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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
"Rain, Rain, Go Away . . . !"
Those are the words we speak when we are weary of rainy days and want to see the sun again. I haven’t heard anyone expressing those sentiments lately. Mentioned specifically 92 times in the Bible, rain plays a prominent role in the overall story of the Bible. Scientists have guidelines for their prognostications, but even they are often flawed. When it does rain, it is either because of the process God put in place in the beginning or because of His response to the needs of man.
“GOD HAD NOT CAUSED IT TO RAIN”
This statement from Genesis 2:5 and the following verse, which says “a mist from the earth”, reveals the means by which the earth received moisture. Matthew Henry thinks a mist, or shower, instead of rain, “watered the whole face of the ground” until Noah’s day. Adam Clarke says this verse teaches us “how rain is produced” even today.
Either way it was God who “caused it to rain.”
If Matthew Henry is correct, that provides insight into the flood of Noah’s day and explain the wonder it must have generated in the world. If man had seen only a “mist from the earth,” Genesis 2:6, but had never seen rain, it is understandable that there were some puzzled looks when they heard Noah warn of an impending flood caused by “rain.”
SHOULD WE “PRAY” FOR RAIN?
It is true that God arranged His creation to be watered by “rain.” However, there have been many times in which a shortage of rain caused great difficulties for man, and prayer for rain ascended to the Father. Does biblical authority exist for us to pray for rain? Both 1 Kings 18:1 and 2 Chronicles 6 state that Israel’s sin provoked God to deny their needed rain. Solomon said:
“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You; when they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin, because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain upon Your land,” 2 Chronicles 6:26-27.
It was the prayer of Elijah that prompted God to end the drought that plagued Israel in 1 Kings 18.
The Holy Spirit inspired James to prescribe prayer as the solution to that absence of rain, James 5:17-18.
DOES GOD CAUSE DROUGHT TODAY?
The question of how God works in the world today is not easily answered. His providence has given us the very things we need in order to prosper, but we do not possess the means of explaining all of the “how and when.” Man’s sin has caused drought in the past, and it is God’s call whether it still does today.
Our nation’s sins are seen by all. Though others may seem more evil, we cannot deny that our nation is speeding down the way of rebellion, immorality, immodesty, murder and lasciviousness – it is seen in our cities, small and large, and in rural as well as urban communities.
Does God use natural disaster to provoke man to repent, to come back to Him? He certainly has in the past. In Amos 4:7, that “blue collar” preacher/prophet declared from the very mind of God that He would use even nature itself to motivate His people to repent of their wickedness:
“I also withheld the rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest: I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city: One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain, that part withered.”
Some people today speak in explicit ways, claiming to know all the ways of His providence. However, even the apostle Paul, in his letter to Philemon, used a much less certain term to describe God’s providence toward Onesimus, a runaway slave, but now a Christian:
“For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him for ever,” Philemon 1:15.
Does He continue to do so today? And can I know how and what He is doing? I can only say, with Paul, “perhaps,” knowing that God knows best, that He hears our prayers, that He loves us, and seeking our best interests, uses whatever means He chooses to bring man humbly to his knees and to his senses.
RAIN FOR THE JUST AND UNJUST?
Is it fair for God to provide the blessings of life to those who reject Him? If the word “fair” has the same connotation as the word “just,” we must remember that the very nature of God is that of justice and equity.
He is not seeking followers who do so merely for the “loaves and fishes,” but for those who seek eternal life.
We may not see a big difference in God’s blessings for the wicked and for the righteous. Sunshine and rain come upon the “just and the unjust,” Matthew 5:45. David wrote of this quality of God in Psalm 145:9.
“The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
We must live in harmony with God’s will, but His blessings outweigh any and every thing we can imagine. His grace is available to all, Titus 2:11-14.
Now, let us pray – for rain.
Carl B. Garner
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“Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
“Suffering is the seed from which compassion grows.”
“The gem cannot be polished without friction.”
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Do It Now!
Most of us know better than we do. And most of us intend better than we perform. But we feel as if time is on our side. We’ll get to it eventually. We’ll begin tomorrow.
But, sadly, we too often never “get to it” and tomorrow never comes.
Procrastination is still the thief of time.
The Bible places a premium on today. Not tomorrow, of which we are warned not to boast (Proverbs 27:1). And not next year, of which we have no certainty (James 4:13-16). But today. Now.
“Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” (Hebrews 3:13).
Even our Lord, while in the flesh, understood the transient nature of time and thus the urgency of today. He taught, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” (John 9:3-4).
You have yet to obey the gospel? Follow the example of first-century converts who, having heard the gospel, obeyed immediately: even, as in one case, “the same hour of the night,” (Acts 16:33). Don’t put off your soul’s salvation.
The good you intend to do? Do it now. The kindness you plan one day to extend to those you love? Do it now. The forgiveness you know you ought to offer those who have slighted you, offended you or caused you pain? Do it now.
As Emerson once observed, “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
Yesterday is past; tomorrow may never come. The only currency we have to spend is the currency of today.
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