Do the Dew (of Heaven!)
(Note to pastors, here is a link for a "Dew" commercial where the thrust is that you can’t do life without your dew. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlKVbt8K7kY)
Ho 14:4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
Ho 14:5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
A parishioner who passed away came to me often for counseling, and his complaint went along these lines:
"Pastor I backslid a few years ago, but now I have come back to the Lord, and I just don’t feel the Lord like I used to."
That lack of "feeling," produced anxiety about his salvation, and doubts about whether or not God had accepted him back. I guess if you read the story of the prodigal son enough, and the party he got when he got back home, and if you read where it says the angels rejoice when a backslider returns (Lk 15:20), you can come away with the idea that when a person repents they should "feel," like a party is going on in heaven about them.
Today I want to talk to you about a salvation experience that is not marked by spiritual downpours of joy, but by the dew of heaven saturating and penetrating your soul and your walk with God. So this is how we will proceed this morning. First I will show water as a symbol of God’s work. Secondly I will show how dew is shown to be a blessing from God. Finally I will show the characteristics of dew, how they relate to a real and genuine work of God in our heart.
The text we have chosen for today is especially poignant for this discussion. God says in connection to the healing of backsliding, that He will be as the dew, and not as a thunderstorm.
First, quickly, I want to show a few scriptures that demonstrate water to be an emblem of the Holy Spirit, and spiritual cleansing.
Water used as an illustration of a cleansing agent:
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word...
Water used as an illustration of a cleansing agent, and of the Holy Spirit:
Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Water used as an illustration of the Holy Spirit:
Joh 7:37 ¶ In the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
This last text we have cited is an interesting one because it suggests that there should be some feelings involved in the salvation experience because of the use of the word, "rivers." How could someone have rivers flowing out of your innermost being and you not feel it? If you think that way you have divorced the text from its intended meaning. The meaning is not that you will feel something, but that God will give a super over abundance of the Holy Spirit, Jesus never says anything about what you may or may not feel.
If you judge your salvation by your feelings, you will be saved one day and lost the next. It doesn’t work that way. Take for example marriage, if you don’t feel love today that doesn’t mean your marriage covenant is null and void. Salvation is the same thing, it is a covenant, not a feeling.
So we have talked about water as emblematic of cleansing and the Holy Spirit, now lets talk about one specific form of water, and that is dew.
In our text in Hosea, God says He will be as the dew to Israel, and more especially to backslidden Israel when they have returned to Him.
Dew is used in the scriptures as an example of the blessing of God. Isaac prophetically pronounced a blessing over Jacob that included dew:
Ge 27:27 And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son [is] as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:
Ge 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
In an arid climate, moisture is an especially valued commodity. The dew Isaac spoke of is the, "dew of heaven," in a desert land all water is believed to be God given. So when He gives it, it is viewed as a blessing and a sign of His favor.
Dew withheld, likewise, is considered a curse or judgment:
1Ki 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.
Hag 1:9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, [it came] to little; and when ye brought [it] home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that [is] waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
Hag 1:10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed [from] her fruit.
Hag 1:11 And I called for a drought upon the land...
Dew is used as an example of being blessed by the word:
De 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
Too many Christians get hung up wanting, "Showers of Blessing," and don’t understand the value and greatness of the, "Dew of Heaven". So to help with that lets talk about some of the qualities of dew and how they relate to a real and genuine work of the Holy Spirit.
First, let us notice that dew falls silently.
Commenting on dew, Spurgeon said, "You will notice, first of all, that grace, like the dew, often comes down imperceptibly into man’s heart. When did the dew tell us that it was about to fall? Who ever heard the footsteps of the dew coming down upon the meadow grass? Who ever knew when it was descending? We see it when it has fallen; but who saw it come? And so with Christianity: it is very often imperceptible in its operations."
A scripture that comes to mind is in Luke 24, and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They meet Jesus and converse with Him for quite a while and don’t realize who it is. Later their eyes are opened, He leaves, and when rehearsing the event among themselves, they realized the whole time He was there and opening the scriptures to them, their hearts were burning. (My doctrine shall distill as the dew.) Spending time in the word, allows the dew of heaven to saturate you in ways that may not be perceptible at first.
One more point about the validity of dew like experiences in God. Some people think that only loud and exuberant worship is genuine, a scriptural example would be:
Ps 47:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
But the next example is just as valid an experience in God:
Ex 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
It is not the volume that matters to God, but the sincerity of heart. It’s not about whether or not you lift your hands during worship. A quiet person can worship, as great or greater, than the loudest singer in church. In fact Jesus described some of those outspoken worshippers as complete frauds. (Mt. 23:14)
2ndly dew is cooling and refreshing to the tenderest of plants. As opposed to the potential dangers of a torrential downpour. The drooping plant it will be revived, without being overwhelmed. The root systems on some plants can’t handle a downpour, additionally dew often satiates more completely. It feeds, it produces growth, it sustains, it completely satisfies the plants needs without overwhelming.
Thirdly dew is penetrative. A visitor to Mt. Hermon said the dew penetrated everyone and everything and saturated everything, the floor of the tent was soaked, their beds were covered, guns were dripping and dew drops hung everywhere. The area around Mt. Hermon is drought stricken yet its base is clad with beautiful orchards and gardens, because of the dew in that area.
"Mr. Maundrell says that "with this dew, even in dry weather, their tents were as wet as if it had rained the whole night." (Clarkes commentary). Don’t ever underestimate the power of God’s dew to meet your needs as fully as His downpours!
Fourthly dew usually falls in times of low visibility. It falls most generally in the pre-dawn hours, while men are asleep, and at the darkest part of the night. Even in our dark times God is moving. Even when we can’t see the hand of God, His dew is forming and moisturizing in unseen and quiet ways.
The dew of heaven is just as important and valid as the rivers of living water. The man I spoke of in the beginning of this message was the biggest evangelist in my church at that time. He was a fanatic about passing out tracts and witnessing to people. The last thing he did in this life was to invite his upstairs neighbor to church on a Saturday evening. He passed away that night. He may not have felt like he did in his earlier walk with the Lord, but God healed his backsliding with the dew of heaven.
I trust by now you have a much greater appreciation for the blessing Isaac pronounced upon his son, when he said, "God give thee of the dew of heaven..."
Close: It is not how you start out, it is how you end up. Paul said, I have finished the course. You may be surprisingly very close to the end of your race...
