SNOW IN JERUSALEM

God thunders marvelously with His voice;
He does great things which we cannot comprehend.
 For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’;
Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.

Job 37:5-6

Yesterday we all got excited here in Jerusalem. Schools closed early and the Municipality stationed its ‘snowplows’ at strategic places around the city. Everyone stocked up on groceries and candles, and hunkered down at home. Snow was forecast. The storm arrived in the north in the morning, with heavy snow falling on Mt Hermon, in the Golan and on the higher hills of the Galilee. It was expected to spread to the central hills, including Jerusalem around nightfall. All day here we experienced gale force winds and a choking sandstorm as the SW winds whipped up loess dust from the Sahara and dumped it on us. My poor garden looks like someone took a flame thrower to it. The rain began late afternoon with lightning and heavy hail, and this continued all night, but no snow fell here in Mevaseret, much to our disappointment. Some light snow did fall in central Jerusalem and the hills to the south, but it got washed away quickly by the heavy rain and hail. This morning it is cold and windy but the rain has stopped and the storm is passing on. I guess all the ‘snowplows’ are getting back to their normal jobs. Perhaps I should explain that we don’t have real snowplows here, just a fleet of around 150 tractors with scoops, which normally are employed for digging ditches etc.

Snow is not the first thing that springs to most people’s minds when they think of Israel’s climate. Israel lies at a latitude of around 30 degrees North in the subtropical region, on the edge of the great deserts of Arabia and the Sahara. Its climate can be characterized as hot and arid. And so it is most of the year. For around 8 months a year not a drop of rain falls and the days are boringly (is that a word?) hot and sunny. However our brief winter can be surprisingly cold and wet, and snow falls most years on the higher regions of the Galilee, the Golan and especially on Mt Hermon, which at a height of 2,814 m (9,232 ft) gets snow every year. The central mountains of Judea and Samaria, and the high Negev region- get snow about every 5 years on average. Jerusalem lies at an altitude of around 800m ( 2620 ft) and therefore it is cold enough to get snow at those times. Down on the coastal plain and in the Judean foothills it almost never snows, so many children who live there have never seen snow. I believe the last time it snowed in Tel Aviv was in 1931! In recent years some snowless municipalities have begun to truck in piles of snow, dump them in parking lots and let the kiddies play. If that doesn’t happen, then some enterprising daddies find a friend with a truck!!! (see below)

Of course snow is not just fun for children (and, let’s admit it, for grown-ups too), it fulfills an especially important role in our lives here. The slow snow melt filters down through the porous rocks and fills the underground aquifers upon which we all depend. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God warned the Israelites to turn from their sin and so avoid the coming Exile to Babylon, saying:

“Ask now among the Gentiles,
Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?”

Jeremiah 18: 13-14

The snow water of Mt Hermon, which lies mainly in Lebanon, filters down under the ground and emerges lower down in springs coming forth from the rocks of the field. This is good, clean, life-giving water. This water is one of the primary sources of the water that replenishes the Sea of Galilee, from which we draw water for household use, agriculture and industry even today. Why would we forsake such a goodly water source and go into Exile? God is saying, I have given you all you need here, great and generous gifts, such as living water, so why would you allow sin to destroy all that. Isn’t this true of our lives too? If we live in relationship with God, accept his good gifts in Yeshua, his Messiah and his Word, why should we risk losing all that wonderful bounty by falling into sin?

Snow is also a symbol of God’s life-giving word. As the rain and snow come down from heaven and water the Earth bringing life, so is God’s word that comes down from heaven. If we receive it, it will bring us life also, a rich and abundant, and everlasting life.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me ^[cvoid,

Isaiah 55 : 8-11

Snow, for its whiteness, is also a symbol of purity. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Judah, warning them of the coming disaster of the Babylonian exile, the LORD says:

Come now, let us argue it out,
    says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
    they shall become like wool.
 If you are willing and obedient,
    you shall eat the good of the land;
 but if you refuse and rebel,
    you shall be devoured by the sword;
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 1: 18-20

Both the prophet Daniel and the writer of the Book of Revelation, believed to be John the Apostle, had a vision of One, Ancient of Days, in heaven, and both described His hair and clothing as being as white as snow.

As I watched,
thrones were set in place,
    and an Ancient One took his throne,
his clothing was white as snow,
    and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames,
    and its wheels were burning fire.

Daniel 7:9

Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.  His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; 

Revelation 1:12 -14

Clearly snow was a phenomenon well known by the people of Israel even though it was probably rare and confined to the mountain chain as it is today. In ancient times the coastal plain was riddled with malarial swamps and thick forests, and the climate unbearably hot and humid in the summer months. It was therefore along the mountains of Judah and Samaria that most of the people would have lived, and in winter they would have experienced snow at times.