Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Dew
Subjects in this Topic:
In Palestine failing in early summer, again in autumn, and supplying the absence of rain. So copious as to saturate Gideon's fleece, so that a bowl full of water was wrung out, and to wet the ground in one night (-40). A leading source of fertility (; ; ; ; ; ). Its being withheld brought barrenness (; ). Its speedy drying up symbolizes the formalist's goodness (; ).
On the other hand its gentle, silent, benignant influence, diffusing itself over the parched ground, represents the blessed effect of God's word and God's grace (); also brotherly love (), the "dew of Hermon (i.e. copious and refreshing dew) that descended upon Zion"; or else, believers from various parts are joined by brotherly love on the one spiritual Zion, like the countless dewdrops wafted together, if it were physically possible, from various mountains, as Hermon, to the one natural Zion. The effect on the world of brotherly love among various believers would be like that of dew, all simultaneously saturating the dry soil and making it fruitful (-23).
The dew springing "from the womb of the morning," not by visible irrigation, is the emblem of youthful, fresh, living, beautiful, infinite rigor, namely, that of Christ and of Christ's people in union with Him (). Israel shall hereafter be "in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord" (); overwhelming their enemies "as the dew falleth on the ground" (), and as "life from the dead" to the millennial earth, as "the dew of herbs" causes them to revive after the deadness of winter ().