“And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.” (Ezekiel 34:26)

This verse provided the inspiration for the old gospel hymn “Showers of Blessing.” While it applies specifically to Israel, it states a divine principle which believers of all times have rightly appropriated to their own lives. The same word (“showers”) is also frequently translated “rain,” speaking of the rain which followed Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal at the end of the three-year drought. “And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain” (1 Kings 18:41).

In general, the word is most commonly used to indicate very heavy rains. In fact, its first occurrence is in connection with the great Flood. “The rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:12). This rain had poured forth from the windows (literally “sluiceways”) of heaven, and it provides an impressive picture of the tremendous showers of blessing which God desires to pour down on His people.

In the context of our key verse, the promised showers follow the condition of the preceding verses: “And I the LORD will be their God, . . . And I will make with them a covenant of peace” (Ezekiel 34:24-25). The greatest blessings of God, accordingly, must follow the knowledge of God and the peace of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

No doubt the greatest of all spiritual blessings, at least in this life, is the inspired Word of God, and the same word is so used: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud. . . . So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11). HMM