"COME RAIN OR COME SHINE"

Metaphors and similes in the Bible, as elsewhere, are very culturally determined and can lead one astray in trying to decipher them. Consider the simple images of sun and shadow. If you look at the lyrics to many popular songs, present and past,, you will note cheering advice such as “Gray skies are going to clear up; put on a happy face;” “Let a smile be your umbrella on a rainy, rainy day;” When April showers may come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May;” Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street.” On the other hand, we gladly greet the sun by singing “Blue skies shining on me, nothing but blue skies do I see;” “Good day, sunshine;” “Good morning, mister sunshine, you brighten up my day;” “Mr. Blue Sky;” “Good day, sunshine;” and “Here comes the sun.”

Rare is the person who actually enjoys “singin' in the rain.” Generally, we would rather agree with the sentiment “Don't rain on my parade.” And even the diverse characters living on Sesame Street sing, “Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away.” This apparent universal love of sun and hatred of overcast skies is mirrored in popular jargon such as when we talk about people who have a sunny disposition in distinction to gloomy, shadowy, or shady characters and those who are under a cloud of suspicion.

But there was a Palestinian friend of mine who disliked one of our managers at work named Dr. Ward, and so he nicknamed him Dr. Warm instead and took great pleasure in referring to him by that name. I couldn't get him to believe me when I explained that in our American culture calling someone “warm” was actually a compliment. The reason for his cultural bias was that in the often oppressive Middle- eastern sun, anything associated with heat had negative connotations for him. One the other hand, I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of lyricists for the above-quoted songs came from regions where rain was seldom lacking.

So when we read a passage such as Matthew 5:45b stating that God “sends rain on the just and the unjust,” it is easy to take that as meaning “Into every life a little rain (meaning disappointments and unpleasantness) must fall.” But to those who live in drought-prone regions, that comment would have the diametrically opposite connotation: God imparts common blessings on all humanity whether they happen to deserve them or not. And in fact, that is precisely how the original audience for those words would have understood them.

To someone living in the area of Palestine, clouds, rain, and shade were eagerly greeted, anything to relieve the constant dry heat of the sun. Except for the Flood, rain was looked on as one of the main blessings that God supplied to the earth. The only time the verb “rain” is not used in a favorable sense is when the word is used as an indication of the quantity of woes God visits on the wicked with something other than water, such as raining down from heaven: anger (Job 20:23), coals of fire and sulfur (Psalm 11:6; Ezekiel 38:22; Luke 17:29); hail and lightning (Psalm 105:32), etc.

Look at the occurrences of the words for shade or shadow in the Bible, which speak of:

    Lot placing the angels under the shadow/shelter of his house (Genesis 19:8),

    a slave longing for a shadow to escape from the sun (Job 7:2),

    the Psalmist asking God to hide him in the shadow of His wings (Psalm 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 63:7),

    the Psalmist living under God's shadow (Psalm 91:1)

    the LORD acting as a pilgrim's shade to protect him from the hot sun (Psalm 121:5-6),

    the woman in Song of Songs 2:3 sitting with delight in her beloved's shadow,

    the tabernacle serving as a shade from the daytime heat (Isaiah 4:);

    the people of Judah being asked to provide shade during noon for the Moabite refugees (Isaiah 16:3);

    God providing shade for refugees I(Isaiah 25:4-5),

    Israel being criticized for relying on the shadow of Egypt for protection (Isaiah 30:2-3),

    future righteous leaders who will arise in Israel to be like the shade of a great rock in a weary land (Isaiah 32:1-2), and birds who will raise their young in the shadow of a deserted city (Isaiah 34:15),

and many more examples.

In the New Testament, we find much fewer references to “shadow” and they appear to be more neutral in tone. For example, OT regulations and sacrificial practices are said to be helpful but only as shadows of the reality that was to come (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1). And then we have the unusual story of people who sought to be healed of their afflictions by letting the shadow of Peter fall on them (Acts 5:15). This is a testament to their great faith, but at the same time, the text does not actually say that they were healed by that means.

The term “shadow of death” (appearing 20 times in the Bible) would seem to be a glaring contradiction of this generally positive image found elsewhere in the Bible. But it turns out there is some controversy regarding the proper translation of the Hebrew word translated in that manner. On the one hand is the explanation given in the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery:
    “Salmawet is not a compound of 'shadow' and 'death' but is based on the root 'lm, meaning 'deep darkness.' But through the LXX [Septuagint] of Isaiah 9:2 'shadow of death' has found its way into the NT (Mt 4:16; Lk 1:79)...”

Price and others dispute this particular etymology and come up with alternative translations such as “the village of death” or “the strength of death.” But they all agree that “shadow” is probably not in mind here at all.

Bible commentators confirm the fact that these images employed for weather and temperature are often at odds with our own cultural biases:

    “The absence of dew and rain...signifies a most severe drought of divine displeasure. But the presence of rain from the celestial waters is the epitome of divine blessing.” (Futato)

    God is closely associated with clouds in diverse passages such as His appearance at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:9). He rides on the clouds in II Samuel 22:11. Futato also notes, “the majority of the occurrences of 'anan [cloud] (58 out of 87) are used in relation to God's theophanic presence.”

    “The provision or withdrawal of water / rain constitutes an element in this covenantal principle of blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience (Lev 26:1; Deut 28:12,23-24; Amos 4:7-8).” (Grisanti)

    R.P. Gordon points out, “Occasionally 'good' appears to function as a surrogate for 'rain'...Thus, according to Ps. 85:12, 'The LORD will indeed give 'good' (lit.) and our land will yield its harvest.'” Also see Deuteronomy 28:12 and Jeremiah 17:6 for this same identity in terms.

Finally, just a few comments on “cloud” in one OT and one NT passage:

Exodus 13:21

Clouds are naturally positive indicators due to their association with rain. “He covers the sky with clouds ('ab); he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hillsides.” (Psalm 147:8) The most noted mention of a cloud in the Bible is probably the pillar of cloud that guided the Israelites through the wilderness. It first appears in Exodus 13:21 where “the 'pillar of cloud' and the 'pillar of fire' are signs of God's presence to guide their travels while shielding them from the sun by day and giving them light and warmth at night.” (Sanderson)

Cole adds another possible function of the cloud in Exodus: “The Hebrew means properly 'something standing', and therefore is more 'column' than 'pillar'...This symbol of God's presence may either guide and illuminate the way (as here) or protect from enemies (Ex 14:19,20).”

Although there are scattered references to Moses bringing water to the Israelites from the rocks, it is interesting to speculate that yet another function of the divine cloud was to provide rain on occasion as well.

Hebrews 12:1

“In surveying the men and women whose faith was exhibited so signally in pre-Christian ages [see Heb. 12], our author has said repeatedly that they 'had witness borne to them' by virtue of their faith; to them all, as to God, God Himself bore witness. But now they in turn are called witnesses. A 'cloud' of witnesses is a good classical locution for a 'host' of witnesses.” (Bruce)

Ellingworth adds that the word is used in classical Greek “of a crowd surrounding the readers, as in a stadium...watching an athletic contest.”

Finally, Buchanan says, “The word 'cloud' (nephos) was used metaphorically giving expression to the immense size of the group. Herodotus also described an enemy's army as 'so mighty a cloud (nephos) of men.' No intention was implied that these heroes were in heaven like a cloud.”

Thus, the consensus is that this particular mention of “cloud” in the Bible really has nothing to say to us regarding sun and rain imagery in the NT.