging one’s way through drifts after a January blizzard to start a frozen car engine is too often the nightmarish reality for those living above the 49th parallel, so that snow for many northerners has come to symbolize frigid misery.
But the culture of Bible lands and times offers a different perspective. Scripture mentions snow about two dozen times—and no wonder, in that hot and arid region where a snowfall was as newsworthy as the feat of a valiant man killing a lion (2 Sam. 23:20). Snow did glisten from far-off mountaintops and crags in Lebanon, and is recorded as having fallen on the heights near Shechem—refreshing in its coolness (Ps. 68:14; Jer. 18:14; Prov. 25:13). But several early occurrences of the word “snow” in the Bible are applied in negative descriptions of diseased and leprous skin, and a disappointed Job referred to the inconstancy of his “friends” in terms of their being undependable as snowmelt that swelled the spring streams but dried up in the summer’s heat (Exod. 4:6; Num. 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27; Job 6:15-16). Snow is an enemy of the homemaker responsible for the comfort of her family, and is a disruption as unfitting in summer as honour is unfitting to a fool (Prov. 31:21; Prov. 26:1).
A more positive pattern of the image emerges as we read on in the Bible. First we see God’s all-encompassing power: He alone is the master over creation, even telling the snow to fall from the great storehouses of the sky, giving snow like wool and scattering hoarfrost like ashes (Job 37:6; Job 38:22; Ps. 147:16). Snow and mist and stormy wind fulfill the Creator’s Word (Ps. 148:8).
Not only God’s power but His provision is indicated by the Bible’s reference to snow, which both washes and feeds us. The snow coming down from heaven at the Creator’s command waters the earth, its fleecy whiteness synonymous with purity and inner cleansing (Job 9:30; Ps. 51:7; Lam. 4:7):
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. 1:18 ESV)
This physical moisture upon the earth also causes seeds to sprout for the production of bread, and as author-God uses cleansing of the exterior body as a prelude to explaining cleansing of the interior, so He compares the action of feeding our mouths with feeding us spiritual food. As snow affords physical life, God’s Word goes out into the earth to bring about spiritual life through its cleansing and nurturing action (Isa. 55:10). Biblical literature, then, seems to compare snow with God’s Word; the purification and nourishment afforded by snow also picture the washing of the Word and the nourishment of spiritual life.
Indeed, a further connection between cleansing and eating might be made by looking at the metaphor of the wedding feast (signifying entry into God’s presence), for which the guests must be properly attired or suffer rejection (Matt. 22:11-14). At the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Bride (that is, the Church) is described as wearing “fine linen, bright and pure,” having been “cleansed by the washing of water with the word” and presented to Christ “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing . . . holy and without blemish” (Rev. 19:7-9; Eph. 5:26-27 ESV).
Finally, the eschatological occurrences of the image of snow in Scripture point to the deity of Jesus. Daniel, in his end-times vision, described the “Ancient of Days” (Almighty God) with hair like pure wool and clothing as white as snow—wool and snow synonymous with holiness (Dan. 7:9). An angelic messenger wearing snowy-white robes and sent from the presence of the Father heralded the resurrection of the Son (Matt. 28:3). In the book of Revelation—the climax and conclusion of all prophecies—Jesus Himself is described in terms paralleling the purity and eternity of the Ancient of Days, with hair “like white wool, like snow” (Rev. 1:14). Jesus—both Living Water and Sacrifical Lamb, source of all cleansing and spiritual nurture—will finally and eternally be revealed to all and glorified as God. Then every knee will bow to Him and every tongue confess that He is the all-powerful Lord, and we—cleansed and forgiven—will dine together at His eternal table of fellowship forever (Phil. 2:10-11; 1 Thess. 4:17).
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These short literary articles tied to the Bible explore what God might have been saying in His pattern of usage for each symbol. English rendition of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek varies with translations (e.g., “scroll” is sometimes interchangeable with “book”); however, the quality and underlying meaning of the selected emblem remain consistent across versions. Sketches are by Lorenda Harder. I recommend the website of Dr. Grant C. Richison for thorough expository Bible study: www.versebyversecommentary.com.