Dear congregation, every age is in need of hope. And ours is no exception. When earthly hopes fail, we need a higher hope, a heavenly hope. And the prophets of the Old Testament, from Isaiah on, they give this hope. Because they served God. And God is a God of hope. And because of that, they were men of hope. To be sure, they warned against sin and judgments to come. But even these warnings and these coming judgments were meant to lead the people to look to God alone for hope. You should compare the prophets of the Old Testament to watchmen standing on the city walls to see what was approaching. That which was near, but also that which was far off. And they peered. And with binoculars, as it were, given to them by the Lord, they could see far into the distance. Hundreds of years into the distance. Peter says in his first epistles that the prophets searched diligently for what time God would fulfill the things that he had spoken to them. You know, they saw the days when the Lord Jesus Christ would come to this earth. They saw the days of his ministry. They saw shadows of the cross in which he would bleed and die for sinners. They perceived afar off the resurrection On the third day, the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they saw it with their own eyes. And they saw all that would transpire until the very fullness of time at the end. And that's why we read these prophets. In their words, we wish that they would enter into our souls to give us hope. because these words are filled with God-centered hope. And one of these words we wish to hear with the Lord's help tonight, as you can find it in the prophecy that was read in your hearing, Isaiah 44, verses 3 through 6. Isaiah 44, verse 3 through 6, where the Lord says, will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring, and they shall spring up as among the grass. As willows by the water courses, one shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts. I am the first, and I am the last. And beside me there is no God. Thus far the words of our text. Our theme, looking to the LORD, is floods upon the dry ground a promise to plead floods upon the dry ground a promise to plead was he first of all the glorious agent in this promise secondly the wide reach of this promise thirdly the wonderful person central to this promise fourthly the blessed effects of this promise. Fifthly, the rich experience of this promise. And sixthly and lastly, the absolute certainty of this promise. Floods upon the dry ground, a promise to plead. First of all, the agent, the reach, the person, the effects, the experience, and the certainty. congregation, I will pour water. Who is speaking here? When you look at the context it's clear, it's the Lord God. Verse 2 says, thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb. And so it is the Creator God speaking here. The God who made you, and me, and formed us from the very beginning. And He is the Creator, not just of us, but of every soul. And He's the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Sovereign God, who made everything that ever was, He made out of nothing. And so too, He can make you and me. He can make us. after his own image. He calls the things that are not as though they were. And here in the words of our text he says it without any doubt, I will. Now congregation by nature we say these words ourselves with reference to ourselves many times. Should just keep track of it how you go through the day. I'll do this. I'll do that. I will do this, I will do that. James 4 speaks about it. Our minds are filled with our own I wills. And how many of them come to pass. And even the things that we do do, all of them are stained with sin. And so our I wills are hopelessly compromised. What if the Lord here in this text said, you will pour water. We might as well close this church. There'd be no hope whatsoever for many of us. What a wonder it is that the Lord comes, isn't it? And he says here, I will. And here's not just a sovereign Lord who speaks, but also a merciful Lord, because as you could read in the context, especially in 43, he's speaking here to a people who have gone astray, who have rebelled against him. who've been hard hearted, who've not given the Lord what we should. Instead we've offered ourselves to idols. And yet despite all this, and in the face of all this, he comes to such a people and he says, I will. He's a sovereign God, he's a merciful God, but he's thirdly congregation a rich. A rich God in Jesus Christ, because notice how it says, I will pour. I will pour. Children, you know that when you pour something, maybe a bucket filled with water, a heavy bucket, you pour it on top of someone. That's different than just a few drops or a little bit of a spray. Pour speaks of plentitude, of abundance. a great amount. It would be one thing if the Lord said here, I will sprinkle, as He does elsewhere in the scripture, I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. But this promise is larger, is wider, is deeper, I will pour. Do you see congregation how the Lord opens His heart here, and shows you what a depth is in his heart of mercy. Not just a sliver of mercy, not just one drop of mercy, but it's full. His heart is bursting full with mercy. I will pour, he says. Before we leave this first point congregation, notice how he's focusing us, not on ourselves, not on you yourself. not in any human agent, but