A Snowy Day

For some odd reason, I decided to write to you this week about snow! I don’t know why, but it’s just been on my mind somehow? Did you know that the Bible mentions snow about 25 times? Usually, snow is used as a standard to compare something else to. Ten times we read, “as white as snow,” twice, “as cold as snow,” and once, “as pure as snow.” Five times the word snow is used in a poetic sense to refer to the winter season, as in: “She is not afraid of the snows,” and once to indicate the mountains by calling them “the snows of Lebanon.” Three times God asks Job unanswerable question about snow to show Job that God sees the big picture while we humans see very little, and two times the Bible speaks of a specific snowy day in history. Do you know what day that was? I’ll put the answer at the bottom of the article! But I told you all that to tell you this - my favorite “snowy” verse in the Word. “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” Did you get that? Not “as white as snow,” but “whiter than snow!”

King David pens these words in Psalm 51. Do you know the context of that Psalm? After being confronted with his sins of adultery and murder, David confesses and repents of his sin. With a contrite heart and a broken spirit, he seeks God’s forgiveness in faith, believing that God will forgive him, restore him and purify him to the extent that he will be whiter than snow! Did you know that it is possible to be whiter than snow, even though snow is the very thing that is used as the standard of cleanness and purity that all others are measures against? Every snow flake is an ice crystal that forms in the upper atmosphere. Each crystal forms around something – a tiny microscopic speck of dust! At the heart of a clean pure snowflake is dirt! When God forgives us he takes away all sin, all guilt, all punishment, all fear, all condemnation, even the “stain” or “left-over” residue of sin! He removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west! In other words, infinitely removed! The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness, completely removing it so that, as Isaiah put it, “though our sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow!”

Does that excite you? Does that give you hope? Does that give you peace and joy and motivation to serve such a great and loving God? Jesus said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees we would not enter the kingdom of God! The Pharisees were a group of guys who spent all day every day trying to figure out how to be holy! Can we be better than that? YES! Because when we come to faith in Christ, we no longer have to “try to be good.” Instead we receive by grace through faith, His righteous record of perfect holiness…and without holiness no man shall see God! So Christian, don’t let the devil condemn you. “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!” Neither should we continue in our sin. For we have been set free, made holy, washed clean! Let us not go back to the pig pen of sin! Rather, let us live pure and holy lives. Would a bride wallow in the mud while wearing her clean white wedding dress? Would a man let vandals destroy his prize classic car that he just detailed? No, they would prize them and fight to keep them beautiful and clean. Let us do the same with our great salvation that cost him so dearly. “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light!” (Eph.4;1, 5:1-3,8)

P.S. You’ll find that particular snowy day in 2Samuel 23:20 and 1Chron. 11:22.