In this beautiful metaphor, He says, "I will be as the dew unto Israel".
Now, ordinarily we do not think much about dew, and if we do think about it, we certainly do not compare it to our relationship with God. In fact, we do not see a lot of good in dew.
• The ladies generally do not like it because it takes the curls out of their hair.
• The men generally dislike dew because it causes our shoes to get wet when we walk on grass.
• Before they had permanent press clothes, we men disliked it because it took the crease out of our pants.
We generally do not think of dew in a POSITIVE WAY.
Let us see what God had in mind when He said, “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” Before we can appreciate this metaphor we need to consider the definition of dew.
Illus: Dew is a deposit of water droplets, formed at night by the condensation of water vapor from the air, onto the surface of objects exposed to the sky. Dew forms on clear nights when the air is calm or winds are light. The process that produces the dew begins as the sun begins to set and night begins to fall. Objects exposed to the open air cool faster than the air around them, and if it is sufficiently humid, water vapor condenses out of the air and covers the object.
Now with this in mind, what did God mean when He said in Hosea 14:5, "I will be like the dew to Israel"? The explanation has to do with the definition of what dew is and how it forms. For example-
I. DEW COMES IN THE STILLNESS OF NIGHT
Our society knows very little about stillness. We live in a fast paced world!
Illus: A man was in a hurry while taking his 8-year-old son to school. In his haste, he accidentally made a turn at a red light where it was prohibited.
• "Uh-oh, I just made an illegal turn!" the man said.
• "Aw, Dad, it's okay," the son replied. "The police car right behind us did the same thing."
Illus: Speaking of living in the fast lane, someone listed these things that we sometimes do in our haste. They say you know you're living in the fast lane when…
• You accidentally enter your password on the microwave
• You email the person who works at the desk next to you
• Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have email addresses
• You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home
• Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go home and get it
Listen, people are not slowing down; the statistics show they are going faster!
Illus: Professor Richard Wiseman has announced the results of an international study in collaboration with the British Council to measure the speed of life.
The experiment, conducted by British Council researchers, secretly timed thousands of pedestrians’ speed of walking across the globe, including London, Madrid, Singapore, and New York.
Using identical methods to those employed in the previous work, the present day research teams discovered that the pace of life is now 10% faster than in the early 1990s.
The biggest changes were found in the Far East, with the pace of life in (China) increasing by over 20%, and Singapore showing a 30% increase, resulting in it becoming the fastest moving city in the study.
The study showed that those that lived in the slow lane had a lot less health problems than those living in the fast lane.
We live in a fast paced world and people in America today are paying a price with more heart attacks, and high blood pressure than ever before. Due to this fast pace, it has almost become accepted that we all are going to have to have open-heart surgery.
For example, has anyone ever asked you, “Have you had open heart surgery yet?” It is like something that is expected of us because we live in this fast paced world!
We not only suffer physically, but we also suffer spiritually in this fast paced world.
You see, people who live in the fast lane go crazy waiting for the red light to change. How in the world can such a person sit patiently at the feet of Jesus.
God told Israel a long time ago that He would be AS THE DEW TO HIS PEOPLE. Dew always comes in the STILLNESS OF THE NIGHT.
Many have never known the sweet fellowship of God because they have never learned to sit still.
Illus: Many are like Martha in the New Testament. She was a believer, but never came to know what God had in mind when He said, "I will be as the dew ... "
She was always too busy; but Mary had a very intimate relationship with the Lord. The scripture says "And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word."
But Martha saw this as a waste of time, so she came to Jesus and said, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her there¬fore that she help me…"
Martha was probably thinking that Christ would rebuke Mary for sitting at His feet and say: "Mary, do not waste time by sitting at my feet. Go and do more important things like setting places at the table and washing the dishes etc."
However, instead if rebuking Mary He rebuked Martha.
Look at Luke 10:42, we read, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
For God to become unto us "as dew,'" only "one thing is needful."
• You must learn to turn the television off and sit at the feet of Jesus
• You must learn to turn the radio off and sit at the feet of Jesus
• You must learn to put that book, magazine or newspaper down and sit at the feet of Jesus
• You must learn to say, “no!” to your family and friends and sit at the feet of Jesus
We sometimes hear people say, “I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO SIT AT THE FEET OF JESUS.” What they really mean is that Jesus is not as important to them as their chores, T.V., recreation, etc., because we generally do those things that we want to do.
The Lord said He would be as the dew, because dew always comes in the stillness of the night.
Also, the Lord said that He would be as the dew to His people because-
II. DEW COMES IN THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT
Many times, it is in the darkness of our life spiritually that we draw nigh unto the Lord.
Many people have allowed fences to come into their life that separate them from walking with God. Until those fences are removed from their life, they will never know what it means for God to be as the DEW UNTO THEM!
Illus: A farmer once raised some ducks. He had two different kinds and he kept each kind in a separate pen. It seemed as though those ducks would often desire to mingle and have fellowship, but could not because of the fence. They say that one day a storm came along and soon a flood followed the storm. The water began to get higher and higher. It soon got so high that the fence was no longer a divider: they could swim across the top of it and have fellowship together.
