Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 38:22
Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
22. the treasures ] That is, the treasuries, the magazines. Snow and hail are represented as having been created and laid up in great storehouses in the heavens or above them, from whence God draws them forth for the moral ends of His government ( Job 38:23). The idea may be suggested by observation of the vast masses in which snow falls. Job, no doubt, has inspected these treasuries, or was present when at creation the Almighty filled them.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
22, 23. Snow and hail.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hast thou entered into the treasures of snow? – Snow is here represented as something which is laid up like treasure, and kept in reserve for use when God shall require it. Silver and gold were thus laid up for occasions when they would be wanted, and the figurative sentiment here is, that snow and hail were thus preserved for the use to which the Almighty might devote them, or for those great occasions when it would be proper to bring them forth to execute his purposes. Of course, it was to be expected that God would speak in the language which people commonly used when speaking of his works, and would not go into a philosophical or scientific explanation of the phenomena of nature. His object was not to teach science, but to produce a solemn impression of his greatness, and that is secured by such an appeal whether the laws of nature are understood or not. The simple appeal to Job here is, whether he could explain the phenomena of snow and hail?
Could he tell how they were formed? Whence they came? Where they were preserved, and how they were sent forth to execute the purposes of God? The idea is, that all that pertained to the snow was distinctly understood by God, and that these were facts which Job did not know of, and which he could not explain. The effect of time and of scientific investigation, in this as in other cases to which reference is made in this book, has been only to increase the force of this question. The effect of the discoveries which are made in the works of God is not to diminish our sense of his wisdom and majesty, but to change mere wonder to praise; to transform blind amazement to intelligent adoration. Every new discovery of a law of nature is fitted more to impress the mind with awe, and at the same time it becomes the basis of a new act of intelligent confidence in God. This is true of snow as of other things.
In the time and country of Job it came doubtless from the north. Vast quantities seemed to be poured forth from those regions at certain seasons of the year, as if it were reserved there in vast store-houses, or treasuries. Science has, however, told us that it is congealed vapor formed in the air, by the vapor being frozen there before it is collected into drops large enough to form hail. In the descent of the vapor to the earth it is frozen and descends in the numerous variety of crystallized forms in which the flakes appear. Perhaps there is nothing more fitted to excite pleasing conceptions of the wisdom of God – not even the variety of beauty in flowers – than the various forms of crystals in which snow appears. Those crystals present an almost endless variety of forms, Descartes and Dr. Hook were among the first whose minds seem to have been drawn to the figures of the crystals in snow, and since their investigations the suhject has excited great interest in others.
Captain Scoresby, who gave much attention to this subject and to other arctic phenomena, has given a delineation of 96 of these crystals. He adds, The extreme beauty and the endless variety of the microsopic objects perceived in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, are perhaps fully equalled, if not surpassed, in both particulars of beauty and variety, by the crystals of snow. The principal configurations are the stelliform and the hexagonal; though almost every variety of shape of which the generating angle of 60 degrees and 120 degrees are susceptible, may, in the course of a few years observation, be discovered. Some of the general varieties in the figures of the crystals may be referred to the temperature of the air; but the particular and endless modifications of the same classes of crystals can only be referred to the will and pleasure of the First Great Cause, whose works, even the most minute and evanescent, and in regions the most remote from human observation, are altogether admirable. See the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Snow.
Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail – As if the hail were reserved in storehouses, like the weapons of war, to be called forth when God should please, in order to execute his purposes. Hail – so well known in its nature and form – consists of masses of ice or frozen vapor, falling from the clouds in showers or storms. These masses consist of little spherules united, but not all of the same consistence; some being as hard and solid as perfect ice, others soft like frozen snow. Hail-stones assume various figures; some are round, others angular, others pyramidal, others flat, and sometimes they are stellated, with six radii, like crystals of snow – Encylopedia as quoted in Websters Dictionary. Snow and hail are formed in the clouds when they are at an elevation where the temperature is below 32 degrees. The particles of moisture become congealed and fall to the earth. When the temperature below the clouds is more than 32 degrees, the flakes of snow often melt, and descend in the form of rain.
But hailstones, from their greater solidity and more rapid descent, often reach the earth even when the temperature is much higher; and hence, we have storms of hail in the summer. The difference in the formation of snow and hail is, that in the former case the vapor in the clouds is congealed before it is collected into drops; in the case of hail, the vapor is collected into drops or masses, and then frozen. If we examine, says Mr. Leslie, the structure of a hailstone, we shall perceive a snowy kernel encased by a harder crust. It has very nearly the appearance of a drop of water suddenly frozen, the particles of air being driven from the surface toward the center, where they form a spongy texture. This circumstance suggests the probable origin of hail, which is perhaps occasioned by rain falling through a dry and very cold stratum of air – Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Meteorology.
All the facts about the formation of hail were unknown in the time of Job, and hence, God appeals to them as evidence of his superior wisdom and greatness, and in proof of the duty of man to submit to him. These phenomena, which were constantly occurring, man could not explain; and how much less qualified, therefore, was he to sit in judgment on the secret counsels of the Almighty! The same observation may be made now, for though science has done something to explain the laws by which snow and hail are formed, yet those discoveries have tended to enlarge our conceptions of the wisdom of God, and have shown us, to an extent which was not then suspected, how much is still unknown. We see a few of the laws by which God does these things, but who is prepared to explain these laws themselves, or to tell why and how the particles of vapor arrange themselves into such beautiful crystallized forms?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 38:22
Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?
