When I was a child I used to chant, “Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day.”  But now, I understand the physical need for rainfall.  I appreciate it.  You probably do too, especially after drought times.

There are also some great spiritual lessons to be learned from rain.  With all the rainfall that we have experienced recently, I thought this might be lessons of a timely nature as well.

Lesson #1:  The value of good words.  Deuteronomy 32:1-2 reads of Moses’ words of revelation from God, “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.  My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and the showers upon the grass.”  God’s words, like dew and rain, give refreshment and vitality.  God’s words provide life-sustaining properties (John 4:13-14).  They are meant for our good (Deuteronomy 6:24; John 10:10 cf. 6:68).

Job said of the benefit his own words provided to others, “…my speech dropped upon them.  And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain” (Job 29:22b-23).  Like rain to a thirsty land, so says Job were his words.  Psalm 65:10, 12 reads, “Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: Thou settlest the furrows thereof… They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.”  That’s what rain does.  That’s what evidently Job’s words did for others.  Questions: Do our words cause people to grow and develop?  Do our words strengthen?  Do they bring joy?  Do people long for our communication like the earth longs for rain?  Ephesians 4:29 reads, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying (building up-B.H.).”

Lesson #2:  The value of fellowship.  Psalm 133:1, 3 reads, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity …As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion.”  Mt. Hermon, in far northern Israel, is 9,232 feet in height.  It is snow-covered much of the year.  In the summer dew descends upon this mountain so copious at night that one would think it rained heavily all night.  Mt. Zion does not refer to the mountain of Jerusalem but to Hermon (cf. Deuteronomy 4:48).  This dew allowed the “cedars of Lebanon” to prosper.  The precipitation on this mountain was the source and supply of the Jordan that watered the land below, and that supplied lake Galilee.  Questions: Do our relationships as Christians help sustain spiritual life?  Do we bring comfort one to another (1 Thes. 4:18)?  Can we say of the fellowship here “how good and how pleasant…!”?

Lesson #3: The power of God.  Rain storms remind us of the power of God, and provide an excellent opportunity to teach such to our children.  In Job 26:14b Job exclaims, “But the thunder of His power …”  Remember when you were a child how frightened thunder made you?  God controls the thunder (Job 28:26-28; 1 Samuel 7:10).  He controls and created this natural world.  That booming bass sound of thunder ought to remind us that our God is a mighty God.  It will be a “fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” in an unsaved condition (Hebrews 10:26-31).

Lesson #4: A good foundation is needed.  Torrential downpours can bring catastrophe.  Storms can be violent.  Houses built upon no, or little, or weak foundations have almost no chance.  Even so, if we are to survive the storms of this life, we must have a good spiritual foundation.  Jesus said, “Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”  (Matthew 7:24-27).   Questions: Is your marriage built upon the word of God?  The best marriage book ever written was the Bible.  If people would listen to and do what it teaches, marriages would not fall apart so easily.  Do you rear your children according to the Bible?  The greatest pattern you can possibly follow to have your children turn out right is the Bible.  Is your life built upon the rock?  Such would keep us firm (instead of falling apart) during the difficulties of life.

Lesson #5:  Scientific foreknowledge.  Ecclesiastes 1:7 reads, “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”  Ecclesiastes 11:3a reads, “if the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth.”  Amos 9:6 says, “He that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; the Lord is His name.”  Brother Bert Thompson has written, “The idea of a complete water cycle was not fully understood or accepted until the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.  The first substantial evidence came from the experiments of Pierre Perrault and Edme Mariotte.  Astronomer Edmund Haley also contributed valuable data to the concept of a water cycle.  More than 2,000 years prior to their discoveries, however, the scriptures indicated a water cycle.”  [From the book, “A Study Course in Christian Evidences by Bert Thompson (Apologetics Press, Inc. Montgomery Alabama) c 1992 page 129].

Lesson #6:  The rainbow. Perhaps in times of heavy downfall like these we should remind our children of the great rainbow promise (Gen. 9:11-17).