Turning tonight in the Word of God to the book of Ezekiel and to the chapter 34. The book of Ezekiel and the chapter 34. We're going to break into the chapter at verse 17 and read from there to the end. So Ezekiel chapter 34 and the verse 17. is equal to 34 and 17. "'And as for you, O my flock,' thus saith the Lord God, "'behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, "'between the rams and the he-goats. "'Seemeth it a small thing unto you "'to have eaten up the good pasture, "'but ye must tread down with your feet "'the residue of your pastures, "'and to have drunk of the deep waters, "'but ye must foul the residue with your feet. "'And as for my flock, "'they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God unto them, behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. And because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder and pushed all the disease with your horns till ye have scattered them abroad, therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey. And I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David. He shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. and I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing, and the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves off them. "'And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen. "'Neither shall the beast of the land devour them, "'but they shall dwell safely, "'and none shall make them afraid. "'And I will raise up for them a plant of Ranoon, "'and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, "'neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. "'Thus shall they know that I, the Lord, their God, "'am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, "'are my people, saith the Lord God. and ye my flock, the flock of my pasture are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God." Amen. We know the Lord Himself. We'll add His blessing onto the reading of His Word in our hearing tonight. We'll bow briefly again in prayer. Heavenly Father, we look to Thee for Thy mercy. Pray for focus, holy focus, as we come to Thy Word. May we pour over it. May we treasure it, may we apply it, and may the Holy Spirit do His work in our souls tonight, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It's almost impossible to directly portends from English into a foreign language. And I was quickly struck by that fact on that visit to Nepal. You see, it seemed to take significantly more words in Nepalese than what we were using in English. On some occasions, the translator, and we had several of them, they would have taken our sentences, rendered it into Nepali, and we're thinking, there's no way in the world that we have just said as much as he has done. And so it appeared obvious very quickly that it takes more words in Nepalese than in English to express a concept or to construct a sentence. But when you bring that into the realm of hymn composing, what happens? Well, it could take one and a half lines to say in Nepalese what we can say in English, and so therefore the hymn would be impossible to transfer. but some of them did work. And there were some of our tunes familiar to us that I recognized over there, and when I did that, that was quite the moment I could sing along, at least, for one. Even though they're singing what they're singing, I could put my words into the tune. Showers of Blessing was one of those hymns. And I must confess that it made the hair stand upright on the back of my neck when I heard the best part of 250 people at the pastor's conference in Kathmandu sing this hymn, even though it was in their own language. In fact, I loved it so much that I made a request on the final meeting that I preached at. in a mountain church, a brand new church just being opened in Gangrang, in Makwonpur, and I asked them when they'd finished, will you sing the hymn? It only kind of half worked, because all the people that had come up as visitors from Kathmandu, and there was quite a few, and some from other churches, they all knew it, but it turned out the new church had never heard it. But you'll hear later tonight, and you can judge for yourself whether the ones that didn't know what had any volume about them at all. So I went to the doorway of the new church and the congregation that knew it are singing out the second verse, and I had no difficulty, nor will you when you see the scenery there, I had no difficulty in visualizing the scene that the hymn writer had in mind when he said, there shall be showers of blessing, precious reviving again over the hills and the valleys, sound of abundance of rain. You'll know the words of that hymn come from Ezekiel 34, and the verse 26, what we have turned to tonight. "'And I will make them, the places round about my hill, a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing.'" I told the story of the man, at least I told it partially, the story of the man behind the hymn, because it's a wonderful illustration of God's mercy and blessing. We mentioned it recently, but it bears repetition. There Shall Be Showers of Blessing was written by Major Daniel Webster Whittle. Originally, he was a lieutenant in the American Civil War, and he was charged to fight within the Massachusetts Regiment. And so he writes in a book, Twice Born Men, my dear mother was a devout Christian, and parted from me with many a tear, and followed me with many a prayer. She had placed a New Testament in a pocket of the haversack that she arranged for me. Like all the men involved in that war, the Civil War