Rain Falls
“and sends rain on the just and the unjust” Matthew 5:45Â
I have a hard time understanding God’s battle plan. If I were running the cosmic war, I would make it as difficult as possible on my enemies and as wonderful as I could for my allies.  I’d be sure that my troops got the best of everything. Good food, great jobs, wonderful children, pleasant neighborhoods, peaceful communities. The list would go on and on about all the marvelous treasures in life if you joined my team. At the same time, I’d make sure that the plagues of Egypt fell on the unrighteous. They would be the sad recipients of hell on earth. Famine, disease, destruction, sorrow, defeat. I’d throw it all at them until they capitulated. That’s a battle plan I could understand.
But God doesn’t listen to my clever strategy. He sends the rain on the just and the unjust. What kind of tactic is that? How can I ever conduct recruiting or hope to encourage desertion from the enemy ranks if God pours out favors on those who oppose Him? It’s just plain insanity. What’s worse is that God doesn’t seem to protect His own troops from evil treatment. His children experience sorrow and grief, affliction and destruction, loss and labor. Of course, they do have the power of the Spirit but they don’t seem to be immune from the trials and tribulations of the world. In fact, they might even get more than their fair share. It’s hard to imagine a more upside-down strategy than this!
Maybe you’ve never thought about the big battle plan. Maybe you’ve only recognized the disparity in your own little corner of the war. But my guess is that there have been times when you said, “God, what are you doing? Those people across the street don’t believe in You at all and I do. But they get all the breaks. They have plenty of money. Their kids go to private school. They just went on vacation – again. I’m following you as best as I can and I just lost my job, my children are in bad schools and the car needs repairs. How can this be fair?”
We need a cosmic view.
Yeshua gives us an insight into the cosmic plan when he says that the Father causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the good, the bad and the ugly. Actually, he didn’t say “ugly”. That was Clint Eastwood. But the insight Yeshua gives is astounding. God’s game plan in the cosmic battle of truth and justice is blessing. And God’s blessing plan is distributed across His entire creation. So, God blesses His enemies because God loves them, even when they are fighting against Him. Â
The plan is radical – and crazy. But it is absolutely consistent with the character of God. God does not fight fire with fire. He does not wreak havoc on those who oppose Him. He is compassionate. He applies the blessing strategy over and over, year after year, century after century because He wishes to woo the rebels back to His arms, not drive them to surrender to His might. His strategy is vulnerability, not fortification. He goes to battle with love, not power. No wonder we don’t understand Him.
We are far more inclined to the strategy of the evil one. Why shouldn’t we be? Every battle plan in human experience, every movie, every comic book story operates on the basis of overwhelming power. The arms race is all about fearing the power of the antagonist. I can’t send my missiles to destroy your cities because you would send your missiles to destroy mine. Defense in the world’s system is a matter of having more power than the enemy. God’s plan calls for total vulnerability. The world wants total control.
There is a great irony here. God, the Creator of the universe, the God who lacks no power at all and who could, with a single word, eliminate all His enemies, comes to battle armed with only compassion. All of the rest of us, including the evil one, who are severely limited in power compared to God All Mighty, gobble up as much power as we possibly can in order to ensure our victory. How strange is that? If the God of creation enters the battle unarmed, don’t you think He understands the true nature of combat?
We reflect a different reality. Our thinking has been infected with the addiction to control. We think that the answer to threat is force. We are a world that firmly believes in shock and awe warfare. What a tragic mistake.  There is no end to that strategy. Power always begets the need for more power. Force always produces more resistance. A battle plan based on total control can only finally succeed when everyone is dead. But, of course, that really is the cosmic objective. The evil one gladly lends his support to our misguided versions of battle strategy because they all serve his plan. He is not interested in victory. He knows that he has already lost. His strategy is to destroy the image of God found in all of God’s creation. That means that he is more than willing to destroy everything that he can get his hands on before his final defeat. Every battle plan except compassion is equally useful to him because every other plan leads to more annihilation of God’s image. So, cut the rain forest because we need furniture. Drill the wilderness because we need fuel. Exploit the poor because we need silk shirts. Blow up a bus because we want recognition. Open the killing fields because we want power. Manufacture excess because we want affluence. It all fits the destruction strategy. Erase God from the earth, no matter what the cost.
