White As Snow

WHITE AS SNOW VS. WHITEOUT

Today with digital time keepers, notepads and books most students have never heard of whiteout. On a digital device you can just delete information but there is often a way to still retieve it.  I still use a paper calendar and at the beginning of this new year appointments have already been changed. Whiteout covers the old entrees. The inventor of the first correction fluid, commonly known as White-Out, was Bette Nesmith Graham, a secretary who developed it in the 1950s to fix typing errors.  I can write over the space but the original writing lies underneath.

In the Old Testament the Israelites were told to bring animal sacrifices to pay their debt for sin.  This restored their relationship with God and the greater community. Because the sacrificial animal was morally innocent, it became the vehicle through which the offerer’s sin was forgiven, with atonement granted on the basis of the innocent life surrendered in death. These sacrifices provided a dual function—addressing present sin while foreshadowing future redemption.This explains why sacrifices required repeated offering, since they provided only temporary covering.   (info from Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

WHITE AS SNOW VS. SCARLET

Hebrews 9:22    Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Isaiah 1:18    Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

 

Why is sin compared to the color of scarlet or crimson in the Bible?  Scarlet dye (shani in Hebrew) in the Bible was a highly prized, permanent, and expensive dye derived from the dried, crushed bodies of a female scale insect (Kermes echinatus) found on oak trees. Our sin or rebellion against God is  permanent and costly without divine intervention. ( the facts and symbolism of the scarlet or crimson worm is quite interesting)

WHITE AS SNOW BEFORE A HOLY GOD

White represents purity. When Isaiah says that the Lord can change our sins from scarlet or crimson to snow or wool, he is saying that the Lord can do something that is impossible for us to do on our own. A cloth dyed red stays red. But regardless of the stain of our sins, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can make us pure again if we repent.

Hebrews 10:12,14    But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, …For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

1 John 1:8–9    If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

It is winter in New England and we have been blanketed with snow.  Watching each unique snowflake float down is beautiful and it reminds me of what our Heavenly Father has done for each and everyone of us.  Below is the first line and chorus to an old hymn written in 1872 by James Nicholson.  I hope this is the desire of your heart.

Whiter Than Snow