Frost And Thaw

Introduction Snow blankets the earth, frost glitters, and ice forms—all under God’s command. Witness His power and wisdom in nature’s swift transformations, revealing lessons of providence, care, and divine order.

“He gives snow like wool; he scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.” — Psalm 147:16–18 (ESV) Looking out of our window one morning, we saw the earth clothed in a white covering; for in only a few short hours the ground had been covered to a considerable depth with snow. We looked out again a few hours later and saw the fields as green as ever, and the ploughed land as bare as if not a single flake had fallen.

It is not uncommon for a heavy fall of snow to be followed by a rapid thaw. These interesting changes are brought about by God, not only with a purpose toward the outward world, but with some design toward the spiritual realm. God is always a teacher. In every action he performs he is instructing his own children and opening to them the way into deeper mysteries.

Happy are those who find food for their heaven-born spirits, as well as for their minds, in the works of the Lord’s hands.

I shall ask your attention, first, to the operations of nature spoken of in the text; and secondly, to those operations of grace of which they are the most fitting symbols.

I. Consider, First, the Operations of Nature We shall not think a few minutes wasted if we call your attention to the hand of God in frost and thaw, even upon natural grounds.

1. Observe the Directness of the Lord’s Work Observe the directness of the Lord’s work. I rejoice, as I read these words, to find how present our God is in the world.

It is not written, “the laws of nature produce snow,” but, “He gives snow,” as though every flake came directly from the palm of his hand.

We are not told that certain natural processes form moisture into frost; no — but just as Moses took ashes from the furnace and scattered them over Egypt, so it is said of the Lord, “He scatters the frost like ashes.” It is not said that the Eternal set the world in motion and that ice is produced merely by the operation of machinery. Oh no — every single fragment of ice descending in the hail is from God; “He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs.” Even as a slinger distinctly sends a stone from his sling, so the path of every hailstone is marked by divine power.

The ice is called, you observe, his ice; and in the next sentence we read of his cold. These words make nature wonderfully majestic. When we look upon every hailstone as God’s hail, and upon every fragment of ice as his ice, how precious those watery diamonds become. When we feel the cold biting our limbs and penetrating every garment, it consoles us to remember that it is his cold.

When the thaw comes, see how the text speaks of it: “He sends out his word.” He does not leave it to certain forces of nature, but like a king — “He sends out his word and melts them; he makes his wind blow.” He has a special ownership in every wind; whether it comes from the north to freeze, or from the south to melt, it is his wind.

Behold how in God’s temple everything speaks of his glory. Learn to see the Lord in all scenes of the visible universe, for truly he works all things. This thought of the directness of the divine operations must be carried into providence. It will greatly comfort you if you can see God’s hand in your losses and hardships; surely you will not complain against the direct action of your God.

This will put an extraordinary sweetness into daily mercies and make the comforts of life more comfortable still, because they are from a Father’s hand. If your table is scantily furnished, it shall suffice for your contented heart when you know that your Father has spread it for you in wisdom and love.

This shall bless your bread and your water. This shall make the bare walls of an unfurnished room as splendid as a palace, and turn a hard bed into a couch of down — my Father does it all. We see his smile of love even when others see nothing but the dark hand of death striking those we love most. We see a Father’s hand when disease lays our cattle dead upon the field. We see God at work in mercy when we ourselves are stretched upon a bed of illness.

It is always our Father’s act and deed. Do not let us move beyond this. Rather, let us enlarge our understanding of this truth, and remember that it is true of the small as well as of the great.

Let the lines of a true poet strike you: “If pestilence stalks through the land, you say the Lord has done it — Has he not done it when an aphis creeps upon the rosebud? If an avalanche tumbles from the Alps, you tremble at the will of Providence — Is not that will as much concerned when the dry leaves fall from the poplar?”

Let your hearts sing over everything: Jehovah-Shammah — the Lord is there.