So God sends the rain. A gentle reminder of another battle strategy. A remembrance of His character. Cosmic victory in a drop of water.Â
Thanks! We need to be reminded of this often…
Cosmic victory in a drop of water. This is beautiful! Water, that living substances; brings life, responds to praise and love, can also bring death. Reminds me of the Feast of Tabernacles. What a powerful statement.
Man! This is the part of love that I have such difficulty fathoming. Loving my enemies is so counterintuitive to me. Yet, my YHVH exudes such love continuously. And those that exude that kind of love I have usually regarded at weak and compromising and without a spine to engage evil head on.
My slate needs cleaning. I need some of YHVH’s words written on my heart covered in the sweet honey of his chesed. And I need to taste it. Then share it and spread it.
Thanks, Skip.
I have always loved the rain. Now I will appreciate it even more. HalleluiYah
The thief on the cross, dying next to Jesus, saw God’s
exquisite devine “battle plan” in action.
He heard Jesus say, “Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.” Lk 23:34
Hard to believe. Harder to comprehend. Yet he heard it,
and was astounded by such amazing love and compassion.
When he glanced over at Jesus’ visage, bloodied, beaten,
and more marred than any man ever was, he was startled
by what he saw looking back at him. He was face to face with
the most powerful force in the universe: perfect love.
Misery AND majesty. Suffering AND sacredness.
With only a few moments of life left, the loving Master of all
touched his soul for all of eternity. How? With love.
This thief needed no sermon. No books. No teaching.
Something in Jesus’s eyes turned him totally around.
So amazingly simple! Just like Jesus’s words to us about
His exquisite devine battle plan: “Love one another.” Jn 15:17
I totally get this but I have a question, biblically speaking, where should boundaries come in (being vulnerable vs. victimized)? Most of the poor have to live without boundaries. Most of the rest of the world insists on having them. Modern psychology assures us they will help people overcome their issues; while childhood abuse erases them which creates the emotional issues (anger, fear, hostility, envy…) that fuel the creation of all these battle strategies in the first place. Being vulnerable removes these protective barriers.
Nice living in gray, isn’t it? You get to choose.
This was amazing…and Yah is sooo faithful!!! Each of us are going thru our own private ‘battles’ … we arm ourselves, we print out our reproof or our proof – and we go into the counseling session armed to the teeth! WE’LL PROVE WE’RE RIGHT – WE’LL SHOW THEM! ……….. OY VEY!!!!! and nothing changes.. hearts are still hardened … lives are still in turmoil … and no amount of PROOF does anything to either side…they dig in their heels and wait for the next opportunity to pop up from their foxhole and shoot one more round……… WHEN will we ever learn? WHEN will we do it The Holy One’s way? WHEN will we simply let that one drop of water flow from HIS spigot and allow mercy, and compassion and grace to flow ….. He rains on the just and the unjust….let us all embrace the reign.
This is very timely!
God Loves
Christ the Messiah died for sinners. Who “qualifies?” (helpful household hint..) ~ ALL have sinned.. ~ and while we were “yet” sinners, Christ died for us ~
What? “ALL”? – Self included? Just how all encompassing is all? (y’all?)
Yes, the rain falls upon the just and the justified, and yes the rain falls upon even the “wicked,”- those who oppose God and those who deny He even “exists!” Rain falls. Why is this so? Oh, friend! Why? Because God is (always) good! The LORD is good! Yes, – at all times.. and Yes, to all people- everywhere, even (gasp!) “sinners.” P.S.- “sinners are us!”
What is (according to biblical standards) a “saint?” There are today (and there will be- at the very “end”) only two types of people- and it won’t be Jew or Gentile, male or female. There are (and will be) “saints” – (or saved sinners) or those who are *in Christ* and there are (and will be) “aints”- or those who are still lost in their sins, those who are not yet *in Christ.*
You see that “prosperous” sinner over there? Yeah, – that one!- You know.. it’s okay to notice him, for King David “noticed” also, millenia ago! – Actually, -it was Asaph, – one of David’s chief musicians. He asked the (age old?) question, – (Daddy) why do the “wicked” prosper? – and the righteous go unrewarded? Can’t you just hear the kids hootin’ and hollerin’ now?.. Moan, groan, whine (you want some cheese with that wine?) “life is so “unfair!” Exactly, – life is not “fair!” You’re absolutely right! No kiddin’ kid. Life is NOT fair!- and neither is it a “walk in the park!” Life is (purposefully) hard! ~ In this world, (the one we woke up in this morning) “you” (sir or m’am) will have tribulation! ~ ( I guarantee it! – Why? Our Savior said so!)