on himself. He says, as it were, look to me, I will pour. Robert Murray McChain, in a sermon on this text, he says, learn to look beyond ministers. For a work of grace, as long as you look to ministers, God cannot pour. For you would say it came from man, ah, cease from man. whose breath is in his nostrils. One would think we would be humbled in the dust by this time. In how many parishes of Scotland has God raised up faithful men who cease not day and night to warn everyone with tears, and yet still the heavens are like brass and the earth like iron. Why? Just because your eye is on man and not on God. Oh, look off, man, to Him. and He will pour, and His shall be all the glory. I will pour.' That first of all, the glorious agent of this promise. But upon whom will He pour, congregation? This brings us to our second point, the wide reach of His promise. Listen to what the text says, I will pour water upon Him. that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring.' There's really three things, three groups, if you will, and focus here. And the first is the thirsty one, the thirsty one. Now everyone by nature is parched and dry. The Bible tells us that we have left God. The Bible says it in no uncertain terms. You have departed from the fountain of living waters and hewed out for yourselves cisterns that can hold no water. What you're pursuing in life can't satisfy you. It can't hold water. There may be some water, as it were, but it can't hold it. And in a moment there, it's dry. And your parched lips can't find relief, can't find hydration, can't find refreshment, can't find revival. And here, specifically, when it's speaking about a thirsty soul, It's speaking about someone who knows that, who's come to discover for themselves. Not by themselves, but for themselves. That nothing on earth can satisfy my soul. Do you know what I'm speaking of? As the Lord made you thirsty for something beyond this world. Something that this world, or even religion, cannot give you. God works in our hearts. He makes us to thirst for Him. My soul thirsts for God. He makes us to realize how parched we are, and how really what we've, and what we consume by nature is just sawdust or sand that makes us even more thirsty. These are awakened people. whom God has worked to make them realize. And there they go. You meet with them here and there. And they say, I need my thirst slacked. I can't find what I'm looking for. I need something. I can't find it. My friend, if that's you here today, the Lord has you in mind. Even if you feel all alone, notice how it's singular. I will pour water upon him or her that is thirsty. God sees you, God knows you. And the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to people like you when he said, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink Put your dry lips and your parched tongue, just put it into the grace freely offered in the gospel. Stoop sinner, it's there, in the gospel, right there. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." So powerful is this thirst quenching water that is Christ. That one drink of it turns you forever into a fountain. My friend, if you're here today and you're thirsty, be done with the world. You're done with your own works, with your own righteousness. You're done with your own resolutions, all those ways in which you're trying to come up with one drop of water to cool your tongue. You won't get there. But listen, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. Look up, see Him who speaks here in His Word. In Christ He calls you. tonight when the poor and needy seek him when the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the Lord the God of Israel will not forsake them it's a promise for you my friend if you can't get your thirst slacked hear what the Lord says I will hear them I will not forsake them." The congregation, our text would be wonderful, but not as wonderful as it is if it said only that. Because this promise doesn't just end with the thirsty soul. Here we get the majesty and the miracle and the mystery of it all. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon The dry ground. What's the dry ground? Well, this is different than the thirsty soul. Dry ground isn't even looking to have its thirst quenched, satisfied. And that's people in the church. They come here and they sit here and they're doing religious duties and they leave again. Never do they need a drop for their souls. They're just so barren, so dead, so dry. Just like the dry wilderness ground. No cry in their soul, no need for God. Sure, there's people like this in the world as well, and in the church. Do you see how wide the promise of the Lord extends? It has in view you, unawakened souls here tonight, who have no care in the world for your soul. You live, you eat, drink, and are merry, and that's it. To please people around you, your father, your mother, your children, or to look good to others, you come here. There's never an ache in your soul. There's never a need for refreshing water. God has a promise even for you. Imagine that. We don't ask for Him. We don't need Him. God speaks about you and to you here. I will pour floods upon the dry ground. Like James says, a flood. You'd expect it to be a flood of wrath. a flood of judgment, a fire and brimstone. But no, the Lord's heart beats with mercy towards sinners who don't even ask for Him. Floods of grace, floods of