LOVE'S DEW

So I walked outside the other morning after breakfast and noticed "this stuff" all over the lawn. When I walked across the lawn I left foot prints. Now since it was not winter the "stuff" on which I walked was not snow- not even light frost, but DEW.....one of nature's (God's) finger-painting.

When the Israelites first noticed the "stuff" – (Bible calls it dew) - on the ground they did not know what it was so they named it "Manna" a Hebrew word which means "what is it?". I find that quite interesting. They had never seen anything like that before. So in speaking to one who has never seen dew (as if there were someone?!) or to a inquisitive child, I would have this to say in reply to their question, "What is it". "It is moisture condensed upon the surface of a cool area especially at night." In the case of the Israelites they saw the dew – it fell every night – but when the heat of the sun hit the dew, the "manna" disappeared. I am going to be writing about the results of the dew. In their case it was their food supply.

To digress a moment put these spiritual definitions in your mind. To a person there is something resembling dew in purity, freshness or power; we could say that which refreshes. To our spirit man it is God descending on our bodies to produce purity and freshness.

Do you know that there are two things necessary for the formation of dew? (1) moisture and (2) cold. In moist countries there is less dew because the change in temperature between day and night is too small. In the deserts where change in temperature between day and night is sometimes as much as 40 degrees there is seldom dew because of the lack of moisture in the atmosphere.

However, in Palestine they are very fortunate in being near the sea. So there is always a large percent of water vapor in the air. The skies are clear, and there is rapid radiation beginning immediately after sunset which cools the land and the air until the moisture is condensed and settles on cool objects.

Air at a low temperature is not capable of holding as much water vapor in suspension as warm air. The common illustration would be an ice cycle. Remember the last time you saw or held one? It furnished an example of the formation of dew. Just as the drops of water form on the outside of the cool ice cycle, so dew forms on rocks, grass and trees.

Biblical references are many about dew and frost: i.e. Gen.27:28; Ex. 16:13; Deut. 33:28; 1 Kings 17:1; Prov. 3:20

I write about two kinds of dew and call your attention to the scriptures of them.

Of the 35 times the word "dew" is found in the King James Version of the Bible I, in particular, chose the above. Now before we go further it is important to note the VALUE OF DEW. Back to the Bible (familiar phrase, huh?) Look at the value of dew in Palestine. In Palestine it does not rain from April to October and were it not for the dew in summer all vegetation would perish. We see here that dew and rain are equally important. If there were no rain the winter grass and harvests would fail. If no dew the late crops would dry up and there would be no fruit. In fact, I am told that in some places the dews are so heavy that the plants and trees are literally soaked with water at night, and they absorb sufficient moisture to more than supply the loss due to evaporation in the day.

Now, it is an established fact that dew forms most heavily upon good conductors of heat. In the natural they would be metals and stones. Why? Because they radiate their heat faster and cool the air around them.

Back to the Bible......you might recall the story of Gideon and his experience with dew. Let's review. (Judges 8:36-40) It is Mr. Gideon and the fleece.

These remarks have to do with PHYSICAL dew.
But there is also SPIRITUAL or SYMBOLIC dew.

Isaac in blessing Jacob asked that "that the dew of heaven may be granted....." Micah, "the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from God"

Man's Love Dew

Speaking of the people, Hosea says, (13:3) "...They kiss calf idols and commit human sacrifice. That is why they will be like the morning mist, like dew passing away early..."

This is a comparison of the absolutely faithful action of God against the faithlessness of man. Man's love is just like dew. The implication is there is nothing that God can do with a people so fickle and so changeable and so unstable. Hosea was familiar with the dew - the night vapor which the westerly winds of summer bore from the Mediterranean Sea. The sea had supplied the dew.

The Figure Is That of Variableness. Dew Is Unstable.

You look and it is there. That morning I looked - it was there, I even stepped on it. However, later I looked and it was gone. What happened was that the dew could not stand the heat of the sun.

I say our love is like dew in that we change so much. Our love changes because the "heat of the world" and of Satan's "fiery darts" melts us. There must be a steadfastness in our relationship with God and with man. In a way, Jesus speaks of this in his parable in which he talks of the shallow soil, the seed planting and there being no depth and therefore no lasting plant. That great feeling is lost – diminished.