You know.. if you keep asking “why?”- and just keep on diggin’ (especially with a Hebrew shovel!)- answers are there! Where? In the Book God wrote! – It’s in there!
There are some things (just the facts m’am) we gotta know! How do we approach this? Prayerfully, – “bent knee time..” Do it, – and do it now. “Bow the knee!” Answers will pour forth like a river!
Good answers come from good questions- Question: ~ what do the scriptures say? ~ This, young people, is the “gettin’ place!” The Source of all good things, for God has spoken! He has given us His word! Yo! Adam, what did God say? Do you remember? “Yes, God said, – don’t eat the fruit!” Then why, Adam, did you not listen? Why, Adam, did you not obey? Adam, – what happened back yonder in the garden? Where you somehow “distracted?” It wasn’t 613 “rules for righteous living,” – it was only one request, – only one!- Oh Adam, I can only imagine the anguish you and the Mrs. felt as you exited Eden..
We are a blessed bunch. We are not only blessed, but we are “so” blessed! We have in our formerly “worldly and sin-stained hands,” a Book.. The Book of all books, the sword of the LORD and of Gideon, -God’s Blessing Book: our Bible. Again, – look in the Book! – it’s in there!
I’m sorry.. I went off and left you full of sorrow! For I only gave “half” the story! Yes, in this world (and on this green planet) we (all) will have tribulation! This, (hallelujah?) is the promise of God! The rest of the story? Yes, Paul Harvey, I will have a “good day!”- Why? (just keep askin’ why folks!- Because HE has said,…. (drumroll?) ~ But be of good cheer(?)- I have (already) overcome the world! ~
This, (as the young folks might say) is “where’s it’s at!” This, – could even answer the (silly?) question: “what it is?” Oh, hallelujah for the word of God! If only.. If only we would pay attention! (Adam)
~ I have told you these things, so that *in Me* you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have (already) overcome the world ~ (John 16.33)
What (he inquired) does it mean to be *in Christ?* Oh, how central! Oh, how crucial! Oh, what celebration! Oh, “how blessed” to call Him mine!
Skip – I’m struggling with this. Please help.
What is vulnerability? My Websters 1812 says vulnerable is “that may be wounded; liable to injury”. Is that the Hebrew concept as well?
And how do I square this with standing against evil? I don’t think Scripture teaches us to be “pushovers” but I agree that pushing back just increases the opposition. What is the line between standing and being milquetoast?
Is there not a place that we simply have to stand immovable, (and yes, with vulnerability) but not hedging away from Truth and right standing?
Yup, standing, but that isn’t the same as advancing, is it? So much to deal with. So many choices. Good thing we have all the stories of those biblical characters.
I think I get it. The sword of the spirit isn’t meant to be the tool of aggression in our hands. We stand in order to resist in the evil day but that’s quite different than expanding our territory or seeking retaliation.
Yeshua’s statement comes from the within the context of those who have surrendered to the Way. This is about Kingdom perspective from those who follow the one and true King. It is not about capitulation to evil, it is about strategizing and warring against it from Heaven’s perspective. It is about trusting His sovereignty to bring it all to a culmination in His timing and way.
There is a thing about rain, it causes the weeds and wheat to grow together. Yes, our enemy has done this while we were sleeping. We are as dumbfounded and mortified by this as the servants were in Yeshua’s parable. Let us listen to the dialogue of the servants and the Master. ” ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ” (ESV) Matthew 13:27-30
We are all in this together (the weeds and the wheat). We are not wise or strong enough to bring about this harvest. There is only One who is wise and strong enough! So let us continue to fight the good fight of faith, as we wait for the great harvest of the Son of Man!
Awesome Skip, awesome!
He knows who He is (unlike us He has no identity crisis, no need to prove a point!), and He knows who we are. But for His spark of life, we are really dust; animated dust deluded by the enemy into taking sides against each other and against our Life-Giver! Compassion is but fitting… No wonder He waits for a broken and a contrite heart.