2. Notice the Ease of Divine Working Next, I beg you to notice, with thanksgiving, the ease of divine working. These verses read as if the making of frost and snow were the simplest matter in all the world. A man puts his hand into a sack of wool and throws it out — God gives snow as easily as that: “He gives snow like wool.” A man takes up a handful of ashes and throws them into the air, so that they fall around — “He scatters the frost like ashes.” Rime and snow are marvels of nature. Those who have observed the extraordinary beauty of ice crystals have been enraptured, and yet they are easily formed by the Lord. “He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs” — just as easily as we cast crumbs of bread outside the window for the robins during wintry days.

When the rivers are frozen solid and the earth is held in iron chains, then the melting of it all — how is that done? Not by kindling countless fires, nor by sending electric shocks through the interior of the earth. No — “He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.”

The whole matter is accomplished with a word and a breath. If you and I had any great thing to do, what puffing and straining there would be. Even great engineers, who perform marvels by machinery, make much noise and commotion about it. It is not so with the Almighty. Our globe spins round in twenty-four hours, and yet it does not make as much noise as a child’s spinning top.

Those vast worlds rolling in space trace their paths in silence. If I enter a factory, I hear a deafening roar. If I stand near the village mill turned by water, there is an unceasing clatter. But God’s great wheels revolve without noise or friction. Divine machinery works smoothly. This ease is seen in providence as well as in nature. Your heavenly Father is as able to deliver you as he is to melt the snow, and he will deliver you in as simple a manner if you rest upon him. He opens his hand and supplies the needs of every living thing as readily as he works in nature. Mark the ease of God’s working — he simply opens his hand.

3. Notice the Variety of the Divine Operations Notice, in the next place, the variety of the divine operations in nature. When the Lord is at work with frost as his tool, he creates snow — a wonderful production, every crystal a marvel of design.

But he is not content with snow. From the same water he makes another form of beauty which we call frost, and yet a third shining substance — glittering ice — all by the one agency of cold. What marvellous variety the trained eye can detect in the several forms of frozen water.

The same God who solidified the flood with cold soon melts it with warmth. But even in thaw there is no monotony. At one time the streams rush with such force from their imprisonment that rivers swell and floods cover the plain. At another time, by slow degrees and in small trickles, the drops regain their freedom. The same variety is seen in every department of nature.

So in providence, the Lord has a thousand forms of frosty trial with which to test his people, and ten thousand beams of mercy with which to cheer and comfort them. He can afflict you with the snow trial, or with the frost trial, or with the ice trial, if he wills. And then, at once, he can by his word loosen the bonds of adversity — and that in countless ways. Whereas men are limited to a few methods in accomplishing their purposes, God is infinite in understanding and works as he wills by ways beyond mortal imagination.

4. Consider the Swiftness of God’s Work I shall ask you also to consider the works of God in nature in their swiftness. It was thought a wonderful thing in the days of Ahasuerus that letters were sent by post on swift animals. In our own land we thought we had reached the age of wonders when railway axles glowed with speed, and now with the telegraph we seem to stretch our hands into infinity. But what is our speed compared with that of God’s operations?

Well does the Scripture say: “He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.” — Psalm 147:15 (ESV) Forth went the word, “Open the storehouses of snow,” and the flakes descended in countless multitudes. Then it was said, “Let them be closed,” and not another snowflake appeared. Then the Master spoke, “Let the south wind blow and the snow be melted,” and it disappeared at the voice of his word. Believer, you cannot tell how soon God may come to your help.

“He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.” — Psalm 18:10 (ESV) He will come from above to rescue his beloved. He will rend the heavens and come down. With such speed will he descend that he will not pause to draw aside heaven’s curtains, but will tear them in his haste, and make the mountains flow down at his feet, that he may deliver those who cry to him in the hour of trouble. That mighty God who can melt the ice so swiftly can take to himself the same eagle wings and hasten to your deliverance.

Arise, O God, and let your children be helped — and that right early. 5. One Other Thought: Consider the Goodness of God One other thought: consider the goodness of God in all the operations of nature and providence.

