The Latter Rain

Today’s verse further depicts the power of Christ’s Creatorship (Colossians 1:16). Christ was the One who “formed man” out of the earth and gave him “the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). So it is fitting that Christ is also the One who redeems man from the earth. Christ is the agent of creation and recreation. So what is the process of recreating man in Christ’s image, the end result of what we see modeled by the 144,000? What will make this symbolic crop of wheat ripe in this end time?

It is rain. Wheat relies on stored soil moisture and timely rains. Without water, crop production suffers and kernels don’t grow. A drought can be deadly for wheat. Interestingly, in Palestine, the rainy season typically lasts from autumn to spring.

Showers at the beginning of this season, in the fall, are referred to as the “early rains,” while rain at the end of the season, around the start of the new year, is called the “latter rain.” The latter rain gives the final impetus needed to mature the grain for harvest.

The early rain was figuratively applied to the Holy Spirit’s being poured out upon the Christian church on the day of Pentecost, made clear by the apostle Peter’s quoting of a passage from the book of Joel (Acts 2:1–21). Aptly, this was the period in which the apostolic church was just beginning. So, the process of recreation is done by the Holy Spirit: “We … are being transformed into the same image” of our Lord Jesus Christ “by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

If the Holy Spirit was represented by the early rain, what do you think the latter rain is? At the close of time, to bring in the harvest, God promises to give us the latter rain, a final outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His people that completes the maturation process, fully recreating God’s image in them.

These rains apply to not just the church as a whole but also the individual Christian. We need both the former and latter rains poured on our hearts to grow into Christ’s image fully.

O Lord, please pour out the Holy Spirit upon Your church as well as my heart so that my character will ripen and be ready for the final harvest.

For Further Study: Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:23–32; James 5:7, 8

Key Bible Texts

And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. (Revelation 14:16 KJV)