blessing, floods of mercy. And notice, it doesn't say flood, but floods Lachlan McKenzie says this, a single shower will not do, when you've had a long drought. The Lord here promises floods. How will pour floods? Isaiah 35 verse 6 and 7, the Lord says this, in the wilderness, so the dry land. shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water." And the Lord has done that many a time. People never asked for Him. People who came into a place like this or didn't. Yet the Lord reached them in His sovereign grace and floods. Lord open the windows of heaven and showers came upon this dry ground of their souls and of their lives. The parched earth of their souls soaked in this refreshing rain of heaven. I will send showers of blessing. The revival in the Isle of Lewis in the 1950's. People were praying at a prayer meeting. All of a sudden, this whole area of the island of Louis, people came out of the woodwork. People came out of their houses in the middle of the night. Why? Because there had been an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. People were not religious at all. People who were dry ground, parched, but they didn't know it. They came and they congregated in open fields. asking for relief, for refreshment, asking the way to Zion. And the Christians have been praying for things like this. They meet people everywhere, crying out for mercy. Can there be mercy for a person like me? Showers upon the dry ground. There's a third group here. The reach of this promise is not just the thirsty one, not just the dry ground, but it's also the next generation, your seed, your offspring, your children. What that means, congregation, is that the Lord has an eye for the upcoming generation, also here. And He includes them in His promise. It's no wonder that Peter said in Acts chapter 2 in the day of Pentecost, for the promise is to you, And to your children. And he said that on the basis of the scriptures. God has an eye to the upcoming generation. He sees them. He knows them. And he has a word for you children. He has a word for the next generation. In fact, generations to come, as long as the Lord tarries, the Lord has a word for them. Your offspring. The Spirit. Think of that. God will give his spirit away to even the upcoming generation. So often we overlook them. Young men, it says, will prophesy together with older ones, men and women, together. The Lord has an eye for young people, for offspring, for the seed to come. And shouldn't we plead this before the Lord regarding our children? Parents, do you ever just come to an end of your own resources with regard to your children? Sometimes when they're so young, and even then, you hold a newborn in your arms, and you know you can't be what this child needs you to be. There's no way. Well, plead then this promise. Or when they grow up, and they're busy in elementary school days or high school, when they go their own ways, and they rebel against their upbringing, whatever it is, there's a promise for your offspring, plead it, plead it before the Lord. And even if they've gone a long time, their own way, they're in the world, no regard for religion, no regard for God, here's a promise to plead, and put your finger next to, and say Lord, These are not my words, these are Thy words. So do it then, fulfill it then. It's a promise to plead. Congregation thirsty, one, dry, land, and the next generation. We need to plead this promise of the Lord. Let me quote from McChain once again, who says it so well. He says, we are often in favor of preaching to awaken sinners. but we should be more praying upon it. Prayer is more powerful than preaching, he says. It is prayer that gives preaching all its power. I observe that some Christians are very ready to censure ministers and complain of their preaching, of their coldness, their unfaithfulness. God forbid that I should ever defend unfaithful preaching, or coldness, or deadness. As in an ambassador of Christ, may my right hand sooner forget its cunning. But I do say, where lies the blame for unfaithfulness? But in the want of faithful praying, why the very hands of Moses? would have fallen down had it not been held up by his faithful people. Come then ye wrestlers with God, ye that climb Jacob's ladder, ye that wrestle Jacob's wrestling, strive with your God, that he may fulfill his word. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. Well congregation, we have seen the glorious agent and the wide reach, but what is it that the Lord promises here? Or better said, who is it that the Lord promises here? We've been speaking about water, but the Lord goes on to explain what this water is. He says, I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring. Notice that. no less than God's own Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And notice how this word my is there, my Spirit, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of the Son. You see, congregation was in the heart of God from the never begun eternity to pour out not just blessings, not just mercy, not just salvation, but to pour out Himself, His very self upon people like you and like me, upon sinners, upon wayward, sinful people. Imagine that. to pour Himself, His holy self, upon unholy sinners? My Spirit, the Spirit who moved at creation, that Spirit He's willing to pour. The Spirit that rested on Christ, on that holy mediator, That Spirit is willing to come upon