Think of that goodness negatively. “Who can stand before his cold?” You cannot help thinking of the poor in a harsh winter — only a hard heart could forget them when you see the snow lying deep. But suppose that snow continued to fall. What is there to hinder it? The same God who sends us snow for one day could send it for fifty days if he pleased. Why not? And when the frost grips us so severely, why should it not continue month after month? We can only thank that goodness which does not send “his cold” to such an extent that our spirits fail. Travellers towards the North Pole tremble as they consider that question, “Who can stand before his cold?”

For cold has a kind of overwhelming power when God is pleased to let it loose. Let us thank God for the restraining mercy by which he holds the cold in check.

Not only negatively, but positively there is mercy in the snow. Is not that a suggestive metaphor?

“He gives snow like wool.” Snow is said to warm the earth. It protects the little plants that have just begun to peep above the ground and might otherwise be frostbitten. Like a garment of down, the snow shields them from extreme cold. Hence Watts sings, in his version of the hundred and forty-seventh Psalm: “His flakes of snow like wool he sends, And thus the springing corn defends.”

It was an idea among the ancients that snow warmed the heart of the soil and gave it fertility, and therefore they praised God for it. Certainly there is much mercy in frost. Pestilence might run a far longer course if frost did not cry to it, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther.” Harmful insects would multiply until they devoured the precious fruits of the earth if sharp nights did not destroy millions of them, so that these pests are swept away. Though man may think himself a loser by the cold, he is in the end a great gainer by the decree of Providence that appoints winter. The quaint saying of one of the old writers, that “snow is wool, and frost is fire, and ice is bread, and rain is drink,” is true, though it sounds like a paradox. There is no doubt that frost, by breaking up the soil, promotes fruitfulness, and so the ice becomes bread.

Thus those agencies which for the moment deprive workers of their means of livelihood are the very means by which God supplies every living thing. Mark, then, God’s goodness as clearly in the snow and frost as in the thaw which clears away winter’s work. Christian, remember the goodness of God in the frost of adversity. Rest assured that when God is pleased to send the biting winds of affliction, he is in them, and he is always love — as much love in sorrow as when he breathes upon you the soft south wind of joy.

See the lovingkindness of God in every work of his hand. Praise him — he makes summer and winter — let your song run through the whole year. Praise him — he gives the day and sends the night — thank him at all hours. Cast not away your confidence; it has great reward.

As David wove the snow, and rain, and stormy wind into a song, so weave your trials, your troubles, your difficulties and adversities into a sweet psalm of praise, and say continually: “Let us, with a gladsome mind, Praise the Lord, for he is kind.”

Thus much upon the operations of nature. It is a very inviting theme, but other fields call me. II. The Operations of Grace I would now address you very earnestly and solemnly upon those operations of grace of which frost and thaw are the outward symbols. There is a season with God’s own people when he comes to deal with them by the frost of the law. The law is to the soul as the cutting north wind. Faith can see love in it, but the natural eye cannot. It is a cold, terrible, comfortless blast. To be exposed to the full force of the law of God would be to be frostbitten with everlasting destruction. Even to feel it for a season would chill one’s very being and make the whole person rigid with fear. “Who can stand before his cold?” When the law comes forth thundering from its treasuries, who can endure it?

The effect of the law upon the soul is to bind up the rivers of human delight. No one can rejoice when the terrors of conscience are upon him. When the law of God sweeps through the soul, music and dancing lose their joy, the cup loses its power to cheer, and the enchantments of earth are broken. The rivers of pleasure freeze into icy despondency. The buds of hope are suddenly nipped, and the soul finds no comfort. It once found satisfaction in growing rich, but now rust and decay seem upon all gold and silver. Every promising hope is frostbitten, and the spirit is bound in winter despair. This cold makes the sinner feel how ragged his garments are. In summer weather he could parade about and think his rags were royal robes, but now the frost finds every tear in his clothing, and in the hands of the terrible law he trembles like leaves upon the aspen.

The north wind of judgment searches the man through and through. He did not know what was within him, but now he sees his inward parts filled with corruption and decay. These are some of the terrors of the wintry breath of the law. This frost of law and terror alone tends only to harden.

