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James 5:7-8
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of Adonai. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of Adonai is at hand. Egypt received its water from below, from the regular flooding of the Nile leaving fertilizing sediments behind. Anyone could grow a crop in Egypt; it was almost guarantied (Deuteronomy 11:10). The Children of Israel were now going to a place where their increase and their success will require for them to be on good terms with 'Heaven' (Deuteronomy 11:11-14). I live in Western Oregon, a place that receives its fair share (and more) of rain from September to May, sometimes even June. I drink water from my own well tapping an underground spring of melted snows. Water is never an issue here but in the Middle East downpours and water rights are at the heart of economics, politics, and even religion. It used to even be the sources of wars. Grain, wine, and oil speak of abundance and form the imagery of Messiah and the Messianic age. In the Promised Land this abundance will be dependent on obedience, and the 'early' and 'late' rain from 'above'. As well as being a natural reality, it is a reminder of where our attention should be! These two seasonal downpours have particular names in Hebrew: 'yoreh', and 'malkosh'; they could respectively be translated as 'Spring', and 'Autumn' rain. They refer to the rains that come in the Spring around the season of Passover, and the Fall after the Feast of tabernacles. Messiah manifested Himself to the world at the time of the 'Yoreh', the Spring festivals rains around the time of Passover. It is significant that the word 'Yoreh' originates from the verbal root 'to teach, to instruct', and therefore is connected to the word 'Torah': 'Instruction'. The prophets often poetically play on those words alluding between rain, teaching, and Torah which come down from Heaven, as well as the Messiah (Deuteronomy 32:2;Joel 2:23; Hoseah 6:3; 10:12). After the Spring rains, comes the long hot summer of Messiah's absence, a time of harvesting wheat and barley, ending with the fruit harvest in the Fall and the Feast of Tabernacles also called 'Ingathering', because this is when the harvest is gathered into barns. As reliable servants, may we be faithful with the harvest of souls He has entrusted with at His first manifestation (Matthew 28:18-20), that when He returns in the Fall, He may receive His own with interest.
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Luke 15:22-24
. Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' As he terminated his task of writing the Torah, Moses commanded the children of Israel that, at the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing (Deuteronomy 31:10-11). At the return from the Babylonian captivity, under the strong unabashed leadership Ezra and Nehemiah, we learn of a contrite Israel gathering as one man at the newly rebuilt temple during the Feast of Booths to listen to the Words of the Torah (Nehemiah 8). At that time, Hebrew was no more the fluent language of the Children of Israel, but Aramaic. The text tells us that certain of the priests “helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading”. When Ezra opened the scroll and blessed the God who had allowed them to return home, the people “bowed their heads and worshiped Adonai with their faces to the ground”. The emotion was so strong that even though the Feast of Booths is a festival of joy, the people wept and Nehemiah had to command them to rejoice. Why did they weep? It seems that the Spirit of God was doing its job convicting Israel of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16.8). Reading Scripture should convict us. Oh yes, as we read the admonishing Text of Scripture we can easily justify, exonerate and absolve ourselves from guilt and responsibility. Like Paul on the road to Damascus we can “kick against the pricks” of conviction (Acts 9:5 KJV), but ultimately, true repentance, true return towards the Father does not happen until, even though we have sorely suffered loss as the results of our foolishness, we put down all our self-justification mechanisms, run back home, and prostrate to the ground in utter vulnerability saying, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son' (Luke 15:21. As we realize the error of our way, as we weep worm tears of repentance, we will realize that the Father Himself is crying, He is crying tears of joy having lived in mourning and never comforted Himself since our departure. May it be as this season of renewal and repentance approaches, as we hear the words of Torah, that we let them sink into our hearts and allow the Spirit of God to convict us of our ways. As we hear the divine utterances, may we weep warm tears of repentance that we may enter the season of the Festival of Booths with the joy of a Father having killed the ‘fattened calf’ for us. |
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