The treasures of the snow
I. The beauty of these treasures. The manifold pleasing forms shaped by the different objects on which it falls; the broad white coverlet of the expansive plain; the undulating hills; the mountain peaks, whose white vestures are seen afar off like interceding high priests. Suggesting to the spiritual eye the infinite resources at the command of the Creator, and the incomprehensible variety and fulness of moral splendours that lie folded up in His character and revelations.
II. The preserving and fructifying powers contained in these treasures. Their power to preserve vegetable life and make the soil richer for its temporary white shroud. Suggestions here arise of the Divine love and wisdom that visit the souls of men in the cold garb of sorrow and pain. The killing process is always one of pain in the human world; the analogy of which, without the pain, we have in the vegetable kingdom. The snow kills and destroys. So does pain and sorrow; but it kills only those influences that are opposed to the life and fruitfulness of after-growths. Are not the purposes of affliction equally beneficial? What a garden of spices has the heart become through some cold and biting winters visitation of sorrow!
III. There is, then, a purging and purifying power in these treasures of the snow. In moral and spiritual discipline we have seen this to be the case. But have we entered into the truth that lies still deeper, and is vital to all soul purifying? Where shall we look for the power to stay the death weeds of sin, and the worlds widespread guilt, if we discover it not in the power that is beautifully typified by the Psalmist in the snow? Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (Psa 51:7). Gods treasures of wisdom, and knowledge, and salvation, are locked up in Him who, in His love and humiliation, spread the mantle of His torn flesh over the worlds festering evil. And out of the death has come the worlds life–purity, peace, hope, radiant with celestial plumage.
IV. What silent forces belong to the snow! During the quiet hours of night, it falls–falls–falls–so softly, so stealthily, that its descent does not disturb even the invalids slumbers; but as we look out in the morning dawn we see broad acres covered with high heaps of compact snow. What busy hands and noisy machinery would be needed to convey a one thousandth part of what you see from your window, from one locality to another, within the same space of time that elapsed during its fall! And how would the chaste and fleecy material be spoilt by the transit, no longer pure as it came from its heavenly birthplace. The Church needs, with its soul eye, to enter into this lesson of the treasures of silent forces. The disciples of the Master have too long been making a great deal of noise in the discharge of their mission, and in many cases substituting the noise for the work. The true workers are a silent band who in much prayer and few words, with Christlike examples and little interest in verbal creeds, whose voices are seldom heard in the streets, and whose names are seldom announced in the papers, are, nevertheless, among the real moral and spiritual forces of the world.
V. Have we considered, in the hour of our great bereavements, the treasures of consolation suggested by the snow? What a springtide of immortal splendours will yet issue from the human seeds that lie covered over by the cold pall of death! In the light of the resurrection we sometimes feel very rich in the treasures of which death has made us conscious,–the roses that are to come out of the snow. (The Study.)
Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?–
The treasures of the hail
This description would serve to impress upon Job the truth that all natural forces are rigidly under Gods control. There are no chance whirlwinds, or lightnings, or snow, or hail storms; all are in His hands. The forces that had stricken Job and his family to the ground were part of Gods well-ordered host. This being so, all these forces exist and act for the highest ends. They fight Gods battles, and are ministers of His glory. So we have a clear assertion of two truths.
I. The supernaturalness of physical forces. Modern science tends to habituate us to regard the world as a machine, the play of blind forces, requiring no explanation beyond its own nexus of causes and effects. Our text contains a far grander and more inspiring conception, telling us that the profoundest fact in creation is not law, but life. Natural laws are the expression of the Divine life, but do not exhaust it.
II. The ethical end of physical forces. They are Gods warriors, treasured up for the day of battle. And what does God fight for? That He may universalise the kingdom of love, that He may see in the world as in a perfect mirror His own image. Clearly, then, creation is not a dull round of cause and effect, perpetual motion without a meaning. Nay, it is all set in the kingdom of love. Love lights the stars, and speeds them on their way. The treasured snow and haft fight for the kingdom of love, or else they would cease to be treasured up. For everything that will not help to bring in the reign of love shall perish. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, waiting for the glory of the sons of God. (Anon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. The treasures of the snow] The places where snow is formed, and the cause of that formation. See on Job 37:6.
Treasures of the hail] It is more easy to account for the formation of snow than of hail. Hail, however, is generally supposed to be drops of rain frozen in their passage through cold regions of the air; and the hail is always in proportion to the size of the raindrop from which it was formed. But this meteor does not appear to be formed from a single drop of water, as it is found to be composed of many small spherules frozen together, the centre sometimes soft like snow, and at other times formed of a hard nucleus, which in some cases has been of a brown colour, capable of ignition and explosion. In the description given of snow, Job 37:6, it has been stated that both snow and hail owe their formation to electricity; the hail being formed in the higher regions of the air, where the cold is intense, and the electric matter abundant. By this agency it is supposed that a great number of aqueous particles are brought together and frozen, and in their descent collect other particles, so that the density of the substance of the hailstone grows less and less from the centre, this being formed first in the higher regions, and the surface being collected in the lower. This theory is not in all cases supported by fact, as in some instances the centre has been found soft and snow-like, when the surface has been hard.
