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Lesson 20: Geography Study Concerning the Scriptures, Physical Topography - The Hydrology of the Holy Land
The message to the children of Israel was, in effect, that if the Israelites obeyed God’s commands, He would send both the former and latter rains so that they could gather in grain, wine, and oil.
But what would take place if their hearts proved faithless?
God, in anger, would shut up the heavens, and there would be no rain.
Lev 26:18-20, And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
Fertility then, was a function of faith.
Rain or lack of rain was meant to be a message from God to his children regarding their faith.
In Israel the rainfall index and the faith index were one and the same.
2 Chron 7:13-14, If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
1 Kings 17:1, And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
So many passages in scripture plainly declare that fertility in Canaan must be attributed to a caring and benevolent God.
But instead of living on the high road of faith in God, the Israelites went the way of the low road and apostatized to the god of fertility, the god of the Canaanites, Baal.
Instead of guaranteeing a sufficient amount of rainfall by faith in God, they turned to a broken cistern, and they practiced faith in Baal.
Jeremiah 2:13, For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
They turned from the word of God to the promise of Baal, who claimed that when his rain (Baal’s seed) fell, women would be fertile, flocks and herds would reproduce in abundance, and fields would be standing full of grain.
So easily forgetting the word of God they conformed to the Canaanite belief because they needed something to exist in this barren land and Baal was the one would could provide without having to live a life of faith.. |