Thanks again Skip!
Our Father is everlasting life.
Preserving life is His highest priority.
Laying down ones right to life for the sake of another is what it’s like to be like Messiah who
bore the image of the Elohim perfectly.
I’m a little confused. What about Psalm 1 and those who meditate on God’s Word being like a tree planted by water and
the ungodly being like chaff that the wind drives away/?
If the ungodly are like chaff, that means at one time they, too, were perhaps green and flourishing. They received rain, but what did they do with it? Choosing to be ungodly, they withered and dried up. Sometimes, when considering good and evil, happy times and sad times, and the seeming inconsistency of it all, we have to look beyond the present to what was before and what comes after. God sends the rain on the just and unjust. What each does with the rain is what makes them different.. Does this help, Lois?
Every parent who deeply loves a rebellious child understands this. Demanding compliance only leads to more rebellion. Ultimatum only leads to loss of relationship. Condoning the rebelliousness is not an option…but loving the “child” in spite of his/her behavior is the only option to the possibility of winning the relationship back. Until the “child” realizes that the parents love him/her no matter what, the rebellion continues. It is the story of the prodigal. And the non-rebellious siblings still do not understand, just as the older brother didn’t understand the father’s rejoicing over the return of the prodigal. We are all prodigals…some of us have returned, some will return, and some will not. The Father knows who will return and will not, but He wants all to return, and gives all the opportunity to do so. The adversary does his best to obscure the road back and places the blame on the Father. We “older brothers” are asked to imitate the oldest brother, Messiah. He didn’t condone the rebels behavior, but, greater love had no man!
Hi Constance, How then should we understand these verses 🙂 –
Heb 12:7
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his Father does not discipline?
Heb 12:8
If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Heb 12:9
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
Heb 12:10
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.
In the case of the “prodigal” son, he has been given all his inheritance which he has squandered away carelessly, will have no more inheritance, whereas the elder son will inherit ALL that the father has, which is rightfully his. SO, there is a consequence of responsibility of one’s actions!
Luke 15:12
The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.
Luke 15:31
“He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” This is to the elder son.
We are to discipline our children from young, that they may not depart from the path. But. should they choose to depart, having been given free will by Father, due to whatever reasons, e.g. 1. false doctrines leading to lack of knowledge and understanding of truth; 2. environmental influences, 3. pressures and cares of life….
do we stop encouraging them to hunger and love truth, to challenge them to walk in truth before YHWH? That is a huge responsibility on the role of parents who may get so frustrated that they give up sharing and challenging them with truth?
Just sharing my 2cents. Blessings and Shalom!
Skip,
Thanks, as always, for your insights. As far as your comment about God reacting with compassion, I am struggling to find the compassion in the command in Deut 7 and 20 to exterminate (herem) the Canaanites – men, women, AND children. I would love your thoughts.
There was a song we used to sing as children that went like this, “Rain, rain , go away, and come back another day.” We would sing this with gusto, hoping the rain would soon stop so we could go out and play, or it would stop long enough for us to participate in an event going on outside. How much have we prayed with childlike innocence that YHWH would not allow it to rain on the unjust? Is this a wrong prayer? Is this an unjust prayer?
I am no longer a child, and I enjoy and love the gift of the sun and the rain. I am also so thankful for the compassion of our great King on His creation (both small and great)! He is the One who gives breath to every creature. Within that awareness is another awareness and longing for the return of the one and true King. The world we live in is dark, twisted, chaotic, and hell bent toward death and destruction. He is the only One who can truly and forever save His creation from the malice of these wicked enemies. Why does He tarry? What is He waiting for? How much more suffering does our world need to endure? Are these wrong questions to ask our great King? Do we need to ask the same question of ourselves? Have we allowed questions like these to enter our time and space and confront us directly?
The first line from the first post reads, “Yeshua’s statement comes from the within the context of those who have surrendered to the Way.” A correction: “Yeshua’s statement is spoken within the context of those who have surrendered to the Way.”
A correction on the first line content. Everyone who was listening to Yeshua at this juncture probably had not surrendered to the Way. Here is a better way to understand what I was trying to communicate. “Yeshua’s statement is spoken within the context of those who make up and advance His kingdom by emulating the Father.”