Hail is the only meteor of this kind, from which no apparent good is derived. Rain and dew invigorate and give life to the whole vegetable world; frost, by expanding the water contained in the earth, pulverizes and renders the soil fertile; snow covers and defends vegetables from being destroyed by too severe a frost; but hail does none of these. It not only does no good, but often much harm – always some. It has a chilling, blasting effect in spring and summer, and cuts the tender plants so as to injure or totally destroy them. In short, the treasures of hail are not well known; and its use in the creation has not yet been ascertained. But frost is God’s universal plough, by which he cultivates the whole earth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Dost thou know where I have laid up those vast quantities of snow and hail which I draw forth when I see fit? Dost thou know the causes of them, and the way to produce them? But if thou art unacquainted with these treasures, it is intolerable presumption in thee to pretend that thou knowest those treasures of wisdom which lie hid in my own breast.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. treasuresstorehouses,from which God draws forth snow and hail. Snow is vapor congealed inthe air before it is collected in drops large enough to form hail.Its shape is that of a crystal in endless variety of beautifulfigures. Hail is formed by rain falling through dry cold air.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?] The vapours raised, and clouds formed in the atmosphere, which is the storehouse of those meteors; and may be called treasures, because hidden in the clouds, and not seen by man until the fall of them; and because they are in the keeping, and at the command and direction of the Lord the proprietor of them; and because rich and enriching, especially snow, which falling keeps the earth warm, and makes it fruitful; and because of the abundance thereof which sometimes falls. Now we are not to imagine that the Lord has stores of these laid up in heaps, in times past for time to come; but that he can and does as easily and as soon produce them when he pleases, as one that has treasures laid up can bring them forth at once.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22 Hast thou reached the treasures of the snow,
And didst thou see the treasures of the hail,
23 Which I have reserved for a time of trouble,
For the day of battle and war?
24 Which is the way where the light is divided,
Where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
25 Who divideth a course for the rain-flood
And the way of the lightning of thunder,
26 That it raineth on the land where no one dwelleth,
On the tenantless steppe,
27 To satisfy the desolate and the waste,
And to cause the tender shoot of the grass to spring forth?
The idea in Job 38:22 is not that – as for instance the peasants of Menn, four hours’ journey from Damascus, garner up the winter snow in a cleft of the rock, in order to convey it to Damascus and the towns of the coast in the hot months – God treasures up the snow and hail above to cause it to descend according to opportunity. (comp. Psa 135:7) are the final causes of these phenomena which God has created – the form of the question, the design of which (which must not be forgotten) is ethical, not scientific, is regulated according to the infancy of the perception of natural phenomena among the ancients; but at the same time in accordance with the poet’s task, and even, as here, in the choice of the agents of destruction, not merely hail, but also snow, according to the scene of the incident. Wetzstein has in his possession a writing of Muhammed el-Chatb el-Bosrwi, in which he describes a fearful fall of snow in Hauran, by which, in February 1860, innumerable herds of sheep, goats, and camels, and also many human beings perished.
(Note: Since the Hauranites say of snow as of fire: jahrik , it burns ( brlant in French is also used of extreme cold), Job 1:16 might also be understood of a fall of snow; but the tenor of the words there requires it to be understood of actual fire.)
might, according to Job 24:1; Job 19:11, signify a time of judgment for the oppressor, i.e., adversary; but it is better to be understood according to Job 36:16; Job 21:30, a time of distress: heavy falls of snow and tempestuous hail-storms bring hard times for men and cattle, and sometimes decide a war as by a divine decree (Jos 10:11, comp. Isa 28:17; Isa 30:30; Eze 13:13).
In Job 38:24 it is not, as in Job 38:19, the place whence light issues, but the mode of the distribution of light over the earth, that is intended; as in Job 38:24, the laws according to which the east wind flows forth, i.e., spreads over the earth. is not lightning (Schlottm.), but light in general: light and wind (instead of which the east wind is particularized, vid., p. 533) stand together as being alike untraceable in their courses. , se diffundere , as Exo 5:12; 1Sa 13:8, Ges. 53, 2. In Job 38:25 the descent of torrents of rain inundating certain regions of the earth is intended – this earthward direction assigned to the water-spouts is likened to an aqueduct coming downwards from the sky – and it is only in Job 38:25, as in Job 28:26, that the words have reference to the lightning, which to man is untraceable, flashing now here, now there. This guiding of the rain to chosen parts of the earth extends also to the tenantless steppe. (for ) is virtually an adj. (vid., on Job 12:24). The superlative combination (from = , to be desolate, and to give forth a heavy dull sound, i.e., to sound desolate, vid., on Job 37:6), as Job 30:3 (which see). Not merely for the purposes of His rule among men does God direct the changes of the weather contrary to human foresight; His care extends also to regions where no human habitations are found.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
. He must have penetrated to the storehouses of snow and hail, and entered nature’s laboratory, where, like so many implements of war, they are produced in vast quantities; he must have found his way to the focal centre from which light divides itself and whence the east wind is dispersed over the earth, Job 38:22-24.
