The Rain of Righteousness

11 Mar

It’s winter. Of course, we get snow and rain in winter. Where we used to live we frequently heard the saying, “If you don’t like the weather in Susanville, wait five minutes.” Besides the daily measurement of precipitation, each April 1 the western states measure snowpack depth and characteristics on mountain heights to determine the amount of water we can expect from the spring melt-off. This measurement determines whether drought conditions will exist and what mitigating efforts will need to be made by the states to remediate a lack of water.

I love to listen to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof and I find tranquility in the sight of snow falling silently. The earth is refreshed with the rain and snow of winter while both animals and plants take their annual rest. After the Flood, God promised that He would not curse the earth or every living thing again but that “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:21-22).

God created the world with everything needed for perfect balance and provision for all God’s creation: “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood. Thou driedst up mighty rivers. The day is thine, the night also is thine. Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter” (Psalm 74:12-17).

In a similar way that physical needs are met, spiritual needs are also met. Numerous passages in the Old Testament use precipitation as a metaphor for spiritual refreshment from God’s Word. Isaiah 55:10-11 expresses this in terms of food production: “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my Word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

When there is no rain, not only is food meager and life at risk, but also the earth is parched. In a similar vein, Hosea bemoaned the barren and spiritually parched condition of Israel in their faithlessness which caused the Lord to withdraw Himself from them (Hos. 5:6). Hosea advocated for repentance and the return of Israel to the Lord, citing the metaphor of refreshing rain with this picture: “Come, and let us return unto the LORD. For he hath torn and he will heal us, he hath smitten and he will bind us up. After two days will He revive us. In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD, His going forth is prepared as the morning and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” (Hosea 6:1-3).

The declaration of Hosea 10:12 uses the rain metaphor in connection with righteousness: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.” In Matthew 6:33, Jesus stated a similar principle for His followers when He said: “…seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (i.e. all that you need) shall be added unto you.”