The Christian way, on the contrary, is one that places the emphasis on steadfastness. ..permanent...solid...unswerving. Like in the Word we read, "no man having put his hand on the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62) or "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life." (Rev. 2:10) "He that endures to the end shall be saved."

I use these scriptures as pegs to hang our thought about how we let the "heat of the world" (Satan's fiery darts) evaporate our dew. Man's love dew is not stable. It is not dependable as it should be. We are like the dew in our love for and toward God.

We change our ideas as rapidly as we change our styles. We used to have a humming bird feeder on our front porch. We often see these little humming birds flit here for a drink and then flit away. They go from one flower in our back yard to another.

I think it must be that we want to go from here to there as quickly as we can.. I heard the phrase, "Spirit of fickleness" We talk up things and drop things as quickly. This reflects in our love for man and our love for God. I think it might have something to do with selfishness.

The love we had for Jesus (I used the word "had" for often we are not as we were when we first met Him). for many diminishes. Scriptures use the phrase our "love has grown cold". This love we had/have for Jesus, this goodness we had/have for Jesus soon passes away unless we are daily "taking up our cross" and following Jesus. Satan wants to change our "dew level".

Like the disciples saying or thinking, "Hey, we have forsaken all and followed you. What shall we have now?" Like....what are we going to get for this?

Hosea is saying that our LOVE IS VANISHING. It seems today as I look across the miles of America our love is not growing as it should. One reason for this is that the world is offering a ton of "things", "activities" and "gadgets" to us. They, often times, take the place of the relationship we should have with the Lord.

So our love melts. We say tomorrow we will change our love level....but tomorrow never comes and our love melts....our love vanishes. But praise God, His love is just the opposite. This leads me to:

God's Love Dew

Bottom line is that Dew is a SIGN of God's provision.

I read the story of a guy who grew up learning from an American Indian how to live off the land. He decided to test his skill of survival he had learned. 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 he set out on the journey, he left his car with a local friend. He told him that, if he was not back in eight weeks, he was probably dead. The friend replied that Tom would be dead in two weeks. But undeterred, Tom (which was his name) struck out to begin his test.

The desert was really hard to cope with. In fact it was more trying than he had figured. His main source of water was - - yes, you guessed it - - - DEW. Every night he would lay out a dew-catching device and in the morning he would have collected enough for a fresh drink. He recalled later that he had never been so thirsty in all his life on this journey.

As the days went on Tom lost track of time and after around nine weeks, he thought it was time to go home. With what we have referred to earlier as "the dew of heaven" to drink, he reached his goal. Without it he would have stood no chance of survival. His provision was through the dew.

To apply it to us this day. Without what we would call the "spiritual dew of heaven from God" you and I would have no chance of survival on this planet, Satan's world.

Now there were others – like 6 million who needed survival in a desert. You might be pulling them out of your memory bank right now. Is the story of the 40 year traveling of the Israelites. It was that "dew" that sustained them.

Here is a reminder that the Israelites were not able to attain life and growth and abundance through their own power. Dew doesn't come from below but from above. Life and growth and abundance, like the dew, is God's blessing.

A. This Is A Symbol Of Blessing.

Dew is the actual means of refreshing and reinvigorating vegetation. There are many, many scriptures that carry out this idea. For example:

In the context of our scripture in Hosea, he sees the plight of the present, but he also sees the promises of the future. He looks beyond to the possibility of what God will do as a result of what the people will do, i.e. looking to God. The present is full of evil, the future is full of God.

Earlier he had spoken the result of likening the people to dew. This is not the case now. But it was as we read in Hosea 6:4:

It was the case in Hosea 13:3:

B. Symbol Of Refreshment.

Now, these words relate to our side of the DEW STORY, as I mentioned earlier in the first part of Love's Dew. The up side is that God will BE THE SOURCE OF ISRAEL'S REFRESHMENT. Israel will blossom as the lily. Now, place your name in the place of "Israel". You see, God will be the source of ______your name____'s refreshment.

If we can be still – let the dew of God fall – THEN we will be able to partake of the "manna" of God. That "manna" is called "the corn of Heaven" and "Angel's food" – alluding to the manner in which it came. Remember the New Testament speaks of Jesus being God's manna.