22. Treasures of the snow : a word applied frequently to the treasures of the temple, (1Ki 7:51,) or to those of the royal house. 1Ki 14:26; 1Ki 15:18, etc. It is also employed for “magazines,” “treasuries,” or “storehouses;” but here poetically and figuratively for rich and precious treasures that God has laid up against a time of trouble, of which explanation is given in the following verse. Delitzsch finds in the word otseroth (treasures) a deeper meaning the final causes of these phenomena which God has created; the form of the question, the design of which is ethical, not scientific, being regulated according to the infancy of the perception of natural phenomena among the ancients. Cp. Psa 135:7. These weapons of war (Job 38:23) come forth from the divine and unseen arsenal, displaying evidences of divine elaboration and skill. Seen under a microscope they present a beauty and a variety unsurpassed by objects either in the animal or vegetable kingdom. Produced in calm air, the snow builds itself into beautiful stellar shapes, each star possessing six rays. Sir John Herschel remarks, that the variety of forms affected by these delicate mechanisms is infinite; the beauty of their patterns incomparable.
The treasures of the hail Hail falls most commonly in the latter part of the spring, in very heavy storms, and the hail stones are of an enormous size, etc. RUSSELL, Hist, of Aleppo, 1:71. Of Palestine in general, Robinson says: Hail falls in the hill country in the rainy season more frequently than snow; but does not, in general, occasion much damage. Fine hail mingled with rain is common. Phys. Geog. of Holy Land, 265.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
Ver. 22. Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? ] i.e. Into the clouds, where these meteors (whereof before, Job 37:1-24 ) are engendered; and from whence God, when he pleases, bringeth such great store as if he had them treasured up by him for a long season. See the like said of the winds, Psa 135:7 , Quasi parata haberet horum penuaria. Gregory, allegorizing these words, showeth that earthly treasures are treasures of snow. We see little children what pains they take to rake and scrape together snow to make a snowball: right so they that scrape together the treasure of this world have but a snowball of it; as soon as the sun shineth, and God breatheth upon it, and so entereth into it, soon it cometh to nothing.
Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
treasures = treasuries.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
The Treasuries of the Snow
Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow?
Job 38:22.
1. The references to snow in Scripture are few, as might be expected in a land where snow seldom or never fell. But even though the writers may never have felt the cold touch of the snowflake on their cheek, they had in sight two mountains the tops of which were suggestive. Other kings sometimes take off their crowns, but Lebanon and Mount Hermon all the year round and through the ages never lift the coronets of crystal from their foreheads. The first time we find a deep fall of snow in the Bible is where Samuel describes a fight between Benaiah and a lion in a pit; and though the snow may have crimsoned under the wounds of both man and brute, the shaggy monster rolled over dead and the giant was victor. But the snow is not fully recognized in the Bible until God interrogates Job concerning its wonders, saying: Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow?
In the Psalms there is an exquisite hint of a snowfall through the perfect stillness, and a magnificent storm-piece into which the snow comes with other elements. In the Proverbs, again, there is a passage, where the writer says, As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so a faithful servant refreshes the soul of his master. Isaiah has a noble image of the truth falling softly on the heart, as the snow falls softly on the earth. There is not a word about the snow from the lips of the Saviour; and it is only noticed at all in the New Testament in a secondary sense,used as a comparison, never as an experience.1 [Note: R. Collyer, Nature and Life, 46.]
2. In this great poem of Job, the snow is given a place among the wonders of the world, and ranked with the morning stars and the sea and the lightnings and leviathan and death. It is one of the things over which Job is bidden to meditate in his heart, in order to restore his shaken faith in Gods greatness and goodness and mercy. It is taken as one of the thousand revelations that are open to all men of the Divine Power that lives and moves through all the universe and finds nothing too great for its mighty guidance, nothing too small for its constant care.
Come see the north winds masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves with white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmers lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmers sighs; and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad winds night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.1 [Note: Emerson, The Snow-Storm.]
3. In the Authorized Version the translation is the treasures of the snow. The Hebrew word means treasuries or magazines. Snow and hail, says A. B. Davidson, are represented as having been created and laid up in great storehouses in the heavens or above them, from which God draws them forth for the moral ends of His government. But it will not be necessary to insist upon the difference between the two words. The treasures of the snow are in its treasuries.
We shall endeavour to enter the treasuries by considering
I.The Formation of Snow.
II.The Qualities of Snow.
III.The Use of Snow.
I.
The Formation of Snow
1. Snow is no more than a form of water. It is simply the vapour of water in a crystallized form. Indeed, the term crystal found in most of the European languages is derived from the Greek word crystallos, meaning ice or frozen water, and was subsequently transferred to pure transparent stones cut into seals, which, as was thought, were produced only in the extreme cold of lofty passes of the Alps. The atmosphere is charged with watery vapour to an immense extent, and when the temperature is sufficiently low to freeze this moisture, snow is formed. When produced in calm air, the icy particles build themselves into beautiful stellar shapes, each star possessing six rays.
