“I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.” Ezekiel 34:26
Here is sovereign mercy—“I will send down the showers in their season.” Is this not sovereign, divine mercy? For who can say, “I send down the showers,” except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds and bid them beget the rain. Who sends down the rain upon the earth? Who scatters the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord?
So grace is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. In vain you labor, until God the bountiful shower bestows, and sends salvation down. Then, it is bountiful grace.
“I will send down the showers.” It does not say, “I will send them drops,” but “showers.” So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, he usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Bountiful grace! Ah! we want bountiful grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us holy; bountiful grace to make us zealous, to preserve us through this life, and at last to land us in heaven. We cannot do without saturating showers of grace.
Again, it is seasonable grace. “I will send down the showers in their season.” What is your season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. “As your days so shall your strength be.” And here is a varied blessing. “They shall be showers of blessing.” The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God’s blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If he gives converting grace, he will also give comforting grace. He will send “showers of blessing.”
Look up today, O parched plant, and open your leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
