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| Volume 26 Number 3 March 2024 |
Page 8 |
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| Volume 26 Number 3 March 2024 |
Page 8 |
Robert Johnson
“I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon” (Hosea 14:5 ESV). Have you ever stopped to think about the morning dew, other than when it is so heavy that it causes you to track part of the outside inside? Dew forms when moist air is cooled by direct contact with cold objects out in the open. Grass, flowers and other plants receive heat from the sun during the day by direct radiation. Heat evaporates moisture off into the air. Heat is lost again at night, also through radiation. Since radiation is most effective on clear nights, objects in the open cool down faster when the sky is clear than when it is cloudy. As these objects cool, the air next to them cools as well. When the air reaches “dew point,” it can’t hold all the moisture present, and so the excess is deposited as dew.
For what, though, is dew good? According to botanists, plants don’t actually take in the dew. The heat, evaporating moisture into the air, also causes plants to give off moisture taken in by the root system. Dew covers these plants like an envelope for a time, until it, too, evaporates. This allows plants to retain moisture taken from the soil. Dew, then, provides a temporary environment around the plant. It helps keep precious moisture in the plant, rather than allowing it to escape into the atmosphere.
God was to be like the dew for Israel, providing everything they needed to grow in Him, with roots running deep and blossoming to His glory. God is like the morning dew to us, as well. If our “roots” run deep in Him and His Word, He provides the environment where we can grow and mature in Him, rather than being used up by the world around us. “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death” (Romans 6:20-21). Instead of condemnation, God offers us his best.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4)
Let God be the “dew” in your life, your covering to protect from sin and its deceitful nature. Faithfulness to Christ offers us strength to persevere today and to endure for eternity. “Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man” (Micah 5:7).