Lieutenant Maury made an estimate based upon the average annual rainfall, which is sufficient to cover the earth to the depth of five feet, that this atmospheric ocean contains an amount of water equal to a lake sixteen feet deep, three thousand miles broad, and twenty-four thousand miles long. From this reservoir of moisture mist and dew are continually precipitated, and from the same storehouse issue forth also hail, snow, and rain. The challenge made to Job, Hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail? was perhaps unanswerable in the days of the patriarch. In a measure it is still unanswered; but modern investigations in meteorology have enabled us to draw aside the cloud-curtain, peep into Natures laboratory, and obtain a reasonably clear mental insight of the formation of snow.
In the range of inorganic nature, I doubt if any object can be found more perfectly beautiful than a fresh, deep snowdrift, seen under warm light. Its curves are of inconceivable perfection and changefulness; its surface and transparency alike exquisite; its light and shade of inexhaustible variety and inimitable finish, the shadows sharp, pale, and of heavenly colour, the reflected lights intense and multitudinous and mingled with the sweet occurrences of transmitted light. No mortal hand can approach the majesty or loveliness of it.1 [Note: Ruskin, Modern Painters (Works, iii. 445).]
2. There is a beauty and mathematical exactness in the structure of crystals that bespeak intelligence. The whirling snowstorm, instead of being, as it seems at the first glance, a bewildering chaos, is a most wonderfully ordered cosmos. If ever anything seems a matter of mere chance it is the fluttering down of a snowflake. And yet we know it to be a fact that no flake falls save in accordance with the same eternal laws which govern the rush of suns through the vast realms of spacethat not one hastens or loiters but as the steady forces guide itthat each one is poised to its resting-place as surely as if angel hands had borne it down from heaven. And that fact helps us to realize what we are learning more surely every day, that there is no such thing as chance anywhere, not even in the riot of the storm; that chance, when you come to look into it, always resolves itself into unknown depths of law, that law is only a human phrase for the working of the Divine Wisdom and Power, and that so there is oneness everywhere.from the very centre to the outmost rim of the universe; not an atom escapes from the all-ruling hand; God is in all things, and God is one.
Descartes announced that he had discovered ninety-three various forms or patterns of snowflakes. The words had scarcely fallen from his lips before another declared that he had found nine hundred. Indeed there is no limit to their diversity; it is fair to say that no two of them are precisely alike, just as no two leaves in Vallombrosa are alike, just as no two human faces are alike on all the earth. This infinite variety is also a distinguishing feature of the work of God.1 [Note: D. J. Burrell, The Spirit of the Age, 205.]
I do not see how one can consider without a feeling of reverence and awe what Ruskin would call such ethics of the dustthis grand mathematical legislation of the universe carried down to and governing even invisible atoms. For we must remember that, if the atomic theory be true, the shape of each tiny crystal depends in its turn upon the obedient march and movement of millions of infinitesimal atoms. How small these are it is almost impossible to realize; but it is estimated that, if a drop of water were swollen to the size of the earth, each constituent atom would still be less than the size of a cricket-ball. You would, therefore, get into billions and trillions, in order to take the atomic census of a snowflake. Now, each one of those individual atoms acts in accordance with regular laws, and the beauty and symmetry of every snowflake depend upon the exact manipulation of these atoms by the Divine energytheir exact obedience to the Divine method of the universe. Surely men need not go to tales of ancient miracles to satisfy their craving for the wonderful. Why, here is a miracle that you can hold in your hand! You tread on a thousand miracles at every step you take.1 [Note: C. J. Perry.]
Supposing you were to go to school during the dinner-hour, when no one was about, and saw lying on the desk an exercise book. If, on opening it, you saw on one page a blot of red ink and another of black, and turning over another leaf saw the imprint of four dirty fingers and a thumb, you would say at once, These came by accident; and the boy who made these marks did not intend to make them. But if, turning over more leaves, you came upon a well-drawn square, and then a perfect circle, and then upon groups of figures drawn and combined, just as in your Euclid, you would say, Ah! that did not come by chance. The boy that drew that circle meant to do it; the boy that drew that figure has passed the pons asinorum, he can do such-and-such a proposition. If another boy were to come in and look over your shoulder, and say, Oh no, they all came by chance, you would open your eyes in amazement, or see at once that he was trying to make a fool of you. We all, by the very law of our minds, at once conclude that that which is full of intelligence and appeals to intelligence comes from intelligence. And so when I enter into the treasuries of the snow, and see the
tiny spherule traced with lines
Of natures geometric signs,
I see in it a revelation of the personality, the intelligence, the wisdom of God.2 [Note: T. Hind, The Treasures of the Snow, 15.]
It may be argued, as it has been argued by the Rev. Aubrey Moore, in Lux Mundi, that the counterpart of the theological belief in the unity and omnipresence of God is the scientific belief in the unity of nature and the reign of law; that the evolution which was at first supposed to have destroyed teleology is found to be more saturated with teleology than the view which it superseded; that it is a great gain to have eliminated chance, to find science declaring that there must be a reason for everything, even when we cannot hazard a conjecture as to what the reason is; that it seems as if in the providence of God the mission of modern science was to bring home to our unmetaphysical ways of thinking the great truth of the Divine immanence in creation, which is not less essential to the Christian idea of God than to the philosophical view of nature. But on the opposite side it may be representedas, indeed, Mr. Aubrey Moore himself expressly allowsthat all these deductions are valid only on the preformed supposition, or belief, that God is, and that he is the rewarder of such as diligently seek him.1 [Note: Life and Letters of G. J. Romanes, F.R.S., 249.]
