Latter Rain
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Zechariah
10 has to do with the return of the Jews to the Promised Land. God has “hissed”
for them and they have heard and responded (v.8). Millions have arrived and
continue to arrive. How the world and the devil hate the Zionist Movement!
Chapter 10 tells also of the people who have no true shepherd: “My anger is kindled against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders”. Jesus wept over the flock that was as sheep
without a shepherd. They had governors, but no true shepherds…
This
article challenges God’s people concerning their understanding of the Bible. Matthew
refers to the abomination of desolation and says, “let the reader understand”. Do you understand these things? I have
heard some remark, “Bible understanding is for the teachers and not for
everyone.” I have also heard about those, who “know a lot about the Bible, but
don’t live it”. Forget this kind of thinking! They are really only excuses to
cover ignorance and we have no need to hear them… Truthfully we seldom hear
Bible teaching. What we generally hear from the pulpit are ideas, related to a
theme, and the one who is sharing finds verses to back those ideas.
The Latter Rain
An expository study
of Zechariah
“Be patient, brethren, until the coming of
the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient
about it, until it gets the early and late rains.” James 5:7
Chapter 10
Ask!
Ask
rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain! (v.1) The spring rain. What is it? We must view such
expressions in the context in which they are written. Not only do we see the
verse in the context of the portion of scripture around it, but we must put the
scriptural context into the context of time and place, in which it was written.
We cannot see this verse in a Western European or American context, because it
was written according to the climate of Israel. If we have true hunger and
thirst for the Word, we will investigate these things, as Luke, the Gentile, looked
into Jewish things, when he wrote his Gospel. When I read Isaiah and Ezekiel, I
admire their knowledge of the geography and political situation of their day.
The time of latter rain begins from March onward. The early rain had to come
around October, in order for the farmers to plant and expect that the seeds
would germinate. The latter rain brought the grain in the ear to fruition.
Certainly
these natural laws symbolize something spiritual, and natural things were
created to illustrate more important things. Natural blessings typify spiritual
blessings. The words of Jesus also symbolize these things (for example, the
parable of the wheat and tares). In James 5:7 (see text above) we have a verse
that shows one of these natural/spiritual parallels and then a lesson on prayer
in verses 17-18: “Elijah was a man with
a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did
not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and
the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.” In a spiritual sense, we can apply the early rain to Pentecost and the book of Acts that followed. It
was the time to sow the seed in the whole known world. However, we still
haven’t seen the spiritual latter rain that needs to come before the harvest.
The
prophet first commands us to “ask!” It is a call to prayer. When
prayer fills the church, God showers His blessings. When God thinks to do a
special work in the earth, He sets His people to praying. Look to the account
before Pentecost: “These all with one
mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer…” (Acts 1:14). The
people were praying. Study the history of revivals and you will see that none
occurred without people first experiencing a special season of prayer.
Ask
that God pour out a “spirit of prayer”. When I was a boy, my father was
director of Mokahum, a Bible school for Native Americans in the northern half
of the State of Minnesota. The students decided to fast and pray every Monday.
What began as a discipline, soon turned into passion. They sometimes prayed
until the early hours of the morning and prayer took the place of their
innocent little parties that they previously often held for diversion. Later on
we learned that other groups, with whom the students had no contact, were
experiencing in those days a time of intense intercession, as well. As a
result, God’s Spirit moved over that territory. Special prayer was also
ascending to heaven in the south of Minnesota at the Bethany Missionary
Training School. God poured out His Spirit there and Bethany became known
internationally for Christian publishing.
At
a Christian camp called Elim in Romania, I came to know a young Christian from
the city of Suceava. When I arrived, my roommate told me that we had another
companion in our room, who was constantly in prayer with tears that God would
send a revival. In time, I was able to be with him and a group of young people
who met for a weekend every month in Vatra Dornei. After our evening meeting, they would carry on in prayer until one or two in the morning, also bathing
their prayers in tears. At that time, some pastors and elders of different
churches united in prayer in Suceava. It’s a wonder to see how God has answered
prayer and how His purposes have developed in that territory; the young man
mentioned earlier began a publishing company that offers excellence in
Christian literature.
God
uses means to stir His people, so that this Spirit might be loosed among them.
What might God use? If you study the history of revivals, you will read of very
clear demonstrations and manifestations of the power of the enemy occurring
beforehand. In the school in Minnesota, for example, it was discovered that one
of the students was possessed by demons. You will observe in the film on
revivals in our times, Transformation II, it tells of a powerful witch doctor
in Uganda, who opposed and hindered the work of God. Among the Eskimos in
northeastern Canada, there were also demonic manifestations, suicides, awful
drunkenness and child abuse. God took these situations and turned them into a
means to awake His people and call them to prayer.
