Volumes Raindrops
600 drops of water = 1 ounce
128 ounces = 1 gallon. That’s 76,800 drops of water per gallon.
1/2 inch of rain over 1 square mile: There are 63,360 inches per mile. So, 1/2 inch of rain over 1 square mile is 2,007,245,000 cubic inches of water.
1 gallon equals 231 cubic inches, so that’s 8,689,371.5 gallons of water that falls on 1 square mile in a 1/2 inch of rainfall. And how many raindrops would that be? 6.67344e11 raindrops.
Weight
A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds. So, our volume of rain weighs 72,469,357.7 pounds, or 36,234.7 tons.
All that water is suspended above that land mass in clouds. And God designed that amount of water to fall to earth gently in single drops of water rather than as in a 36 kiloton mass. How good and how great is our God! e
“He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight” (Job 26:8). “He draws up the drops of water, which distil as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind” (Job 36:27–28). “Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?” (Job 38:33–34). “Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens?” (Job 38:37). “… when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm” (Job 28:26).
“The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again” (Ecclesiastes 1:6–7).
“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth” (Psalm 135:7); as in precipitation: “He waters the mountains from his upper chambers” (Psalm 104:13); as well as the source of dew (atmospheric) and the storage of groundwaters: “May the LORD bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with the deep waters that lie below” (Deuteronomy 33:13); the process of infiltration (soaking into the ground) as well as precipitation once again:
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish” (Isaiah 55:10); and the release of groundwaters through springs: “The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur” (Genesis 16:7); “He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains” (Psalm 104:10). There are even insights into groundwater hydrology. Isaiah 4:3–5 refers to a ‘yaval’ or ‘yuval’ which is a “sudden flood that appears in a dry wash after a storm” and replenishes the water table in semi-arid areas, allowing willows with deep roots (but not grasses) to survive difficult years.
Again, these verses are not designed to ‘explain’ the hydrologic cycle, but to acknowledge their use of visible works of nature as metaphors. Deuteronomy 33:13 for example, refers to Moses blessing Joseph prior to his death—that the Lord continued to provide precious dew during the long dry season throughout the summer months. This dew is critical to the economic viability of this region. Likewise Isaiah 55:10 is a promise that God’s divine truth (like precipitation) shall be fruitful and does not return to him void—the writer knows that water (an analogy for the living water) falls as rain and snow and returns as vapor from whence it came, and that before it does it provides moisture and nourishment for an eventual harvest (Pulpit Commentaries).
In summary, the physical descriptions of the water cycle used throughout the Bible to illustrate authority, blessings, and salvation are accurate. Unlike the scholarly enquiries between 600 BC and AD 1600, the Bible does not present uncertainty, inaccuracy, or contradiction with its description of hydrologic processes. The hydrologic cycle is not described as subterranean waters sucked up into the mountains, to flow forth as springs that feed the rivers of the world. Instead the Bible paints a flawless picture of the dynamics and components of the water cycle more than a thousand years before the first ‘scientific’ measurement confirmed that this was so.
*Check Back Monday for Part 2
Blessings,
David
“Freedom is not the license to do what I want, but the strength to do what I ought.”
David Berryman has enjoyed a 40+ year career as technical support in national defense until his retirement at the end of 2023. He has also served as chaplain support in Virginia since 2011, first in the Prince William Adult Detention Center until 2019 and now at Coffeewood Correctional Facility beginning in 2021. All that along with guiding a legacy of 20+ grandchildren. David feels a deep calling to walk alongside the forgotten and rejected, helping inmates find their way back and discover their purpose.
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