“Then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in our fields for your livestock that you may eat and be filled. Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.” -Deuteronomy 11:14,15 (NKJV)
"Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone.” -Zechariah 10:1 (NKJV)
It’s supposed to rain in Spring.
The land of Israel has a dry season and a rainy season. At the end of a long, hot summer the late Fall (sometime around October) rains begin to fall to water the land after a long dry spell. These rains are called the “early rains”. They signal the end of the dry season and are welcomed as a time of restoration and refreshing. Sometime in late Spring there is a good, long, hard rain called the “latter rain”. It comes to soak the land well as the last rains before the heat of Summer. It is these rains that give the crops a jump on their growing season. It is these rains that bring the promise of abundant harvest.
It’s supposed to rain in Spring. Yet God says to ask for it. It was the time of rain. Yet God says to ask for it.
We are never to take for granted the blessings of God. We are never to take for granted the Life that comes from Him. He is a generous God, and “there will be showers of blessing”! But we are never to take that for granted. God warns in Deuteronomy that in the process of blessing we are to “take heed to yourselves” and not attribute that blessing to “other gods”. I wonder if when we take the blessing of God for granted we aren’t moving in that direction?
Daniel had the word of the Lord through Jeremiah that Israel’s captivity of 70 years was drawing to a close. He had God’s promise. Yet instead of taking that promise for granted he humbled himself with prayer and fasting, crying out to God to bring to pass what had been promised. (Daniel 9)
In Zechariah, God says to ASK. It is as though we are being reminded to not take His Rain for granted. It is as though He delights to have us cooperate with Him in the promised “showers of blessing”. (Ezekiel 34:26)
We have the promise of God’s Word of a time of latter rain. (Joel 2:23-25) We have the current sense that God is moving in our midst. It’s the time of rain. It is a new season. Rain is falling. Life is springing up. Yet it’s time to ask. You. You ask! Don’t be caught dry in a time of rain. Ask. He is pouring. Are you asking? Are you expecting? Are you ready?
Asking For Rain. It is time.
Pastor Tom
