338 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
But it is perhaps necessary to repeat and emphasise that it is literal rain which is meant here, in the first instance, in which connection it is important to observe that Israel was taught to regard the giving or withholding of this great temporal blessing, upon which the prosperity of the land and the life of man and beast are dependent, as entirely in the hand of God. "Are there any among the vanities of tJie heathen that can cause rain ? " exclaimed the prophet Jeremiah, " or can the heavens (of themselves] give showers ? art not Thou He, O Jehovah our God ? there fore we will wait upon TJice : for Thou hast made all these things." *
In these modern times men have grown wiser, and no longer recognise or acknowledge God in what to them is entirely due to " natural causes " ; but such wisdom is based on a science only falsely so called, and is foolishness in the eyes of those who know that there is a living, personal God, the Creator and Upholder of all things, who, though He in His infinite power and wisdom appointed certain " laws " to govern His creation, is Himself all the time behind and above these laws, to guide and control ; and does, either by using " natural means " which are known to us, or apart from them, interfere in the affairs of men and nations with a view to deliver, or instruct, or correct. To Israel, rain in due season, so that the land should yield her increase, was promised as the direct reward of national obedience.
" And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments whidi I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your Jieart and with all your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil." 2
And it is a notorious fact that the withholding of the showers and the scarcity of the rainfall whatever the secondary causes by which it may be accounted for was one of the chief factors in the predicted desolation of
1 Jer.-xiv. 22. ~ Deut. xi. 13-15 ; Lev. xxvi. 3, 4 ; Deut. xxviii. I-I2.
