| THE LATTER AND FORMER RAIN |
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| 1 “Come, and let us return to Yihvah; For he has torn us to pieces, And he will heal us; He has injured us, And he will bind up our wounds. |
| Hos 6:1 Come let us return to the Lord – if we recall from Hos 3:5, the return to the LORD that Hosea prophesied will be in the last days: “afterward the children of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their King.” |
| 2 After two days will he revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, And we will live before him. |
| Hos 6:2 After two days He will revive us – “a day with God is as a thousand years” (2 Pet 3:8; Psa 90:4). The true meaning here of two days in this passage, is that after two thousand years, the holy spirit will once again be poured out on the Church. We can also see the prophecy of the end time outpouring of the holy spirit in Ezek 37:14, Zech 14:8, and Joel 2:23. on the third day He will raise us up – Christ will return after the Kingdom of heaven has been fully cleansed, after 2,300 days (as years – Dan 8:14). This is in “the third Day” after two thousand years have passed. |
| 3 Let us acknowledge Yihvah. Let us press on to know Yihvah. As surely as the sun rises, Yihvah will appear. He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain that waters the earth.” |
| Hos 6:3 He will come to us like the latter and former rain – the outpouring of the holy spirit is like the rain. This expression is also used in Joel 2:23, where he prophesied the end time outpouring of the holy spirit. The Old Testament only uses the Hebrew word yowreh (former autumn rain), when comparing the latter spring rain (kə·mal·qō·wōš ), and former autumn rain, as in Deut 11:14, Jer 5:24, and Hos 6:3. In the late nineteenth Century, a Christian movement called the “latter rain” movement began. They believed the end time outpouring of the holy spirit would be the “latter rain.” But the Bible actually prophesied that “the former rain” would revive the Church. The Church began by the outpouring of the latter rain, the spring rain, as described in Song 2:11. The saints were nurtured in the wilderness, where they bore fruit in the summer (Song 4:12-16, Rev 12:14). The Church was revived by the autumn, “former” rain (Song 7:12). The promise of the former, early, autumn rain, is described in Joel 2:23; which literally reads, “He has given you the former rain for righteousness ( liṣ-ḏā-qāh; ),” that is to remove the lawlessness from the kingdom of heaven. |
