115. Early and Latter Rain
Deuteronomy 11:14, 15 I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
A conditional promise: if you obey My commandments and love the Lord and serve Him with all your heart and soul, then I will send the first and latter rain for your corn, wine, and oil, and I will send grass for your cattle that you may eat and be full. Keep the First Commandment (love the Lord and serve Him with your heart and soul) and all the Commandments, and God will bless us with abundant growth and fertility so that we may eat, drink and be merry. Great blessing comes to those people, families, communities, groups, and nations that live uprightly. The blessing of rain to produce abundant food and drink comes upon the righteous.
We can’t always point to the wealthy and say, “They must live right,” but we can say if you live right you will live a better life than if you don’t. The problem, of course, is that no one, not one person ever, can love the Lord God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, and his neighbor as himself, Therefore, the curses come into effect and life is a frightful mess. The solution, of course, is that One Man did do it right and that One earns for you the righteousness of God. And by faith in Him, you love the Lord your God.
Corn, wine, oil, and beef are material symbols of abundance and wealth and having more than enough to eat and drink. Material wealth comes from the right amount of rain at the right times. The rain comes from God. Rain and crops are cause and effect things that we can see. God tells us about it to reveal to us the spiritual cause and effect of the things we cannot see. The meaning is this: the rain is the Holy Spirit who comes through the Gospel to make spiritual fruit grow in the kingdom within. The Spirit (the rain) causes the growth of abundant fruit in the Land, which is the kingdom of God within the human spirit. We enjoy these spiritual blessings and we are satisfied and content. God promises: “I will give you the Spirit to grow spiritual blessings in your life.” We receive it with thankful and loving hearts, which in turn moves us to love the Lord and keep the commandments, and the love of God moves us to repent of sin and believe the Gospel, and then the Spirit rains, and so on in a wonderful blessed circle.