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.”
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.