27 And
Enoch beheld angels descending out of heaven, bearing testimony of the Father
and Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers
of heaven into Zion.
28 And
it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people,
and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens
weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains? (Moses
7:27-28)
When I was reading this, the
phrase “tears as rain upon the mountains” suddenly stuck out to me, and I
wondered about it. Why compare God’s
tears to rain upon the mountains?
Why not rain on the plains or rain on the coast? And what are we to learn from this?
I grew up in the plains in
Illinois, and rain there is pretty steady. Usually it starts and goes pretty
steadily throughout the day. Then I came out to Utah to college at BYU,
and I noticed rain in Utah had a different pattern. It would drip for maybe 10
minutes or so, and then start raining in earnest. (The dripping time was like a
warning to run for the rain gear.) It would rain for a while, and then stop.
And I’d think it was over, and then maybe an hour later it would rain again. It
might rain several times in a day.
To me that was very peculiar.
It is possible that Enoch
was referring to this kind of rain-in-the-mountains pattern—rain…[stop]…rain….[stop]….rain…[stop]—to
convey the idea that as God watched the residue of the people—those who hadn’t
accepted the gospel—He was moved to weep multiple times. Like sometimes they are…okay…and other
times they do such terrible things that God just cries over them.
Let’s not be the kind of
people that God cries over like this. Instead let’s be the kind that He can
watch and be pleased with for the whole day.
2 comments:
So you want His rain pattern to be more like sunny Arizona? Interesting analogy. On another note, I was in RS one day when a sister said something about it never rained on earth until Noah's Flood. I said, "Say what?" She was adamant and referred to a verse in Genesis about a mist rising from the ground, in the Garden of Eden. Anyway, I guessed she had never read The Pearl of Great Price carefully, if at all, because of this verse about Enoch. How would he have known to compare God's tears to rain if he had never seen or experienced rain?
The Pearl of Great Price books of Moses and Abraham are two of my favorites of all scriptures because of the richness of information and insights they contain. They restore many of the plain and precious parts removed from Genesis during the ages of darkness.
Thanks for your insights.
Ah yes, the mist thing. People have all kinds of interesting ideas in the church. I suppose I have my share too..
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