3. The perfection of the snow crystals assures us that God cares for little things. The simplest creatures of the Divine Hand and the minutest details of their structures are not unworthy of infinite power. Who could have thought these crystals of the snowstorm worthy of such care? Only a snowflake! Is it not a waste of beauty? What unnumbered myriads of them are floating there through the skies! How they blanket the fields; drift in great banks along the fences and railway tracks; fill the ravines in the hills; pack the gorges of the mountain; and lie heaps on heaps upon the highest summits! Surely, as we think of the seeming waste of beauty, we may sing over these flowers of the snow, these crystal gems of the winter storm, as Gray sang in his Elegy:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear,
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Yes! These flowers of the snow, these gems of the winter storm, God has wrought out with as careful touch as the Victoria Regia or the twinkling lustre of Venus, the evening star.
Nothing is small or great in Gods sight; whatever He wills becomes great to us, however seemingly trifling, and if once the voice of conscience tells us that He requires anything of us, we have no right to measure its importance.2 [Note: Jean Nicolaus Grau.]
And God works in the little as the great,
A perfect work, and glorious over all,
Or in the stars that choir with joy elate,
Or in the lichen spreading on the wall.3 [Note: Walter C. Smith, Raban.]
II.
The Qualities of Snow
1. The first thing that strikes us about snow is its purity. The snow is white because the tiny crystals of which it is made reflect so much light. So much light is reflected by the snow that it often makes people snow-blind from excess of light.
What is the blackest thing in all the world? Not jet, nor ebony; not the ravens plume, nor the pupil of an Ethiops eye. The blackest thing in all the world is said to be the blight at the heart of a flower when it is just stricken with death. So the blackest thing in the moral universe is sin at the centre of a soul, spreading corruption through the whole nature of man.
What is the reddest thing in the world? Not the glow of the sunrise or of the sunset; not the heart of a ruby. The reddest thing in the world is the stream that flows from the fountain of life. Blood; the life is in the blood. The most vivid of all tragedies is that of Calvary. In all the moral universe there is naught that so touches the heart of the race.
What is the whitest thing in the world? The whitest thing in the world is the driven snow, for this is not superficial, but whiteness through and through. In all the moral universe there is nothing so glorious as the whiteness of holiness; the fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints.
What is the greatest thing in the world? Love! Ay. Not our love to God, but Gods love to us, manifest in Jesus Christ. The love that holds the hyssop-branch of our frail faith and with it sprinkles the blood upon the soul defiled with the blackness of sin, until it becomes as white as the driven snow. This is the marvellous alchemy of grace. There is forgiveness with God.1 [Note: D. J. Burrell, The Spirit of the Age, 208.]
2. Snow too has a wonderful power. One flake is weak enough, but what can the avalanche and glacier not do? Here is Gods dynamite. In this apparent weakness is the hiding of His strength. The flake that falls into the cleft of the rock, with a few more of its feeble kinsfolk, shall take hold of the roots of the everlasting mountain and tear them asunder. This is Gods way of working. He builds His temple without the sound of hammer or of axe. The sunshine, the atmosphere, the fallen rainthese are His calm potencies. You trample the snowflakes under foot, the children play with them; yet they have within them the possibility of great convulsion. Here are magazines of power. Men work amid demonstration, the shouting of ten thousand voices, the booming of heavy artillery. Gods power is quiet, constant, persistent, infinite, everywhere. So ubiquitous is His omnipotence that men have sometimes taken Force to be their god. When it was desired to blow a ledge of rocks out of New York harbour there were years of preparationdigging of mines, placing of charges, laying of fuses; then the city stood listening; the explosion, the waterspout, and it was done. God rides through the universe in His chariot of Almightiness and its ponderous wheels move as silently as the waving of a butterflys wings.
A learned physicist has declared that to produce from the vapour of water a quantity of snowflakes which a child could carry would demand energy competent to gather up the shattered blocks of the largest stone avalanche of the Alps, and pitch them twice the height from which they fell. If a single baby handful require such force for its creation, what power must have been put forth to produce the thick blanketing of snow that lies upon the northland, from mountain-top to valley, during the winter season?1 [Note: H. C. McCook, The Gospel in Nature, 94.]
Writing to his sister in England from Fort Vermilion, Bishop Bompas said: In your letter I am amused at your regret that you cannot promise me snow and ice in heaven. All I can say is, let us be thankful for it here while we have it, and say, Praise Him, snow and vapours. Depend on it there would be a gap in the display in the wonders of God in Nature if this country were left out. Nowhere in Nature is Gods power more forcibly shown, as you will find explained in Job 37 and Psalms 147.2 [Note: An Apostle of the North: Memoirs of Bishop Bompas, 77.]
Hark! the rushing snow!
The sun-awakened avalanche! whose mass,
Thrice sifted by the storm, had gathered there
Flake after flake, in heaven-defying minds
As thought by thought is piled, till some great truth
Is loosened, and the nations echo round,
Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now.3 [Note: Shelley, Prometheus Unbound.]