in America, he found the war to be a very painful experience. And in one of those many battles they were engaged in, Whittle was knocked to the ground, he was knocked unconscious, only to wake up to find that his right arm had been amputated at the elbow, and they had taken him away and put him into a prisoner of war camp. Now, during the time of his recovery, he searched for something to read. And quite remarkably, he found that New Testament that his mother had placed so long before in his haversack, and it was untouched, and it was allowed to be read by him by his captors. He said, I read right through the book. Matthew, Mark, Luke to Revelation. Every part was interesting to me. And I find, to my surprise, that I can understand it in a way that I never had before. When I had finished Revelation, I began at Matthew and read it through again. And so, for days, I continued reading and with continued interest, but still with no thought of becoming a Christian, but I did see clearly that the way of salvation is through Christ. Those who were looking after him during his recovery as a prisoner of war, they couldn't help but notice his keen interest in the Bible. They assumed he was a follower of Jesus Christ, and so a nurse came to him and said, there's a dying prisoner over there, and he wants someone to pray with him. Maybe you'll do that. And at first, Daniel Whittle refused. I can't do that. But the nurse insisted. I thought you were a Christian. I have seen you again and again reading your Bible. And so reluctantly, he went over to that dying boy's bedside. And he tells it like this, "'I dropped on my knees "'and held the boy's hand in mine. "'In a few broken words, I confessed my sins "'and asked Christ to forgive me. "'I believed right there that He did forgive me. "'I then prayed earnestly for the boy. "'He became quiet and pressed my hand as I prayed "'and pleaded God's promises. "'When I arose from my knees, he was dead. a look of peace had come over his troubled face. And I cannot but believe that God, who used him to bring me to the Savior, used me to lead him to trust Christ's precious blood and find pardon. I hope to meet him in heaven." Whittle was later promoted to the office of major, went home when the war ended. It wasn't long before he devoted his life to writing separate music, and he linked up with D.L. Moody, the evangelist, and Moody would have been singing the hymns that Whittle would append, among many others, of course, including, I Know Whom I Have Believed. Christ liveth in me." And then he wrote this hymn, There Shall Be Showers of Blessing, in 1883, and it was based upon, as we've seen, Ezekiel 34 and the verse 26. And I wondered while over in Nepal, could Major Whittle ever have expected in his wildest dream, his hymn, to travel the world right into Nepal? an overwhelmingly majority Hindu country. But the season of refreshing that it talks about, it has been experienced by the people there, and we desperately need to see it too. You'll find that Ezekiel 34 is a chapter about shepherding. And from verse 1 right through to 16, and it's pretty heavy material. It contains a lot of censures against the false shepherds. And the Lord comes and He exposes their carelessness and duplicity and deceitfulness and their sins. And He promises, I will hold you unfaithful shepherds to account. Verse 7 to 10. And He promises that that work that the unfaithful shepherd would never have wanted to set his hand to do, that work I will do. Verse 11 through 16, and so we have the censures, first of all. Then he takes his own sheep and targets them in verse 17 through 19, and he gives counsels to his own sheep, and he emphasizes that you have, despite all of the false shepherding, you still have an accountability to God. So, the censures. against the false shepherds, the councils to his own sheep. Then he completes the chapter by talking about and outlining the care, or we could say the covenant of God for his own flock in verse 20 through to the verse 31. And notice in verse 25 how he pledges peace to his people. and I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods." You've heard of the term shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, and here it gets right to its pinnacle of meaning when it's God's covenant of peace. It means a lot more here than just an absence of hostility and an absence of tension, because it talks about wholeness and harmony and fulfillment and people at peace with their environment and, more particularly, at peace with God. In the original, the words are very emphatic. I will make with them a covenant of peace and that The way it's rendered is like this. It's a covenant sacrifice. The animal carved up, God walking between the pieces, making a covenant with His people that will always be kept. So, He pledges peace. And in verse 25, the second part, protection, He pledges. They will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. No matter what location they will be found, I'll be caring for them. And sometimes we think that we get into places where the eye of God doesn't see us, and we forget that Hagar thought the very same thing, and then all of a sudden confessed, thy God sees me. And all of my need, and all of my nature, and all of my sin, and all of my sorrow, Lord, thou dost know everything about me. And whether we be in the wilderness or whether we are in the woods, there will sleep and safety. These will be given. Protection. Notice provision. In verse 26, the verse that we have highlighted and isolated