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Jer_3:3
Writers and travellers have labored to explain, from the present state of the country and climate, what we must understand to be meant by the Scriptural designation of the early and the latter rains. But it seems not to have occurred to them, that “the latter rain,” which we know to have been formerly essential to the beauty of the country and the fruitfulness of the seasons, may have been altogether withholden; and hence the comparative barrenness and sterility in which the land now lies, and which, for the most part, give to it an aspect but little in accordance with the ancient accounts of its teeming productiveness and delightful richness. It is usual to account for this by the reduced population, and the neglect of culture. Something may be allowed for this; but it will not account for all the difference. This may be the effect rather than the cause. It may be that cultivation is kept down (and, consequently, the population also), from some disadvantageous change in the conditions of the climate and the seasons. If, for the offences of the people, the latter rain was withholden in the time of Jeremiah, why should it not be so now, for those offences which have rendered the people outcasts in other lands? This condition in which the country should lie, is not obscurely prophesied; and is, indeed, constantly implied in those predictions of the eventual restoration of the ancient fertility which is placed among the prospects of a happy future.
Indeed, when we compare the passage before us with that remarkable text wherein “the rain in its due season—the first and the latter rain,” Note: “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto any commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain, and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat, and be full.”—Deu_11:13-15. are made contingent on the faithfulness of the people—the fact assumes the relation of cause and effect; and if it appears that there has been any intermission of these rains, we can be at no loss regarding the conclusion we should reach.
This is a question of fact; and respecting this we have as competent testimony as we could desire—that of Mr. Lowthian, who went to Palestine, under some religious impressions with reference to that country, with the view of making agricultural experiments, or of forming an agricultural settlement in Lebanon. This purpose necessarily gave such special directness to his observation on the physical condition of the climate, the seasons, and the soil—as renders his testimony on the subject of far more value than the observations of passing travellers.
“As I travelled from Jaffa to Jerusalem,” he says, “over some as fine soil as could be found anywhere; I did not see so much as one single blade of grass. This, to me, seemed very strange, for I knew that in England grass will grow where nothing else will; and here, neither among the stubble fields, nor even along the roadside; where no plough comes, was to be found so much as might, with strict propriety, be called a blade of grass. This is something very astonishing. Not having seen this taken notice of in any book of travels that I have read, I cannot help thinking that surely I must be the first English farmer who has paid a visit to this land. Upon my arrival at Jerusalem, and perceiving that all the milk that was brought into the city in one day, for about 24,000 inhabitants, did not exceed ten or twelve quarts—and that even that small quantity was only goat’s milk, well watered—and that I could find no honey, but a small piece which I had the pleasure of tasting while taking tea with the bishop’s chaplain, I could not but exclaim to myself, How completely have God’s judgments been executed on this devoted land! And most clearly did I perceive that the natural cause of all this evil was the want of seasonable rain. Rain, which waters the earth, and blesses it with fertility, God has withheld, and thus brought all these evils, and many more which I need not stay to enumerate, upon the land which ‘flowed with milk and honey.’”
This view of the case, Mr. Lowthian substantiates by a particular and very interesting explanation. The “former rain” he considers to be the winter rain; and this, he states, “is so uncertain, that it sometimes does not come before January—in consequence of which water becomes so exceedingly scarce and dear, that the inhabitants are put to great inconvenience and loss. And as neither planting nor sowing can be proceeded with until the rain makes the earth soft, the harvest is thrown back, for it is mostly in March or April that the crop is gathered in. After that the latter rain used to come, by which it is more than probable, nay, almost certain, that a second crop was produced; but the latter rain is now entirely withheld, and none is ever expected to fall in the time of the summer. On this account the best part of the year is lost; and no vegetable can grow or keep alive, but those plants whose roots penetrate deep into the earth. It is well known to farmers, that if grass seed were carried from England and sown in that land, the very first summer would kill the whole of it. To such a well-known fact I appeal as a corroboration of my view respecting the withholding of the latter rain. God has, as it were, turned the key upon the refreshing and fructifying bounties of the skies. He has commanded the clouds that they rain no more upon the inheritance of his disobedient people. The latter rain is withheld, and with it the grass of the field, which, being lost to the cattle, the milk is consequently taken away. Neither can the flowers, from which the industrious bee extracts honey, blow and yield their sweets. All these are evils resulting from the want of sufficient rain.”
With reference to the hills and mountains, the desolation of which is still more striking, and which has caused many a writer to say: “Is it possible that those bare rocks should ever have been covered with grass?” Mr. Lowthian remarks, that these rocky mountains take up the greater part of the land, and he cannot believe that the plains—let them be shown to be ever so fertile—could yield sustenance sufficient for the great number of inhabitants once supported in the land; and it appears to him, that here also the taking away of the latter rains from these mountains would make them just what they are: “As, for instance, if any of the high mountains of Cumberland, which are covered with grass from the top to the bottom, were placed under a hot burning sun from April to November, the consequence would be, that all the grass would be killed, as well as every other plant whose roots do not penetrate very deep. The grass being taken away, there would be nothing by which the soil might be bound or kept together; so that it would be, when thus pulverized, easily blown away by the high winds, and washed down into the valleys or into the sea by heavy rains. This being repeated year after year, the bare rock would soon become visible, and at last this grass bearing mountain would be brought into the very state in which the rocky elevations of the Holy Land now are. But as we are taught to believe, from the Word of God, that these mountains are again to be clothed with grass, it may be a question of doubt with some, How is it to be brought about, and how are they to be again covered with soil? To this I answer, that it requires no other miracle than the restoration of the rain in its due season; for let these hills and mountains only receive a regular moistening with the rain, and situated as they are under a fine warm climate, they would soon begin to present signs of something like vegetation—and that vegetation, taking hold of the rock with its roots, would preserve it from being blown or washed away; and the blade or leaf, dying or rotting upon the place, would soon create a rich and fertile soil.”