3. Another thing that is worth observing in the snow is the silence of its falling. What should you think of a lace mill in which more than a thousand different patterns of lace were being made? Would you not say that this was a very treasury of lace? But if you could find such a mill you would see whirring wheels, grinding gears, humming spindles, great leathern belts, and many men and deft-fingered women at work. You would also expect to see a big, tall chimney to furnish the draught to burn large quantities of coal under the boilers to make the steam, to furnish the power, to drive the gears, belts, spindles, and wheels to make the lace. And then if you should look closely at the lace under a microscope the threads would look as rough as a clothesline. What shall we say of the treasuries of the snowthe silent treasure-house out of which falls, without chimney or belt or wheel or spindle or noise or fuss, most beautiful crystals, which, examined under a microscope, only grow more beautifulso many kinds that we cannot remember even the names of them all, much less their shape, and so many in number as to cover a vast tract of country a foot deep with them in twelve hours?
The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
From sheds new-roofed with Carrara
Came Chanticleers muffled crow,
The stiff rails softened to swans-down,
And still fluttered down the snow.
I stood and watched by the window
The noiseless work of the sky,
And the sudden flurries of snow-birds,
Like brown leaves whirling by.
I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn
Where a little headstone stood;
How the flakes were folding it gently,
As did robins the babes in the wood.
Up spoke our own little Mabel,
Saying, Father, who makes it snow?
And I told of the good All-father
Who cares for us here below.
Again I looked at the snow-fall,
And thought of the leaden sky
That arched oer our first great sorrow,
When that mound was heaped so high.
I remembered the gradual patience
That fell from that cloud like snow,
Flake by flake, healing and hiding
The scar that renewed our woe.
And again to the child I whispered,
The snow that husheth all,
Darling, the merciful Father
Alone can make it fall!
Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her;
And she, kissing back, could not know
That my kiss was given to her sister,
Folded close under deepening snow.1 [Note: J. R. Lowell, The First Snow Fall.]
III.
The Use of Snow
1. Snow is a warm sheath for the earth. Its very colour is unfavourable to the radiation of heat. It follows that when heavy beds are laid upon the earth they act precisely as do bed-coverings or clothes to the human body. The warmth of the covered soil is kept within itself. Moreover, to some extent the rays of the sun penetrate the snow even when it is of considerable thickness. From these two facts results a third fact; viz. that the upper or surface stratum of the ground, even though it be frozen at the first fall of the snow, is soon thawed out, and does not again fall below the freezing-point during the winter, at least while the snow lasts.
From its loose texture, and from the fact that it contains several times its bulk of air, snow is a very bad conductor of heat. It is ranked with wool among the poorest of conductors, and thus it forms an admirable covering for the ground from the effects of radiation. It is relatively as warm to the earth in its thick enswathement of white packed crystals as is the softest wool to the human body. It has happened not infrequently in times of great cold that the soil is forty degrees warmer than the surface of the overlying snow. These facts will suffice to show the value of the snowy mantle which God sends to the earth during the severe frosts of winter.
In Vermont, for four successive days of one winter, the temperature immediately above the snow was thirteen degrees below zero. Beneath the snow, which was four inches deep, the temperature was nineteen degrees above zero, a difference of thirty-two degrees within four or five inches. Under a drift of snow two feet deep the temperature was twenty-seven degrees above zero, thus making a difference of forty degrees, showing that the soil beneath the snow-beds was from thirty-two to forty degrees higher than the temperature of the air. The value of this fact in preserving the life and vigour of plants is at once apparent. It is for this reason that in the borders and glades of woods and forests violets and other small plants begin to vegetate as soon as the snow has thawed the soil around their roots; and they are not infrequently found in full flower under two or three feet of snow.1 [Note: H. C. McCook, The Gospel in Nature, 100.]
In the Lake Superior region, much colder than our own,where the snow falls with the first frosts, and stays to the edge of summer,many of the plants we dig up, and put into our cellars, are left in the ground with perfect safety, because He giveth snow like wool to preserve them under its warm fleece. In my readings, I have found many curious records of persons buried under the snow, surviving through long spans of time; but, if a hand or a foot was exposed, that was lost.2 [Note: R. Collyer, Nature and Life, 52.]
Fill soft and deep, O winter snow,
The sweet azaleas oaken dells,
And hide the bank where roses blow,
And swing the azure bells!
Oerlay the amber violets leaves,
The purple asters brookside home,
Guard all the flowers her pencil gives
A life beyond their bloom.
And she, when spring comes round again,
By greening slope and singing flood
Shall wander, seeking, not in vain,
Her darlings of the wood.1 [Note: J. G. Whittier, Flowers in Winter.]
2. Snow is a useful fertilizer. It prepares the soil for the uses of man. Every agriculturist recognizes this. Many a sheaf of wheat is a sheaf of reaped snowstorm. Many bushels of golden grain are but snowflakes turned to life in rye and barley. The great wheat-fields must have snow or the substitute for it. It is better than the manure which seizes hold of stubborn clods and dried fields, for it wraps them with its white cloak and makes them warm for spring sowing. It refuses to conduct their heat away. It hides it in radiant silence while it wakes the earth up to its coming possibility. Nothing so relieves a field of the care of a crop, or helps it to forget the scratching of the plough or harrow, or makes it independent of the sun which exhorted it to work, as a heavy snowstorm which hides it from December until April.
