Deuteronomy 32:2 “Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” Today's episode talks about how God gives us blessings in varying degrees based on what we need. It also talks about how we should soak up God's teachings like the grass soaks up the rain. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God’s Power in Varying Degrees
Deuteronomy 32:2 “Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.”
I received a book from my mother in law for Christmas called “Pray a Word of the Day.” Each day it had a word and a scripture verse that uses that word. Then it has a brief little devotional or story about that word. Today’s word was fall, and the scripture verse was the one I am talking about today. The devotional talked about these four friends that took a walk to the local park. Then the rain rolled in and by the time they got back to the house they were drenched. The next few lines really stood out to me. It said, “Every corner of the neighborhood was saturated. Droopy hydrangeas perked up. The lavender glistened. The thirsty lawns were revived.”
What came to my mind when I read this was that something one considers bad, might be good for another. For instance, I am sure the people who had to run home in the rain, probably weren’t praising God for the rain. I know when I was on my last road trip, I was not praising God for the rain, especially if it was my turn to drive. Yet, I am sure the flowers and the lawns were very thankful for the rain. I thought the topic of this podcast would be how some things we complain about other people would be praising God for. However, when I read this verse, I kept getting stuck on the line, my words descend like dew. I didn’t really understand what that meant and yet I thought that was ok because I didn’t have to really understand to talk about what I though I was going to talk about. Then I stopped and remembered the reason I started this podcast. I started this podcast so we could all understand scripture better. I think that happens when we can relate scripture to our own lives and make it more personal. We don’t start to understand scripture better when we skip over the lines we don’t understand.
When I first read this verse and then that thought above came to me I figured that was what the Holy Spirit wanted me to talk about. But, then I couldn’t get that question out of my head, “what does my words descend like dew mean?” And maybe you didn’t get stuck on that. Maybe you already know what this verse is saying. I am going to review what I learned anyway because I am willing to bet you will learn something you didn’t know or hear it in a different way at least.
The first part says, “Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew.” For some reason I didn’t understand that this was talking about God’s teachings and God’s words. When I read an article (click here for article) about this verse it talked about how God blesses us in various ways and in various degrees. Sometimes His teachings fall on us like rain. Have you seen grass after it has rained? It is so green and full of life. The ground just soaks up the rain. We can do this with the Lord’s teachings as well. When God is raining down his teaching on us we can soak it all in and we can use it to live our life more fully. God’s teachings can make our life more abundant.
When it talks about His words descending like dew what is coming to me is that His words are always there, just like the dew. The dew is there each morning, and God’s words are always there as well. Also the dew covers everything and so do God’s word’s. They can cover us, they can cover everything we are going through and everything we have ever gone through. The article I read also talked about how amazing Jesus’ words were when He walked the Earth. People were amazed at the words He spoke. In John 7 some soldiers were sent to capture Jesus and yet they returned without Him and their only reply was, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” Jesus’ words were powerful and He spoke of things no one else had talked about before. Not everything He said was easy to hear and yet mosts people took it in and accepted it as truth.
The verse ends with, “like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” The article I read says this part shows us that God blesses the new babe just as much as those who have been faithful for years. It also talks about how god’s blessing come in various degrees sometimes. Sometimes it is a light mist of blessings, some times it is showers of rain and other times it is abundant rain. God gives us blessings based on what we need at the time we are asking for them.
One thing I liked that the article pointed out is that there is one substance we are talking about. That is water. Whether we are talking about falling like rain, descending like dew, showers, or abundant rain, it is all water. The water in this verse is talking about God’s power. God’s power comes out in His teachings and in His words. God’s power comes down like showers at times and like abundant rain at times. The article also said that in the whole book of Deuteronomy Moses is recounting the Lord’s blessings in a song. However, this particular chapter Deuteronomy 32 is the climax or highpoint of the entire song. I did not know this before so I thought at was an interesting point. I love learning new facts about the Bible!
I really liked how the devotional ended. It was a great way to relate the Bible verse to our lives. Here is what Susanna, the writer for today’s devotional, wrote: “Like my parched neighborhood, I need God’s Spirit to fall on me, drenching me with refreshment and hope. His truth rains down guidance and blessing. Encouragement and wisdom are found when His words fall, refreshing my thirsty spirit.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, let your words of wisdom and hope fall on our thirsty souls and revive our spirits. Lord, we love you and we thank you for all the blessings you have given us. Whether it is a light rain or a downpour of your blessings Lord, we will take them all. We know you know what we need and you always give us what we need. We are grateful that your ways are higher than our ways and you know better than we do. You do not always give us what we want, but you do always give us what we need. You are the best! Thank you for raining down blessings when we are thirsty or when we are in a drought. Lord you are so amazing and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to ask each of you to consider doing a witness for Witness Wednesday. I know it may sound intimidating, and you may feel like your life is boring and you have nothing to share. I assure you it is not. We have all seen God working in our lives. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for the person who’s faith will grow just by hearing it. Please give it some thought. If you would like to give one but aren’t really sure how, or what you would say, email me Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or (click here) and I can give you some questions to get you started. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!