For us to have fellowship with the Lord, the fences in our life will have to be removed.
It is in the darkness of night that the dew comes.
• Some have had to go through terrible financial difficulties, but they discovered during those times how precious the Lord is to us.
• Some have had to go through the valley of death as they buried a loved one, but they discovered in this darkness a relationship with the Lord they never had before.
• Some churches have had to go through some dark times, and it was during this time of darkness that their church drew close to the Lord. Now they have a better church than they ever had before.
God wants to become "as dew" unto us, but it always comes in STILLNESS and DARKNESS!
Illus: Hadley Paige was flying his airplane one day, when he noticed that he needed to refuel. He flew to a place in Arabia called Kibar. After refueling, he took off again to reach his destination. After he was up for a while, he discovered that while he was refueling he had taken on a new passenger; a large rat had gotten aboard. He was not content with just hitching a ride. Mr. Paige could hear him gnawing on the plane and a feeling of horror ran through Mr. Paige because of the fear of what this rat could do if he gnawed on some vital part of the plane.
He looked for a place to land, but there was none. He remembered that a rat lives in lowlands and can not live above certain heights so he immediately began to climb until he could hear the gnawing no more. Later, when he landed, he looked for his stowaway. He found the rat, dead, under his seat.
The point I wish to make is this: God never intended for us to be a low-land creature, but He intended that we might be able to soar above our problems regardless how dark things look.
It is the dark times in our life that Christ said He would be as the DEW TO HIS PEOPLE.
We see that DEW COMES IN THE STILLNESS OF NIGHT, DEW COMES IN THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT and -
III. DEW COMES TO BRING REFRESHMENT AND GROWTH
Have you ever stopped to think of the many types of precipitation God has made?
Illus: The earth's atmosphere produces rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog, mist and dew—maybe even a few more kinds as well.
These creations that God designed to water the earth also come at different times and in varying amounts depending on the region of the world.
• Arid regions receive very little rain and rarely, if ever, see snow.
• Tropical regions receive regular rains and probably never have an ice storm.
• Arctic regions endure heavy snowfalls, yet may never have had a rainstorm.
• Many of us live in temperate climes that receive a mixture of all the different types of precipitation.
We don't realize the significance of the dew in Palestine. Remember what Gideon was able to do in Judges 6:38? He was able to squeeze an entire bowl of water from a piece of wool left on the ground overnight.
In ancient Palestine, it made little difference if it rained or not, as long as there was plenty of dew on the ground each morning.
That's why the judgment of Elijah was so frightening when he told Ahab, "…there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." (1 Kings 17:1)
In Palestine, dew is what refreshed the land after a day of scorching sunshine. In Palestine, rainfall from April to October is very scarce, and life in these areas would cease without the dew.
As the dew covers a plant, the plant absorbs the life-giving substance through its leaves, giving it what it needs to survive another day. Without this daily source of water, plants will not endure until the latter rains in the autumn.
This is why God said in Hosea 14:5, "I will be like the dew to Israel".
Illus: They say that they have discovered that plants react to their environments. That is, if you play sweet music around them and talk to them, they will respond and grow faster and healthier. Now years ago if a person did such a thing they would have been hauled off in a straight jacket, but today it is considered normal.
Listen, I believe that if a plant could talk, after a hot, dry day it would say, “I am glad this day has come to an end, this cool refreshing dew feels so good!”
God had this in mind when He said, “I will be as the dew to my people!”
We face these scorching experiences of life, but how refreshing it is when God lets His showers of blessings refresh us.
Listen, all of us have had those hard, difficult days when it seems it took everything in us to take the next step. But finally we got into a cool shower, and all of a sudden it seemed like life began to flow into our bodies.
God said, “I WILL BE AS THE DEW”, because DEW BRINGS REFRESHNESS AND GROWTH.
Conclusion:
A boy named Tom grew up learning how to live off the land from an American Indian.
When Tom had come of age, he decided to test his survival skills. His plan was to travel around the United States and spend time in the most challenging areas.
He stayed in the Grand Canyon and the Badlands, and the final test was to see if he could endure the desert of Death Valley.
Before Tom set out on the final leg of his journey, he left his car with a local storeowner. He told the man that, if he was not back in eight weeks, he was probably dead. The storeowner replied that Tom would be dead in two weeks! Undeterred, Tom struck out to begin his test.
The desert was more trying than anything he had ever faced. His main source of drinking water was dew. Every night, he would lay out a dew-catching device, and in the morning, he would have collected enough for a fresh drink. Tom recalled that he had never been so thirsty in all his life as on this journey.
As the days went on, Tom lost track of time, and after nine weeks, he decided it was time to go home. With the "dew of heaven" to drink, Tom reached his goal, but without it he would have stood no chance of survival.
Without the spiritual "dew of heaven" from God, we have no chance of surviving in Satan's world!
We see –
I. DEW COMES IN THE STILLNESS OF NIGHT
II. DEW COMES IN THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT
III. DEW COMES TO BRING REFRESHMENT AND GROWTH