Thanks.
Shalom Ester,
The discipline that believers endure is not always unpleasant…remember, discipline is used to make disciples. Discipline is NOT always punishment. The prodigals father gave him his inheritance not because he was weak. He knew his son, being greedy, would probably lose all his inheritance, just as he did. His “punishment” was the loss of his inheritance. He will work the rest of his life in order to live a comfortable life. The father’s forbearing with the son’s ungrateful behavior, allowed the son later to return and reconcile with his father. He doesn’t inherit more, but he has a home and help in starting over. We, as parents, must do all that we can to teach our children and show by example our obedience and hunger for a close walk with YaHUaH through YaHUshua Messiah. We must always encourage our children to walk in truth before YaHUaH…but sometimes, after having done all that we can to teach and lead our child to Elohim through Messiah, we must stop “teaching” by words or discipline and instead try to teach by example, by showing loving acceptance of them, while making sure they understand we don’t approve of their rebellion to YaHUaH, and our faith,…but that our love is unconditional. It is the example of the Father. Can we in good conscience do any less? And pray! And pray and pray and pray for them. And remember, our heavenly Father loves them far more than we can, and ask Him through Messiah to continue to reach out to our prodigal, and because it is His will that none should perish, to bring them back to Him. While this is hard, it is still the prodigal’s free will. It is in the Father’s hands…we can only petition the King for His mercy and trust Him always. (This does NOT mean that I always follow this example…but I try!) And regarding the understanding of the verses on discipline…we who have RETURNED may be surprised that the Father does indeed discipline His children. Some even think the “discipline” is a sign that YaHUaH hasn’t accepted them, or worse that He is not who He says He is. Sometimes that is the point of the discipline…do you obey even when your prayers don’t seem to be answered or your requests seems to be ignored? And discipline is different for different people. It may be economic, it may be physical health, it may be in family divisions over following Scriptural truths….and it may even be dealing with a prodigal of your own. Whatever it is, it is as the Scriptures teach, because he loves YOU…not just “everybody” but YOU the individual who has returned to Him. May YaHUaH grant you His peace. ( And that is just SOME of MY 2 cents 🙂 )
Shalom Ester,
The discipline that believers endure is not always unpleasant…remember, discipline is used to make disciples. Discipline is NOT always punishment. The prodigals father gave him his inheritance not because he was weak. He knew his son, being greedy, would probably lose all his inheritance, just as he did. His “punishment” was the loss of his inheritance. He will work the rest of his life in order to live a comfortable life. The father’s forbearing with the son’s ungrateful behavior, allowed the son later to return and reconcile with his father. He doesn’t inherit more, but he has a home and help in starting over. We, as parents, must do all that we can to teach our children and show by example our obedience and hunger for a close walk with YaHUaH through YaHUshua Messiah. We must always encourage our children to walk in truth before YaHUaH…but sometimes, after having done all that we can to teach and lead our child to Elohim through Messiah, we must stop “teaching” by words or discipline and instead try to teach by example, by showing loving acceptance of them, while making sure they understand we don’t approve of their rebellion to YaHUaH, and our faith,…but that our love is unconditional. It is the example of the Father. Can we in good conscience do any less? And pray! And pray and pray and pray for them. And remember, our heavenly Father loves them far more than we can, and ask Him through Messiah to continue to reach out to our prodigal, and because it is His will that none should perish, to bring them back to Him. While this is hard, it is still the prodigal’s free will. It is in the Father’s hands…we can only petition the King for His mercy and trust Him always. (This does NOT mean that I always follow this example…but I try!) And regarding the understanding of the verses on discipline…we who have RETURNED may be surprised that the Father does indeed discipline His children. Some even think the “discipline” is a sign that YaHUaH hasn’t accepted them, or worse that He is not who He says He is. Sometimes that is the point of the discipline…do you obey even when your prayers don’t seem to be answered or your requests seems to be ignored? And discipline is different for different people. It may be economic, it may be physical health, it may be in family divisions over following Scriptural truths….and it may even be dealing with a prodigal of your own. Whatever it is, it is as the Scriptures teach, because he loves YOU…not just “everybody” but YOU the individual who has returned to Him. May YaHUaH grant you His peace. ( And that is just SOME of MY 2 cents 🙂 )