White as Snow

17” of snow drifts outside my door. I woke this morning to a world insulated by white; even the air seemed frozen into silence as the snow fell thick to the ground. A white-blanketed world always speaks of God’s goodness. Everything is perfect; all is fresh.

The perfect stillness and silence of unbroken snow reminds me of one thing…

Here’s the thing, though. I remember the verse more easily than I remember where to find it in the Bible. I searched for the word “snow” at my favorite Bible website, www.BlueLetterBible.org, and saw something interesting. Sometimes we learn from the Bible by looking at the first use of a particular word. I want to show you the first use, but then also how it’s used differently in the middle and end of the Book.

Unique to the first part of the Bible

Early on, Scripture used snow to describe leprosy, an unclean disease that ostracized sufferers from their communities. Lepers were completely cutoff.

• “…it was leprous, like snow” Exodus 4:6.
• “…there stood Miriam–leprous, like snow” Numbers 12:10.
• “…he was leprous, as white as snow” 2 Kings 5:27.

Unique to the middle part of the Bible

Snow describes something different in the middle of the Bible's pages. Leaving the unclean disease, snow is now used to show that we may be cleansed from our sin. We can be made whiter than snow.

• “…wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” Psalm 51:7.
• “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” Isaiah 1:18.

Unique to the end of the Bible

We started out unclean and separated because of a disease – sin. God provided a way to cleanse us and restore relationship. Because of that, the glory of heaven awaits.

• “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow” Matthew 28:3.
• “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire” Revelation 1:14.

Something else from the middle of the Bible

Snow reminds us God is in control. From the early separation due to sin until the later glorification due to salvation – God is in control.

• “He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’” Job 37:6.
• “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow…?” Job 38:22.
• “When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land, it was like snow fallen on Zalmon” Psalm 68:14.
• “He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes” Psalm 147:16.
• “…lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding” Psalm 148:8.

God’s creation proclaims His glory – even the snow declares His salvation! You may never watch another snow fall the same way again.