The Principle
of the Cross
Take
notice of the spiritual principle behind the circumstances, to which I have
pointed. In 2 Corinthians 13:4 Paul takes us to the cross: “For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because
of the power of God.” This doctrine may be termed, “the principle of the
cross”, which can also accurately describe the Christian life… It is the power
that lies in human weakness that is the secret of true success!... and God
knows how to bring us to a state of weakness. See how Paul refers to his own
case in that same verse: “For we also
are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed
toward you.”
Observe
how, in practical form, God brought Paul to weakness one chapter before: “Because of the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of
Satan to torment me… to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I
implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me,
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most
gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power
of Christ may dwell in me” (2 Co.12:7-9).
The
people of God, humbled and weakened before attacks of the enemy, resort to
prayer. Finally they come to believe and accept what Jesus teaches: “Without Me you can do nothing.” I no
longer recall, who it was that taught about being reduced to prayer. With two elements, prayer plus knowledge and
understanding of the Word, God will send storm clouds, showers of rain and
vegetation in the field to each man.
Bible Study
At the time of the spring rain. There are many conditions related to prayer. One has to
do with timing, that is, the season that brings rain. Daniel prayed after
studying Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning 70 years of captivity and saw that the
70 years had been completed. We must pray at the right time; in other words, we
must pray according to the will of God, revealed in His Word (1 Jn.5:14). This
requires study and understanding of the Scriptures.
We
profess to be believers, led by the Bible, but I think that the great problem
that exists in the individual Christian today is an ignorance of the Scriptures
and, because that is so, we hear a lot of excuses. I have heard that Bible understanding
is not for everyone, only for Bible teachers. Then I listen to some talk of
those who “know a lot about the Bible, but do not live it". Forget these
things! They are excuses and it is not the message in particular that is needed
in our circles.
We
need to hear something that exposes our ignorance of the Bible. One of the
reasons that our knowledge is stymied is because we listen to few Bible
studies. What we normally hear taught are ideas. Pay attention to how the
speaker begins: “I have been thinking a lot about…” and he relates a theme and
finds verses to back his ideas. Then others repeat these ideas and also add
their own. Besides this, sometimes there are errors in the original thoughts,
as there are, of course, when they are repeated.
I’m
sorry if I offend you, but I don’t know how we can possibly advance, if we
cannot be honest about our situation. Not long ago, a friend, a good man,
talked to me about the warning that Jesus gave to the one who is on the
housetop in Matthew 24:17, that he “must not go down to get the things out that
are in his house”. He related that portion to the command of Jesus to His
disciples to proclaim what they had heard from the housetops. He thought that
Jesus wants us to stay and preach the gospel from the housetops during
persecution! I told him, “No! Jesus is speaking about fleeing in the
tribulation time and He is saying it to those, who are in Judea, exclusively
(v.16). Besides, this occurs at the ‘abomination of desolation’ (v.15). Don’t
leave that poor man on the housetop!” Matthew interjects, referring to this ‘abomination’:
“let the reader understand”. Do you
understand these things? Our son, Dave, mentioned that when he lived in Spain,
some long-term Christians didn’t have a grip on simple Bible stories that a
child learns in Sunday School.
The
best way to give a Bible study is by taking a portion, a chapter, or a whole
book, and teach it verse by verse, without taking into account a certain
situation, custom or program. Thereby, we teach simply what the Bible says,
adjusting our situation to the Bible, rather than adjusting the Bible to our
situation. We are in this way attempting to understand what the Author, the
Holy Spirit, intended to teach us in the day that these words were written.
I
recently listened to a doctor of theology, professor of the Old Testament in a
Christian seminary. He is a Baptist and was preaching in a Baptist Church on
the subject of tongues. Normally Baptists don’t speak in tongues, nor do they
believe that it is a gift for our times. He spoke very strongly against
Christians, who only know to repeat what they have heard in their denomination
and do not investigate the Bible sincerely with an open heart. I don’t have an
exact quote of a question and statement that he made, but it was close to the
following: “Do you think that you are the only ones who know the truth and all
others, who don’t agree with you, are wrong? ‘Yes,’ you say, ‘We are God’s
favorites and if He has something to teach or give, surely He will work with us
first.’ What arrogance!” He pretended to spit. I loved it.
