Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. – Deuteronomy 32:2

Today's Scripture Reading (March 20, 2025): Deuteronomy 32

Spring is coming. I often remark that I live in a part of the world that has four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction. Of the four seasons, I like the season of construction the best. As an urban dweller, I also freely admit that what I like and hope for in that season is an abundance of warm and sunny days. I want days that will allow me to ride my e-bike to work or even go sightseeing around the city. I want to spend time on my deck reading a book and other activities I can't do in the other dominant seasons. (I know construction companies desire the same thing so that they can get their various projects finished, which always seems to get finished faster in the sunshine than they do in the rain.) But there is another truth that I also know, even from my perch in the city. Here it is; all sunshine and no rain results in a desert. As much as the rain might curtail my summer activities, we need the rain, especially the gentle showers and morning dew of the summer months. Showers are essential to the health of everything on which my life depends.

Moses uses the same illustration to describe what he hopes his teachings, coming straight from the hand of God, will do for the people. In the years to come, as the nation begins life in a new land, he wants these teachings to descend on the people, like the dew that is present every morning and the showers that come throughout the growing season. Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) makes this observation;

It is good preaching, and good hearing too, when the gospel comes like a gentle shower which saturates and soaks into the soil, and refreshes and makes it fruitful; may God the Holy Spirit make it to be so whenever we gather together for worship (Charles Spurgeon)!

Every teacher hopes that what we teach not only comes from God but that it also falls on those who hear us and on our own hearts like a gentle shower, nurturing the growth that we need for life and carrying us into a healthy future filled with growth. It is a thought that is repeated by the Prophet Isaiah. 

As the rain and the snow

    come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

    without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

    It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 33