Make your request to the Lord for rain in the time of the spring rains, even to the Lord who makes the thunder- flames; and he will give them showers of rain, to every man grass in the field.
Zch 10:1
Rain. From the beginning, rain was a sign of fruitfulness. A long time before there was rain, the bible uses it as a picture:
In the day when the Lord God made earth and heaven there were no plants of the field on the earth, and no grass had come up:for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to do work on the land.
Gen 2:5
Interestingly enough, plants filled the earth shortly afterwards, as one of the requirements had come true – there was a man to work the land. Rain did not fall until 10 generations later in Noah’s time. But if that had been the first mention of rain, it would have had a bad connotation for ever. But this way, rain is a sign for fruitfulness, blessings, harvest, provision.
Just think of the punishment for not going up to Jerusalem in the time of the Feast of Tabernacles: it will not rain on the land.
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso of all the families of the earth goeth not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain.
Zch 14:16
At this point I can’t help but take you on a rabbit trail.
This verse obviously is in the future. The Jerusalem spoken of is the New Jerusalem. If now the New Jerusalem were a real city, rebuilt in Israel, and all believers from all nations had to go there – with the dimensions of the New Jerusalem and the number of people going there in one distinct feast season somewhere in September or October – the earth would tilt and be thrown out of its orbit.
Just one external reason -and there are many more – to know that God is not talking of a city we physically go to in fall. He is talking of the bride of God, us, the church, people will go to, or otherwise lack fruitfulness.
Back to the main road.
In the early years of the church we obviously had rain. The Spirit fell, and for a few decades, the church was full of wonders. Even before the fall of natural Jerusalem and the temple, the element of the old covenant, the gospel had been taught to everybody in the known world. Early rain. Breaking open the ground.
It is time for the latter rain, the rain that brings harvest to fruitfulness. It is time for the real season of the Feast of Tabernacles. Starting with the church, God will bring people to fruitfulness.
For the church, the season of Tabernacles is an assignment of maturing. We started with First Fruits, with Easter, Pessach, and unleavened bread. As the term first fruits tells us, it was just the beginning. Pessach and unleavened bread talk about forgiveness of sins through the surrogate sacrifice of Jesus. All is finished, accomplished, founded. It needs establishing, walking out, manifestation.
Jesus promised us a helper that would remind us of all his teachings, and in Pentecost he came. Since then we are infilled with the Spirit, or at least there is the possibility to be. Which we forfeited for many centuries.
But maturity only comes as we get of age. Maturity is in the season of Tabernacles that stands for a new beginning, turning towards God in Rosh Hashana. The feast of trumpets calling us to sanctify ourselves. Maybe it started with the reformation and started a time of restoration of all things lost within the new covenant – whereas God is restoring all things right from the fall. It continues to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, and flow into Tabernacles with God living in their midst. The sons of God manifesting to redeem the earth from the circumstances of the fall.
Tabernacles again is an agricultural feast. It celebrates the harvest of wine, oil, and fall crop. Fullness. Whereas in the spring there is grains like wheat and barley – one at Pessach, the other at Pentecost – that signify the bread, which is Jesus, now we have oil and wine for the Spirit as well, together with grain. Bread and wine, the fulness of Jesus’ act on the cross. Oil as the anointing. Us growing into the full stature of Christ, he the head and we the body, together the anointed one. The anointing dripping down from the head to the shoulders and down to the feet.
All this is enabled and brought forth by the latter rain as it brings to fruitfulness. But there will not only be the latter rain, there will be early and latter rain together in the first month.
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God:
Joel 2:23
for he hath given you the former rain moderately,
and he will cause to come down for you the rain,
the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
The first month being the month starting with Rosh Hashana, the month of the season of Tabernacles. The first month also being the month of Pessach. Depending on the view and use of the Hebrew calendar.
If the former rain was given moderately, and within 30 some years all of the known world has known the gospel, imagine what the heavy rains of the former and the latter together will cause.
As a father in the faith told us lately:
Get ready, get ready, get ready for the heavy rain.
Are you ready? Let’s pray for it.