Nothing splits the rock or makes the cliff fall like frost when followed by thaw, but frost by itself makes the earth like iron, breaking the ploughshare that tries to pierce it.

A sinner under the influence of the law of God, apart from the gospel, is hardened by despair and says, “There is no hope; therefore I will follow my own desires. Since there is no heaven for me after this life, I will make a heaven out of this earth; and since hell awaits me, I will at least enjoy whatever sweetness sin can give me here.”

This is not the fault of the law. The blame lies with the corrupt heart that is hardened by it. Yet such is its effect. When the Lord has worked by the frost of the law, he sends the thaw of the gospel. When the south wind blows from the land of promise, bringing precious reminders of God’s fatherly pity and tender mercy, then at once the heart begins to soften. A sense of blood- bought pardon quickly dissolves it. The eyes fill with tears, the heart melts in tenderness, rivers of joy flow freely, and buds of hope open in the cheerful air.

A heavenly spring whispers to the flowers that were sleeping in the cold earth. They hear its voice and lift up their heads, for: “For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.” — Song of Solomon 2:11–12 (ESV) God sends his word, saying, “Your warfare is ended, your iniquity is pardoned.” — Isaiah 40:2 (ESV) When that blessed, cheering word comes with power to the soul, and the sweet breath of the Holy Spirit acts like the warm south wind upon the heart, then the waters flow, and the mind is filled with holy joy, light, and liberty.

“The legal wintry state is gone, The frosts are fled, the spring comes on, The sacred turtle-dove we hear Proclaim the new, the joyful year.” Having shown you that there is a parallel between frost and thaw in nature and law and gospel in grace, I would now repeat the same thoughts concerning grace that I gave you concerning nature.

1. Remark the Directness of God’s Work in Grace We began with the directness of God’s works in nature. Now, beloved friends, remark the directness of God’s works in grace. When the heart is truly affected by the law of God, when sin is made to appear exceedingly sinful, when earthly hopes are frozen by the law, when the soul feels its barrenness and utter ruin — this is the finger of God.

Do not speak merely of the minister. It was right that he preached earnestly. God used him as an instrument, but God works all. When the thaw of grace comes, I pray you discern the distinct hand of God in every beam of comfort that gladdens the troubled conscience, for it is the Lord alone who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” — Psalm 147:3 (ESV) We are far too ready to stop at instruments. Folly leads men to look to sacraments for heart- breaking or heart-healing, but sacraments say, “It is not in us.” Some look to the preaching of the Word and look no higher, but faithful preachers will tell you, “It is not in us.” Eloquence and earnestness, even at their highest, can neither break nor heal a heart. This is God’s work — not secondary, as though God merely stood behind natural law — but his personal and immediate work. He stretches out his own hand when the conscience is humbled, and by his own right hand the conscience is relieved and cleansed.

I desire that this thought remain with you, for otherwise you will not praise God properly, nor will you remain sound in doctrine. All departures from sound teaching on conversion arise from forgetting that it is a divine work from beginning to end. The faintest desire after Christ is as much the work of God as the gift of his dear Son. From Alpha to Omega, the Holy Spirit works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure. — Philippians 2:13 (ESV) As you have clearly seen the finger of God in casting forth his ice and in sending thaw, so I pray you recognise the handiwork of God in giving you a sense of sin and in bringing you to the Saviour’s feet. Join together in heartfelt praise to the wonder-working God, who does all things according to the counsel of his will.

“Our seeking Your face Was all of Your grace; Your mercy demands and shall have all the praise.

No sinner can be Beforehand with You; Your grace is preventing, almighty and free.” 2. The second thought about nature is the ease with which the Lord works. There is no struggle or disturbance. Apply this to the work of grace. How easy it is for God to bring conviction into a person’s heart! You stubborn sinner cannot touch Him, and even the circumstances of life have failed to awaken you. You are dead—completely dead in your sins. But if the glorious Lord sends the wind of His Spirit, He will melt you. The person who curses and lives in sin, whose words are full of profanity—if the Lord looks upon them and reveals His irresistible grace, they will yet praise God, bless His name, and live for His glory.

