Introduction
God’s promise to be gracious to us and give to us and fill us is contained in the imagery of verse 5 in Psalm 23 where it says, “my cup overflows,” or in the KJV, “my cup runneth over.”1 What a great way to explain God’s grace and generosity to us.
In recent days we have had much rain in eastern Australia and we have seen streams and rivers flow once again and dams overflow like the one pictured above at the Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast. I just had to call in today as I was driving past to see the overflow for myself. I have been keeping an eye on our water levels in South East QLD and checking the SEQwater website to see which dams are overflowing and their respective levels. I love to see the dams overflow especially as much of NSW and QLD has been in drought for the past few years. Yes, I know! I’m weird! I think I just love numbers and seeing the percentages rise. But it has been a point of much prayer that God would send us rain, that He would fill our dams and that He would send rain so that the grass would grow for the animals. Being the pastor of a rural church for ten years between 2010-2020, I led many a prayer for rain. Many people have said that they have not seen it this bad in a long time.
We can’t exist without God’s blessings
When the cup overflows, or if you like the dams overflow, it is a great sign of God’s blessing and His grace. We can’t exist without it. (Rain and grace!) But it got me thinking that we need to trust God, even till the very end, for His provisions, even when things get bad. And it is interesting that when the Two Witnesses appear on the scene at Jerusalem in the first 1260 days of the last seven years, that these men, one of them being a type of Elijah, will have the power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time that they are prophesying.2 What does that really mean? I think it really does mean that there won’t be any rain. But what does it mean and why? I think what it means is that God’s blessing to the people on earth will dry up. My cup won’t overflow. It will be a terrible time for the people on earth as they will not receive what they really need which is rain but also God’s grace and blessing. Instead it will be a time to heed the warnings and respond accordingly. We will need to listen to the Two Witnesses and their instructions. How long is it until they start their ministry of 1260 days? See my countdown here for my estimate.
Countdown to the Two Witnesses...
God is trying to get our attention–prepare
In the meantime, we still see God’s overflow and His blessings but the intervals between the birth pains are getting shorter and shorter. We have relief right now, I saw the dam overflow with my very eyes today! My cup is still overflowing. But there is a time when God’s blessing will be stopped for a while and I think it is because He is trying to get our attention. And our job is to listen and to heed the warnings and give thanks to a gracious God. James says in his letter that the prophet Elijah prayed that it would not rain on the land for 3 ½ years and so it did not.3 Why did he pray for God to stop the rain? It was because it was his mission to awaken the Israelites to their apostasy and to call them back to loyalty to God.4 Elijah was a restorer and a reformer and people listen when the rain stops and there is drought. This will be no different than the end-times Elijah. God will send Elijah back to the earth before the Day of the Lord and he will restore and reform once again.5 In the meantime, right now, this is the time to prepare. There will be a time that God will withhold His blessing for a short time.
One Response
Wow! What a great way to put things into perspective and focus our attention. THANK YOU