Hosea 6:3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come to us as the rain… This clause, read in the light of the context, evidently refers to the outpouring of Divine influence - in other words, to the gift of the Holy Spirit. As the earth waits for the rain, so the Church waits for the Spirit. The appropriateness of the figure will be seen in a fair consideration of the coming and the effects of the descending rains. I. CONSIDER THE BLESSING IN ITS COMING. 1. Rain is given in the sovereign bounty of God. Few things are less subject to the control of man, who at most can foretell its fall. Human merit, human skill, and human power have nothing to do in ruling it. If God pleased he could, by a comparatively slight change in physical laws, so alter the condition of the world that the clouds would no longer float in the sky, and the verdure no longer beautify the earth. Our home might be transformed into a world like the moon, with its awful crevasses and stupendous mountains ungladdened either by rain or dew. But in the tender mercy of God rain still falls, and under its influence ferns uncurl in the woods, and the cups of forgotten flowers run over with blessing. It is God who "so clothes the grass of the field." He only can transform the moral wilderness into a paradise, arid he does "give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." 2. Rain falls generously. Suppose you were at variance with your neighbor, and shut yourself off from him by a lorry wall, so that you could not see his garden nor he yours. When a shower fell from heaven it would disregard that distinction, and bless alike the seeds you both had sown; nor would it matter whether his was the splendid park, or only the tiny garden where a few flowers made the soil look beautiful. So generously does the Spirit come down on all assemblies of Christian worshippers; whether they meet in the home or in the church; amidst the uncouth expressions of prayer and song, or the splendors of an ornate ritual. In them all God sees tender flowers of joy and peace whose fragrance is sweet to him, and he comes down on them as the rain. 3. Rain falls seasonably. "As the latter and former rain upon the earth." In Palestine, where the steep hillsides were cultivated in terraces, the soil would suffer readily from drought. "The former," or autumn rain, fell in September, blessing the seed-time, and making the earth soft with showers. "The latter rain," falling in March and April, filled out the ears of corn before the harvest. So that to a Jew there was special significance in the promise, "I will cause the rain to come down in his season." If either of the rains were withheld the harvest would fail. The spiritual life of man is ever needing the nourishment of Divine influence. Christ is "the Author and the Finisher" of our faith. He is the Alpha and the Omega of Christian life. The old Christian cannot rest in past experience, nor the working Christian in service; but each must ever be looking out of and above himself. Nor can we trust to organizations and ritual for revival. It is wise to dig canals, and build tanks, and provide means for directing the rills to the gardens which need them; but of what avail are these, if the rain does not come? We may use our watering-pot during a drought; but how small the patch affected, how poor and unsatisfactory our work, compared with that day when God visits the earth and waters it! "Diffuse, O God, those copious showers, That earth its fruit may yield; And change this barren wilderness To Carmel's flowery field." II. CONSIDER THE BLESSING IN ITS EFFECTS. 1. The revival of drooping life. Describe a corn-field in spring-time after a time of drought. Contrast its condition after a week's rain. Apply these pictures to the moral condition of the Christian Church. Take as a typical instance the condition of the disciples before and after the day of Pentecost. It was the descent of the Holy Spirit which gave them new tongues, and emboldened them to face and to rebuke a hostile world, till those who had crucified the Lord were pricked in their hearts, and cried, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 2. The attractiveness of fragrant life. Nothing is more beautiful in appearance, more pleasant in fragrance, than the garden just blessed by a shower. The rain has brought nourishment to all the life that is in it; but each plant has transformed the nourishment into its own kind of beauty, so that it is white in the lily, green in the grass, fragrance in the violet, strength in the oak. A Pentecostal blessing would not make all Christians alike, but would increase the beauty and the strength of each. Indicate the different expressions of revived life - in the increase of integrity, self-sacrifice, gentleness, devoutness, joy, etc. The Church should be attractive to the world, and so full of life as to possess heating power. She should be like the Lord, around whom the sin-sick and sad gathered, and virtue went out of him even to the skirts of his garments, and "as many as touched were made perfectly whole." 3. The blessedness of a useful life. The Church, represented by the growing grass, exists as grass does for the world's sake. The grass is not merely the pleasant background on which Nature may weave her gorgeous colors; but it is also the fundamental life by means of which other things and beings live. Directly by his use of corn, indirectly through eating the flesh of animals fed on grass, man is absolutely dependent upon grass as it is on the rain. So through the Church, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the world lives; and in this is found her highest honor, because in it she is like unto her Lord, who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." APPLICATION. 1. To those outside the Church. "Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you" (Hosea 10:12). 2. To those within the Church. Be like Elijah after his conflict on Carmel. Let the yearning cry arise to heaven, and let your hopes go up often to catch the first sign of the coming blessing; arid we shall "hear the sound of abundance of rain," whereby God will refresh his inheritance when it is weary. - A.R. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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