The snow is falling softly oer the plain,
And slowly hiding neath a veil of white
The fields that once with flowers were bedight
In days of summer sun and summer rain.
Tis thus forgetfulness has healed my pain
By slowly hiding from my inward sight
The dear dead joys that made the past so bright;
And therefore I am happy once again.
Yet een this painless peace must have an end;
The sun will melt the snow in happy tears,
And gild the earth with glory as of yore:
So if I meet thee once again, dear Friend,
Thy smile will straightway melt the mists of years,
And all the happy past be ours once more.2 [Note: Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, Loves Argument and other Poems, 123.]
3. Snow acts as a stimulus to mind and character. It has been noticed that as in the Tropics, land is fruitful, in snowy countries man is fruitful; as a rule the colder the climate, the more vigorous do we find intellect and character. The strong young races that from time to time have freshened the earth with men have always had a home in some winter land; and nearly all the most precious fruits in the higher departments of life and learning have ripened within the snowline. This just meansdoes it not?that it is not a good thing for men that life should be made too easy for them. A certain amount of hardship to be contended with, a certain amount of opposition to be overcome, brings a man out, puts him upon his mettle and develops all his higher faculties. We see this in the matter of climate, in the actual winters and snows that the seasons bring.
It is remarkable that in the thin edge of land between Cincinnati or St. Louis and Chicago there is this difference, that, in the gravest times the nation has ever known, the great ballads, whose influence for good was incalculable,ballads like the Battle-cry of Freedom,came from the city that is set farthest in the snow. I mention these instances as hints of what I mean by that better blessing in the snow than the contemplation of its starry order and noble uses as it lies on the land. What every healthy man and woman feels, when, after the disheartening rains of the last weeks in the autumn, the first powder of the white blessing falls; and then, as winter deepens, the snow comes in good earnest, and
The whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
that is the intimation of the difference between the snow present in, and absent from, our life.1 [Note: R. Collyer, Nature and Life, 56.]
The eighteenth year of my ministry in Myrtle Street commences to-day. Through all these seventeen years I have not had one days illness. Oh! my God, what a responsibility! I have had trials, severe and awful, especially the irreparable loss of my dear wife. But I think that I can say that these afflictions have been of inestimable service, this last in particular; what self-knowledge, what experience, what a power of sympathy it has produced! I now look upon an untried man as an uneducated man. Of all schools, the school of affliction is that which teaches most effectually.2 [Note: Hugh Stowell Brown, in Life by W. S. Caine, 140.]
Surely it is not true blessedness to be free from sorrow, while there is sorrow and sin in the world; sorrow is then a part of love, and love does not seek to throw it off.1 [Note: George Eliot.]
A cold wind stirs the blackthorn
To burgeon and to blow,
Besprinkling half-green hedges
With flakes and sprays of snow.
Thro coldness and thro keenness,
Dear hearts, take comfort so:
Somewhere or other doubtless
These make the blackthorn blow.2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]
Literature
Bompas (W. C.), Northern Lights on the Bible, 99.
Burrell (D. J.), The Spirit of the Age, 203.
Collyer (R.), Nature and Life, 43.
Gunsaulus (F. W.), Paths to the City of God, 136.
Hind (T.), The Treasures of the Snow, 11.
Jordan (D. A.), Sunday Talks on Nature Topics, 103.
Lambert (J. C.), Three Fishing Boats, 117.
Leader (G. C.), Wanted a Boy, 60.
McCook (H. C.), The Gospel in Nature, 82.
Talmage (T. De Witt), Sermons, v. 311.
Church of England Magazine, lxx. (1871) 285 (Thursfield).
Churchmans Pulpit: Septuagesima Sunday, lxii. 287 (Perry).
Homiletic Review, lix. 66 (Fry)
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Job 6:16, Job 37:6, Psa 33:7, Psa 135:7
Reciprocal: Gen 1:6 – Let there Exo 9:23 – and hail Deu 28:12 – open Job 36:31 – by Psa 147:17 – casteth Psa 148:8 – Fire Jer 10:13 – bringeth Jer 51:16 – bringeth Rev 11:19 – and great
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 38:22-23. Hast thou entered into the treasures of snow? Dost thou know where I have laid up those vast quantities of snow and hail which I draw forth when I see fit? Dost thou know the causes of them, and the way to produce them? But if thou art unacquainted with these treasures, it is intolerable presumption in thee to pretend that thou knowest those treasures of wisdom which lie hid in my own breast. Which I have reserved That is, which snow, and especially which hail, I have prepared, against the time of trouble When I intend to bring trouble or calamity upon any country or people, for the punishment of their sins, or for their trial. Or, as the Hebrew , legneth tzar, may be properly rendered, against the time of the enemy; that is, when I intend to punish mine or my peoples enemies, and to fight against them with these weapons. Against the day of battle and war Though the expression here is general, and means only that the Almighty reserves these powers in nature as the instruments of destruction for wicked men; yet particular cases may well be referred to, as explanatory hereof. See, therefore, Exo 9:23, and Jos 10:11. Respecting the treasures of snow and hail, the philosophical reader will find great satisfaction by referring to Scheuchzer on the place. Dodd.