The Treasures of the Snow
"Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” Job 38:22
REFLECTION: A real “snow storm” is rare for the North Carolina winters. I am truly grateful to be able to serve in such a beautiful part of the world! As much as I love this area, I must admit that I sometimes miss the snow of the North East. Our trip out west in reminded me of the splendor of Snow as the mountains of the Grand Teton were even then capped with it. I used to love to walk in the woods behind my house in upstate New York just after a snow storm. The quiet beauty of the majestic pine forest and the “purifying effect” a blanket of fresh snow has on everything always refreshed me. In fact God used snow as an illustration when trying to encourage a suffering and questioning Job to keep things in perspective. In Job 38:22 God asked Job:
"Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?”
Some of God’s richest “Treasures” are found in the snow!
1. THE TREASURE OF PURITY.
A. The snow acts as a “filter” to remove germs and impurities from the air.
1) There are more “sick” people in the South during the winter than in the harsh North.
B. It also leaves a blanket of pure white over everything, turning even the most desolate landscape into a thing of beauty.
C. Job’s life is an example of how God works this miracle differently:
1) Sometimes through quiet nights when everything sleeps. (First half of Job’s life.)
2) Sometimes through blizzards that overtake everything in their path.
Job understood that Purity was one of the Purposes God was trying to accomplish in his life. He declared in Job 23:10: "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
God is still in the business of Purifying His People: “Behold I make all things new”
> "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Psa 51:7)
> "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isa 1:18)
> Psalm 68:13, 14 “Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow “
2. THE TREASURE OF POWER.
A. The Word “Treasure” in Job 38:22 is the Hebrew word o-tsaw': which literally means an armory.
1) Although snow flakes are very small, when enough of them band together they have the power to shut down an entire City, or even a whole State! A few years ago a storm shut down Montreal for 3 weeks.
2) God also sends “storms” in our lives to slow us down (or stop us) long enough to acknowledge Him. (Ps. 46:10)
3.THE TREASURE OF “PECULIARITY” "who maketh thee to differ from another?" (1 Cor 4:7)
A. Do you remember the wonder you felt when you first learned that no two snowflakes are ever alike. In spite of the millions of snowflakes that form a single “snow man”, not one of them are exactly like any other!
B. What a beautiful reminder of the power and personality of our great God. Of the more than 5 billion people now living, not one of them is exactly like another! Even biologically identical twins are different in many ways.
C. Job had trouble understanding why he was suffering more than others.
God reminded Job that since we are all different, He must sometimes deal with us differently.
4. THE TREASURE OF PATIENCE (Phil 2:13)
A. It takes time to create each snowflake!
The conditions must be precise in order for one to form.
B. God is actively and patiently working “all things together for good” to develop us into the “shapes”
He desires and designed for us. My children sometimes sing a little chorus:
“God’s still working on me, To make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars;
The sun and the Earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How kind and how patient He must be: ‘Cause He’s still working on Me.
"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." (Heb 10:36)
5. THE TREASURE OF PERFECTION
A. EACH ‘FLAKE’ IS PERFECT IN IT’S SEMETRY.
"The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands." (Ps 138:8) See also Job 23:10
6. THE TREASURE OF PRAISE. Eph 1:10-19
A. SNOW is a picture of praise because it fulfills it’s purposes.
> "Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:" (Psa 148:8)
> "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isa 55:10, 11)
