Ezra 10:13-17 But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two… The rain to which the text refers fell, it is supposed, in December, the coldest and most rainy month in Palestine. It came at an important juncture, when work requiring fine weather had to be done. Ezra has arrived in Jerusalem. He has come full of patriotism, clothed with authority, with vast treasures for the temple from the Persian court. He has come fired with zeal for the honour of God, determined to do his utmost for the restoration of city, temple, and reformation of life. He soon learns that the people need something more important than gold and silver, or a magnificent ritualism. Their morals had been corrupted through their marriage alliances with the heathen. A convocation was summoned, when it was resolved that there should be a dissolution of all marriage relations that were contrary to the law of the land; but so heavy was the rain that fell, that the people trembled for fear, as though the judgment of a second flood had broken in upon them on account of their sins. Israel could not forget that rain; nor will the rain of the present year (1880, a year of much rain) be easily forgotten. Many are looking at it in the light of science, some in the light of agriculture, others are looking at it in the light of commerce, but let us look at it in the light of Revelation. There is a Divine meaning in all things. Every drop of rain is full of God's purpose. I. A TIME OF MUCH RAIN TEACHES US OUR DEPENDENCE. 1. It shows us there can be no harvests unless God permit. The farmer may plough and sow, his land may be most fertile, the seed of the best kind, cultivation perfect; but if God forbid His sun from shining, and command the clouds to pour down an overabundance of rain, day by day, for months, the hopes of harvest will be blasted. 2. A time of great rain reminds us that our commerce is at the Divine disposal. A had harvest cannot fail to lessen the wealth of a country and seriously affect its merchandise. 3. A time of much rain shows our dependence in many ways. You need change of air, and set out on a journey, but the benefit you seek depends on the weather which God will give; or you resolve to go to a distant town for the transaction of important business, you appoint the hour when you will be there to meet a person concerned in the transaction. But if it please God that at that very time there shall be much rain, your friend may fail to come, your plans may miscarry, your health may suffer, and your life may be imperilled through the inclemency of the weather. "Go to now, ye that say," etc. The law of dependence is stamped on all things. Every atom is dependent on atom, man on. man, nation on nation, world on world, and all are dependent on God. 4. This time of much rain makes us feel, as Englishman, that we are exceedingly dependent on other nations. What a dismal future would be before England to-day if she could not draw supplies of corn from foreign markets. II. THAT A TIME OF MUCH RAIN IS VERY TRYING. 1. To patience. Have we stood the trial? Have we murmured? Have we said, "This is not right? A season so wet is not what we want; it is not what. we have a right to expect." If so, we have forgotten that the spiritual life requires trial. A flower may come to perfection in one summer, but the tree that is to bear fruit requires not only the summer's sun, but the rain and storms of many a winter, 2. To faith. It tried the faith of the Hebrews in the time of Ezra. It led to a temporary loss of faith in the goodness of God, for they trembled, thinking that the rain was a sign of His displeasure. But the faith of some people seems to be tried in relation to the Divine justice as well as goodness. Nay, they axe tempted to question the very existence of God and to regard the world as an orphan, abandoned to fate or stern law. They see the great machine of nature, but see not the personality that lives behind and through the whole. What a reproof does the wise economy of nature under which rain descends minister to such unbelief. But for the water that rises from the sea in clouds, and falls in showers on the earth, vegetable, animal, and human life could not exist. It is wisely ordained that in an island like ours, that is becoming so thickly populated and the large towns of which require at times more than an ordinary cleansing, that the average fall of rain should be maintained, not year by year, but by the overplus of one period making up for the deficiency of another. Sir Charles Lyell Was on the continent when he said to a gentleman sitting next to him at table: "I fear the rains have been doing a great deal of mischief." "I should think," replied his companion. "they were much needed to replenish the springs after this year of drought" "I immediately felt," says Sir Charles Lyell, "I had made an idle and thoughtless speech." III. THAT A TIME OF MUCH RAIN SHOULD LEAD TO PRAYER. Whatever some may say against the propriety of prayer for temporal blessings, there is in human nature an instinct that bids it ask for the Divine interposition in all seasons of distress. Surely prayer in relation to rain is as reasonable to-day as when Elijah prayed that there might be no rain; "and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months." (F. Fox Thomas.) Parallel Verses KJV: But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing. |
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