It had been a lovely spring with fine weather for sowing crops and ample moisture to germinate them. Then followed a hot, dry summer. As week after week passed without a drop of rain, the once-promising fields began to wither, and with them the hopes of the farmers for a fine harvest.
Many prayed for rain, yet no rain came. Why not? Was there no God in heaven? Surely it could not be the will of a loving Father that one's labors should go for naught or that people or animals should suffer. Are there mindless, evil forces in nature that are greater than God? Is man the helpless victim of such unpredictable, uncontrollable, and destructive forces?
Searching the Bible for answers to these questions, I found this command and promise of the prophet Joel: "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil." Joel 2.23, 24
