EARLY AND LATTER RAIN

Joel 2:23 – Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in the LORD your God;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully,
And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain….

This prophesy comes from the passage quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Peter was saying that the autumn and spring rain that was connected to the blessing of God on the land of Israel was not only to bring fruitfulness on the land of Israel it was also a sign from the Lord. These rains that fell upon Israel were a prophetic picture of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that would fall on all types of mankind in the last days. When the Spirit of the Lord fell on the 120 followers of Jesus gathered in an upper room these words began to be fulfilled. Peter famously preached, “this is that which the prophets foretold, in the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh….” Indicating that what happened in Jerusalem that day was the beginning of a new age of the favor of the Lord available to all people. This is how the Anchor Dictionary describes this.

“While the giving or withholding of rain is generally seen in the Bible as a sign of God’s favor or disfavor, in the OT the terminology “early/autumn” rain or the “latter/spring” rain appears. The significance of this terminology lies in the fact that for an agricultural society, it is not just the presence or absence of rain that is important, but its timing as well……The early and latter rains are accentuated in the OT because of their critical agricultural role: the early rains preparing the ground for plowing and sowing at the end of the dry season, and the latter rains providing the last bit of moisture which aids the maturation of cereal grains. The critical nature of the timing of these two rains is reflected theologically in the fact that they are seen as one of YHWH’s rewards to his people in return for their faithfulness to the covenant: ‘I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil’”.

So maybe these prophetic rains are describing two major seasons of outpouring across the world. The early rains could typify what happened in the beginning of the church, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that was characterized by signs, wonders, and miracles that lasted for a few hundred years. Is it possible that the latter rains were a picture of the very end of the age? If that is true you could say that the latter rain of the Spirit began in the early 1900’s, most famously at the Azusa Street Revival. It continues today, increasing all over the world. Jesus famously saves the best wine for last illustrated by His first miracle in Cana. Get ready, I think some amazing days are in store for us all.