A Visitation of
the Lord of Hosts
Didn’t
the Pharisees and the Sadducees show that same arrogance? The prophet declared
in his day, "The teraphim (house gods)
speak iniquity, and the diviners see lying visions and tell false dreams; They
comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep, they are afflicted,
because there is no shepherd” (v.2). God spoke this in anger and is not
ashamed of it. We should not be slow to speak of the wrath of God. “My anger is kindled against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders” (v.3). All this human weakness, false
authority and diabolical manifestations (of which I wrote previously), are
things that might occur before a revival, moving the people to ask for rain in
the time of the spring rain. They ask for the Lord to visit His flock.
Jesus
wept for the sheep, because they had no shepherd. They had governors, but they
didn’t have shepherds and Peter said to them, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Jesus will return to
them as the Lord of Hosts and will strengthen the people, so that they can
combat under His command. See the difference that takes place, when they have a
true shepherd. When God pours out His Spirit, they will fight like a war horse.
The Cornerstone takes His prominent place and everything is built upon that
Stone. God’s tent stands firm, depending upon the Peg, and He receives the
glory. He is the strength behind the weapons of war that empowers any bow,
sling or rod that the people might hold in their hands. He calls every ministry
into being under his orders (v.4).
Zechariah envisions the people as courageous
in battle, foot soldiers who throw the enemy’s horsemen onto the dirt of the
streets (v.5). It illustrates what is repeated again and again throughout the
Bible. The one, who is weak, trusts in the Shepherd and receives supernatural strength
to conquer the enemy. It is the principle of the cross, the message of the Old
Testament, perfected in the New under the gospel, fortified by power from
on high.
The
promise of verse six is not only for Judah, but also for Joseph. Judah
represents the southern kingdom and Joseph the northern. We speak of the “ten
lost tribes of Israel”, because they disappeared after the Assyrian captivity.
Verse seven speaks of Ephraim, the younger son of Joseph, who along with his
brother, Manasseh, constituted the two principal tribes of the north. All birth
documents and genealogies were lost, when the Romans destroyed the temple in
Jerusalem, but the Lord has lost nothing. He says, “They will be as though I had not rejected them.” The
reconciliation will be perfect and Israel will return to a relationship with
their God without reservation. He knows perfectly the genealogy of each one.
The prophecy speaks of the next generation, the sons of Ephraim, and on it
goes, generation after generation right up until the end. God has not forgotten
His people. The book of Revelations tells us of 12,000 sealed from each tribe
of Israel.
They
will be raised up anew at the last day. God has beckoned to them and they have
heard His whistle (v.8). Millions have come and continue coming. How the world
and the devil hate the Zionist Movement! Read from verses 8 through 12 and
rejoice, Christian, at the faithfulness of our God. He doesn’t bring them
because they are just and good, but because He cannot deny Himself. He is
faithful! The Jew may be as pagan as the emperor Cyrus, but the sovereign God called
him His shepherd in Isaiah 44:28 and in 45:1, His anointed. It is time for the
church to recognize Who reigns in the heavens! The modern Jew may be evil,
atheist, blind, orthodox, or totally secular, but he has heard the whistle and
he is gathering with his brethren. “They
will be as numerous as they were before.”
Yes,
God reserves the best for last; that is another biblical principle: “The first shall be last and the last
first.” Ask for the latter rain.
By the way, you don’t have to wait for this promise to be fulfilled… it is
happening before our eyes! Should we not know it? They are coming from far countries
(v.9). I was chatting with a Jew at a London
airport. He was moving from Morocco to Canada. I observed the desire in his
look and the passion in his voice, as he told me of his dream… to live with his
wife and children in Israel. I praise the God of Israel that I had the
privilege to see in one person what He is doing in many others.
In
the book of Romans, Paul gives us a general idea of the plan. He knew the
details that we are studying in the prophecies of Zechariah. The Old Testament
was the only Bible that Paul and Jesus had. The Gentile disciples of the First Century
had to study the Old Testament. Have you ever asked yourself for whom those 39
books were written? It wasn’t for Abraham… he only could read of the creation
and the flood; it wasn’t for David… he had never read from Isaiah and Jeremiah;
it wasn’t for Isaiah… he didn’t read of the Babylonian captivity; it wasn’t for
Ezequiel… he didn’t see the people return from captivity. God has reserved all
the treasures of the Old Testament for this period of grace (Heb.11:40). We are
privileged to have in our possession the entire revelation of God, and we have it
so easily at our disposal. We can read openly from it to our children in our
homes every day. We don’t have to be afraid that we will be discovered and
taken away to prison or death. Let’s take advantage of this freedom!
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