Do not limit God. Saul, the persecutor, became Paul, the apostle. Why should not someone you almost despair of also be saved? Your husband may seem unreachable, your son may have offended both heaven and you—but no one is beyond the reach of God. Even the hardest, most stubborn sin must yield to the warmth of His grace. Even the largest iceberg of wrongdoing can melt in the ocean of God’s love.

Dear sinner, perhaps God has sent a long, cold winter into your soul, and it feels like it will never end. Let me encourage you to hope and to pray for His gracious visitation. Miss Steele’s poem captures this feeling perfectly: "Stern winter throws his icy chains, Encircling nature round; How bleak, how comfortless the plains, Late with green so richly crowned!

The sun withdraws its vital beams, And light and warmth depart; And, drooping lifeless, nature seems An emblem of my heart— My heart, where mental winter reigns In night’s dark mantle clad, Confined in cold, inactive chains; How desolate and sad!

Return, O blissful sun, and bring Thy soul-reviving ray; This mental winter shall be spring, This darkness cheerful day."

It is easy for God to save you. He says, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a thick cloud” (Isaiah 44:22, ESV). I remember looking up at a black cloud one evening, certain it would rain; I went inside, and when I came back out, the sky was clear—the wind had blown the cloud away.

So it is with your soul. God can remove all your sins in an instant. All obstacles were removed by Jesus on the cross, and if you believe in Him, He has cast your sins into the depths of the sea. “If you can believe, all things are possible for the one who believes” (Mark 9:23, ESV).

3. The next thought about God’s work in nature is its variety. Frost produces a trinity of effects— snow, hoarfrost, and ice—and the thaw comes in many forms. So it is with God in the heart.

Conviction is different for everyone. Some experience it gently, like falling snow—they scarcely notice it at first. True repentance can begin quietly and softly. Others experience it like hailstones, harsh and noisy, striking the heart with a sense of terror. God works in different ways, but every method accomplishes His purpose. Be thankful for His visitation, but do not try to dictate how He works.

As for the Gospel thaw, do not demand a particular way for God’s grace. Thawing is gradual and universal. The surface ice melts first, and slowly the warmth penetrates the entire mass until every frozen rock gives way. In the same way, the Spirit works gradually in the heart—enlightening the mind, freeing the will, removing fear, inspiring hope, awakening the spirit, and producing peace and joy. You cannot see Him at work any more than you can see the wind, but you can feel the effects. Do not be surprised if your experience is different from others’. There is a pattern in God’s work, like the likeness between snow, hoarfrost, and ice, but the details vary.

4. Notice the speed of God’s work: “His word runs very swiftly” (Psalm 147:15, ESV). It did not take long for God to remove the last snow. A human might need days to finish such work, but God’s Word acts instantly. So it is with the soul. The Lord can work quickly when He blesses a heart. Even if you have been under the weight of sin and law for a long time, God can free you in an instant. He can bring you from death to life, from condemnation to justification. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43, ESV), Jesus told a dying thief.

Only believe in Christ’s sacrifice, and you will be saved.

5. Finally, consider God’s goodness. How merciful that He did not burden us with more law than we could bear! “Who can stand before his cold?” (Job 37:22, ESV). When God reveals His wrath to a soul, it is terrifying. Sin can weigh a person down like a crushing burden, but Jesus has borne it for us. Even on the Rock of Ages, we do not rejoice because we carry it ourselves, but because He has carried it. The frost of conviction humbles pride, destroys self-righteousness, and keeps us from folly. But how wonderful the thaw of God’s lovingkindness! As soon as His mercy touches the soul, hardness disappears, cold fades, warmth and love flow, and life returns.

We rise from despair as seeds rise from the earth. Faith opens itself like the crocus to receive the sun; hope looks up like the primrose, delighting in God’s promises. Thank God that spring has come in our hearts, and winter has gone forever.

"Where everlasting spring abides, And never withering flowers.

A thread-like stream alone divides That heavenly land from ours." Believe in the Lord, you who shiver in the frost of the law, and His love will bring you warm days of joy and peace. Amen.