showers – Praying Pint

53.b. Wilderness – 17.h. “Give ear, O heavens”

Deu 32:1-3 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!

By appealing, in this solemn manner, to the heavens and the earth in the beginning of this song, Moses intended to signify, 1st, The truth and importance of its contents, which were such as deserved to be known by all the world: and, 2d, The stupidity of that perverse and unthinking people, who were less likely to hearken and obey than the heavens and the earth themselves. 3d, He hereby declares also the justice of the divine proceedings toward them, according to what he had said. Heaven and earth are here put for the inhabitants of both, angels and men: both will agree(Benson)

You lifeless and senseless creatures, heaven and earth, which he calls upon partly to accuse the stupidity of Israel, that were more dull of hearing than these; and partly as witnesses of the truth of his sayings, and the justice of God’s proceedings against them. (Brown)

These are called upon to hearken, either to rebuke the stupidity and inattention of men, or to show that these would shed or withhold their influences, their good things, according to the obedience or disobedience of Israel; or because these are durable and lasting, and so would ever be witnesses for God and against his people. (Gill)

The Universe cannot silence, but must listen to, the spiritual truth. (Cambridge)

Give ear, listen, and pay attention! All of God’s Word is profitable for us. Blessings, warnings, curses, promises, precepts, prophecies, laws, holiness, and sinfulness are given to us so by them we will continue to grow and mature in our understanding and knowledge of God for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ.

Has any people group or nation stayed the course? Has any nation founded on biblical principles or through revival or restoration ever continued on this path of trust, faith, hope, reliance, and purpose? The answer to this is NO. Why do we fall away so easily? Why does those who give no thought to God influence how we think and live? The fault doe not lay upon these influencers, but it surely does on those who have tasted the blessings and guidance of God. Falling and drifting away from God will easily happen when the Word of God and the growth and maturing in it are neglected and deemed unimportant for everyday living.

13.q. “He gives showers of rain to all people”

Zachariah 10:1 Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.

Psalms 65:9    You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.

Ezekiel 34:26     And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.

Job 36:27  For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain,  which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly.  Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?  Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea.  For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance.

How often do we take rain as a given act of nature? It is God who supplies it. It is in God’s timing for His glory and honor, but how often do we thank Him for it? This blessing of rain we take for granted is an opportunity each and every time to thank God. How many times do we acknowledge the routine things in life as being from and provided by God? How many times have you heard “boy we sure need some rain”? Shouldn’t it rather be said, “God please send us rain”? But we seem to think rain is an uncontrollable act of nature and God is not in control of it. He sends the rain, and as well, He withholds it. Both are for His plans and purposes. By faith, we trust God for forgiveness, redemption, and salvation. This mysterious act of grace, mercy, and love toward us is so far above our ability to understand that we can only believe and trust in God. Like the early and late rains that are considered by many an act of nature and deny God His glory and honor for it, so are there many who deny the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They believe God is not in control of the very “nature” He created. They believe either that God does not exist or that He is not in control of their eternal destiny. There is nothing created in heaven or earth that God is not in control of. Just as He sends showers of rain and man can deny or believe it is of God so it is when He sent His Son. We can either believe and thank, honor, and glorify Jesus Christ for His gift of salvation or deny it. The only difference is to deny God sends the rain has no eternal consequences but to deny that He sent His Son to forgive and redeem has eternal “forever” consequences. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

10.o. “I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.”

Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Psalms 50:15    and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

Psalms 91:15    When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.

Isaiah 26:16     O LORD, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.

James 5:13    Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

Hosea 6:1-3    “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.  Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Hosea 5:15     I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Idle ineffectiveness for eternal things has a way of gaining our attention on our own comfort, enjoyment, self-worth, self-reliance, and self-satisfaction. Troubles, trials, and distress in our lives, on the other hand, have a way of resetting out wayward inner self-reliant beliefs. Well, that is true for some. Others harden their hearts and will not even give God a second glance for help. For those who are humbled and realize their only hope in the situation is from the Mighty Hand Of God, and when they call out to Him, their prayer will be answered and they will be rescued and delivered. Why is it so hard t repent and turn back to God? Why do we choose to neglect His word and applying it in our lives? Are we not blessed and find joy, hope, rest, peace, and strength when we are always desiring and seeking to be nearer to Him? And yet, we seem to find time after time neglect and complacency creep in. I can tell you this with 100% assurance when God’s Word is not hungered and thirsted for our natural default is neglect, complacency, and worldly contentment. Spend time in His Word and intentionally choose to grow closer and closer to Him.

Waiting beside My doors

Psalms 95:4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Psalms 135:6 Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Psalms 65:6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

Genesis 1:9-10 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Proverbs 8:29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

Jeremiah 5:22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

Psalms 97:5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.

Micah 1:4 And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire

Job 9:5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,

Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.

We take a piece of wood and make something out of it – our creation. God made the micro cellular seed structure for every tree species, the means for nutrients, the means for respiration, photosynthesis ( and while we think of this He made the sun and the earth too). We look at what we or others have put together as something creative and maybe inspiring. Some architects even go down in history as leaders of their time. Books are written about them. And yet we only need to open our eyes to God’s creation to see the awe inspiring magnitude of Him. We are a creation of His. He has given us life and free will to choose to praise, honor, serve, follow and obey Him. Those who choose this path, He gives life (eternal). Those that choose to reject Him, He gives death and torment eternal. “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”