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.
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