Notice in Hosea, the healing of vs. 4 (ch.. 14). "I will heal..."

God says that he will not only heal but he will love them freely, for his anger is turned away from them. (Yes, God does get angry when we rebel and break His commandments. There is always a consequence to our sinning.)

He will heal and another word is "restore" I like Isaiah 26:19 (Amplified)

After repentance on the part of the people (you and me, even today) there comes forgiveness, restoration and healing. Now, the healing does not remove the scars, they might (and often do) remain, but it removes the hurt and the sense of guilt. This is the expression of the God-Love-Dew.

To sum it up we have seen dew as a symbol of spiritual refreshing. We have seen it as the source of freshness. Now, just as nature is bathed in dew, so the Lord "baths" His people. He renews them in the Holy Ghost as we read in Titus 3:5:

Many people, be they church workers or church attenders do not recognize the important of heavenly dew in their lives and as a result of this many church workers and many church attenders lack freshness and vigor. Their spirits are drooping for lack of the God-dew.

Just as we recognize how stupid it would be to do manual labor without taking food in our body, so we must recognize how stupid (and I know that is a strong word) it would be to attempt something for God without eating the heavenly manna. And, to take it a step further, one must recognize that it is not sufficient to have spiritual nourishment occasionally. It must be every day. You, from your past experience (if honest) would remember how it was when your whole body was not pulsating with the vigor and freshness of the Divine Life in contrast when it was.

Quietness brings the dew!! Remember it is at night when the dew falls. It is when the leaf on the tree and the blade of grass are still. What? The word is "still". The Word also tells us that our days are like grass. (Psalm 1033:15; Isa. 40:7,8; James 1:10-ll; 1 Peter 1:24)

I was once asked: "Why do you water the lawn after mowing it?" Reply? "Well, I have been told that after the lawn has been mowed, each and every blade of grass has been – let's say – "opened" to receive. They have been cut." So, I say that each and every circumstance, trial, difficulty, etc. etc. that comes our way is a "cutting from the Lord" for our benefit.

To say that the grass has to be quiet for the dew to fall is a definite. It is at night when the pores of the vegetation are open to receive the refreshing and invigorating bath from heaven.

So, spiritual dew (God's love-dew) will fall when we are still and quiet before Him. Spiritual dew will come to you when you are quietly waiting on the Lord. Taking in His presence.

(1) Quietness and stillness brings the dew!

My word to you and myself is to GET STILL BEFORE HIM!! Haste will prevent your receiving the dew. Waiting before God will allow yourself to be in a position to receive from Him. Wait before God until you feel wet with His presence and THEN go forth to your work. You will go forth with freshness, strength and spiritual power.

(2) Dew will never gather while there is either heat or wind. I repeat. Dew will not fall on an object when there is heat or wind. The temperature must fall. The wind must cease and the air must become to a point of rest - absolute rest, so to speak, BEFORE it can release the invisible particles of moisture - the dew - upon the shrub, the flower, the grass.

SO THE GRACE OF GOD (His wonderful, marvelous dew) DOES NOT COME FORTH UNTIL THE STILL POINT IS REACHED.

That still point is hard to obtain, but that still point is obtainable. Do you take time to meet God - telling Him of your love and cheering His heart with your interest in Him?

Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Again I say to my readers, "Be Still" Is it easy?? No ! Is it possible. YES.

Let these verses echo this writing:

The God's Word Translation": "Does the rain have a father? Who gave birth to the dewdrops?"...well, I think we know the answer to that!

Lord, I ask that my quickness and my rushing be changed to a quietness and stillness. I know that I have a "will". I know that you can not "make" me, so I ask the Holy Ghost to assist me in this quest. I choose to sit still. Not just to sit still, but sit still IN the presence of the Lord Almighty. I choose to forget the failures and happenings of yesterDAY and I choose to ignore the challenges and frustrations of tomorrowDAY. As Jesus said, "today" is the focus of importance. At this place, at this time, I quiet my soul and I listen...I do ask that your dew - your refreshment - come to me now!! I want my heart to beat with your heart - right now. I will give you my time....my heart....and my life...NOW. So, please fall fresh on me!