tonight, and I will make them and the places around about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in a season, there shall be showers of blessing. The showers in their season, that talks about the former rains, famous in Israel. They break up, the summer's right, they come in in late October and in November, and then the latter rain follows after that and soaks the ground between December and the month of March. And because of the irregularity of these and the copiousness of them, the way they flow into the land, fertility is guaranteed in the land. There shall be showers. in their season. There shall be showers of blessing." Of course, we know in the Word of God that showers are often described as one of the blessings of God the Holy Spirit. He will come as showers upon his people. Isaiah 43 in verse 3, for one example. And here we have the times of refreshing that are talked about in the book of Acts, the chapter 3, the verse 19 and 20. They are a mirror image here. The showers of blessing in the time of refreshing from the Lord, and the curses swept away, and the blessing takes root. We see a lot of evidence of the curse all around Belfast and right across Northern Ireland today. And, oh, that God would send the former and the latter rains, the showers in their season, the showers of blessing. You see what sprouts up as a result in verse 29, the plant of renown. The meaning is that God provides plantations here for His people, and that will bring them honor and respect among the nations, because they will be looking over the wall as they do in the Psalms, and they say, the Lord hath done great things for them, but oft they are glad. Look at the blessing of heaven upon them. There's not only a pledge of peace and protection and provision, but you'll see the promise that God makes in verse 30. And verse 31, "'Thus shall they know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God, and ye are my flock. The flock of my pasture are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.'" You've been ravaged by the erring shepherds. You've been torn apart by those hiring prophets. You've been as renegade sheep as well because you followed after the falsehoods of these men. But here's who you are. You were the flock of my pasture, my flock, the flock of my pasture. And how assuring is it to hear those words from God to our own heart? You're not abandoned. You're part of a flock, a flock that is known, a flock that is named, a flock that is cared for, a flock over which the shepherd will go for the one that strays on the mountains. Ninety and nine, he'll go for the one, bring it back into the fold. Notice the phrase, ye are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. The way Ezekiel phrases it here, he's acknowledging there's a great divide between humanity and deity. You're man. I am your God, saith the Lord God. And while in Ezekiel's day, they were looking forward in time to that one who would come, and he's referenced here. under the title, David. In verse 23 and 24, I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David. He shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David, a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken it. Take your binoculars out, look down through both lenses, and who do you see looking through these two verses? You see Jesus Christ. King David's greater Son, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, He's pictured here. And while in His equal's day, they're looking forward for centuries to the point when the Messiah Jesus Christ would come and would reconcile God and man through the body of His flesh in the vehicle of death at Calvary. We thank God, unlike Ezekiel, we have the liberty and luxury of looking backwards, and seeing the tree already erected, and seeing the tomb already emptied, and seeing our Lord risen from the dead, and being assured in His great high priestly prayer in John 17 how much He is attached to His people, how His heart is one of endearment towards them. And as Paul reminds us in Romans 8 and 32, that God who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Lord, I hear through Christ, by His mighty Spirit, I hear of showers of blessing. Thou art scattering, full and free. showers the thirsty land refreshing. Let those showers descend on me, even me. Let those showers descend on me." We'll read her text again in closing, Ezekiel 34, 26, "'And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in His season. There shall be showers of blessing, and don't we say collectively, send them upon us, O Lord." Let's pray briefly again. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Thy Word, for the promise of showers of blessing. Our land needs them, our lives need them. And we pray that thou, in grace, will send them. Be the shepherd, looks after thy people, leads us like a flock, reminding us we are men. Therefore, we are dependent on thee for everything. But we thank thee that thou dost lead and feed thy people, and will do so not only on earth, but we read the same of the Lamb of God in eternity, because the Lamb of God still leads and still feeds His people and leads them on to living fountains of water. The showers of blessing in the eternal land still flow. May they flow for us tonight. May they flow for us in the future. May they flow during our Bible clubs in the various locations, in our Sunday schools when they recommence, in our youth fellowships, in every avenue of the work. Let the showers of blessing come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.