Tears as the Rain Upon the Mountains

In a recent podcast, Dr. Avram Shannon suggested a connection between the weeping of the Lord that Enoch saw and the rain that subsequently came on the earth to cause the flood at the time of Noah. He said, “As we think about God weeping, one thing that's very intriguing about this is it's framed in Moses 7 as rain. God weeping, Enoch is seeing it as rain…. It doesn't rain until the flood. Remember in the Creation story, it says a mist came up and watered the earth because the Lord had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth. So it's not just God weeping that's distinctive to Enoch here, but it's also the notion of rain itself that is distinctive…. As Moses 7 frames it, the flood happens because God is crying over his children.” Indeed, during the creation the Genesis account says this: “The Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground” (Genesis 2:5-6). We don’t hear of rain occurring on the earth until the description of the flood, so perhaps the time of the flood was the first occurrence of rain on the earth. When Enoch saw the heavens weep he said, “How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?” He indeed connected the weeping of the Lord and all the heavens with rain being sent down from above onto the earth. With this imagery rather than seeing the flood as the sign of the anger of God we see it more as the natural byproduct of a God who weeps for the wickedness and suffering of His children: “Misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?” (Moses 7:28, 37)

                In this encounter between Enoch and the Lord, Enoch was greatly troubled because of the wickedness and suffering of the people of the earth. He saw the flood that would destroy the wicked and He asked this of the Lord: “O Lord, in the name of thine Only Begotten, even Jesus Christ, that thou wilt have mercy upon Noah and his seed, that the earth might never more be covered by the floods.” The Lord granted this request of Enoch and “he covenanted with Enoch, and sware unto him with an oath, that he would stay the floods; that he would call upon the children of Noah” (Moses 7:50-51). We learn more about this in the JST for Genesis 9 regarding the rainbow God set in heaven as a token of this covenant: “And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant, which I made unto thy father Enoch; that, when men should keep all my commandments, Zion should again come on the earth, the city of Enoch which I have caught up unto myself.” So the rainbow seems to represent both the fact that the Lord will no more destroy the earth with a flood as He promised to Enoch and that in the future the earth will again rest and righteousness will come upon it: “And this is mine everlasting covenant, that when thy posterity shall embrace the truth, and look upward, then shall Zion look downward, and all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble with joy;… And this is mine everlasting covenant, which I made with thy father Enoch. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will establish my covenant unto thee, which I have made between me and thee, for every living creature of all flesh that shall be upon the earth” (JST Genesis 9:21-24). Thus we have two great symbols in the sky from the story of the flood: the rain represents the tears and sorrow of the Lord over the wickedness of His children, and the rainbow witnesses of His love and promise of a better world to come with His return to the earth. As we see these signs in the heavens we can be reminded that we have a God in heaven who weeps over the suffering of His children but that His plan will ultimately triumph with His return: “And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest” (Moses 7:64).