Sending The Rains

[God] will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil. He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.

Deuteronomy 11:14-15

THIS PASSAGE REPRESENTS an extension of the covenant God initiated and maintained with the people of Israel. Because Abraham acted in faith, God promised to bless him and his descendants for as long as they remained faithful to him (see Genesis 15).

The details of God’s covenant were spelled out clearly for his people. If the Israelites obeyed God’s commands, they would receive his blessings. God promised to reward their obedience, faithfulness, and goodness with land, pastures, and harvests—all of which were vital ingredients in an agrarian society. If the Israelites disobeyed, however, God promised to dry up the rains and remove them from their land.

As Christians today, we don’t have a part in that original covenant between God and Abraham—but that’s not a bad thing. Instead, we’ve been offered a new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ. By accepting his sacrifice on the cross as atonement for our sins, we can live as God’s children. As heirs with Christ, we can look forward to countless blessings both now and throughout eternity.

As in the original covenant, however, many of those blessings are tied to our obedience. When we submit to Christ and do what he’s called us to do, we will be rewarded. This reward probably won’t include cattle or rain; in fact, it may not include any form of material blessing in this life. But we can rest assured that we will receive all the joy and satisfaction God created us to crave.