unholy sinners. That Spirit here, congregation, is compared to water. Why? Well, water refreshes, doesn't it? Don't you find that? On a hot summer day, sometimes you just can't get enough water. You drink glass after glass because your body aches. Every cell, at least so it feels, needs to be refreshed. And that's what the Spirit does. That's who the Spirit is. But water also cleanses. Notice how it says here, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. The Lord isn't saying here, I'll just give a thirsty soul something to drink. You can put this water to your lips and drink. No, I'll pour water upon them. To cleanse. It's a cleansing spirit. And water also does this. It makes fruit to grow. Blossoms. Buds, blossoms and fruit. And that's why we speak of the fruit of the Spirit. Because He comes upon dry ground. And what does He do? He brings refreshment and cleansing. But also life. My spirit, O God, makes life to abound. And fruitful is the ground because of it. But water congregation is also powerful. Some people say there's hardly anything more powerful than water. Yes, it seems, especially in small quantities, it seems to not have so much power. But take it all together. Take the river, the Niagara River. And have it come down off of cliffs into a ravine and power whole cities with that power. What a stunning power the Spirit of God has as water. And the Bible says more about the Holy Spirit. Many things about how the Spirit enlightens. Sometimes when our eyes are filled with dust, we wash them out. Or when we wake up in the morning and we can't see properly, we wash out our eyes. And so the Spirit enlightens. Paul prays that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. You see all the ways in which the Holy Spirit is compared to water. What an amazing promise. Here's the heart of it all. Just take the picture of our text, and just let this, let your mind go over it. Here's this dark, parched, dry wilderness. Nothing grows there but thorns and thistles. They will never become anything unless the heavens tear open and showers come down. See what we need congregation on our souls is that our dark parched soul needs heaven, the water of heaven, the Spirit of God, who takes it out of Christ, and shows it to sinners like ourselves. And the Lord does this. I spent some time in Israel, and I saw it in the different seasons. Some of you have been there. When you leave Jerusalem and you go towards the east, you go over the Mount of Olives, and you go into a desert where no one lives, essentially, except some nomads, some gypsy-type people. They have some tents there, and they park themselves at an occasional spring. But for the rest, it's just dust and dry, parched ground. Nothing grows there. Except one day in February or March, We drove with the bus over the Mount of Olives, and there we went towards Jericho in the east. And I looked out the bus window, and I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to look twice, because there over what formerly were just sandy rugged hills, there was this veneer of green. It was like a sheen that just all of a sudden had transformed this whole ground. In fact, it wasn't just green, but if you look closely, there were flowers that were blossoming there in the wilderness. Of course, all these seeds that had fallen there the last time that they had this, and even before. And there the water had come. Showers had come there. And these seeds had been fructified. the grass began to grow, and the flowers there. It was a meadow, and it had happened in a day or two, very quickly, by the power of God. And that's what Isaiah 35 verse 1 and 2 says, that the desert shall blossom like a rose, like an amazingly beautiful, fragrant flower. Who does that? But the God of heaven, who comes down to earth, who gives His grace and His salvation in the life of a sinner, like you and like me, where there's nothing, where nothing grows, nothing good grows. But there He comes, and God gives Himself away in the life that we don't have, but that He is, He imparts. in and through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he left the glories of heaven, the beautiful paradise of God, you might say, he came to this world which was such a wilderness. If it's a wilderness to us, what a wilderness it must have been to the creator of heaven and earth. He who formed everything, dry, dead, and he walked this earth. especially in his suffering, there he hung, the land of forsakenness, the wilderness. Down unto death thou leadest me, consumed by agony. There he was in the wilderness of the wrath of God. For he who was the fountain of life, he had nothing to cool his tongue, where he cried from the depths of misery, forsakenness, eye, thirst. And for him there was no promise. God gave him no drops then, much less the pouring out of his love then. But he did it in order that the parched ground of your soul, sinner here tonight, might have this promise, this promise of life, of peace, refreshment for Christ's sake. And He gives Himself away. Because when we have the Spirit, we have the Father and the Son. The Spirit brings the Father and His love, and the Son and His love, and life to bear upon Sinners like us, it is heaven come down to earth. It's God and sinners reconciled. Peace shall spring out of the earth. For God has done wondrous things. This takes us to our fourth point, the blessed effects more quickly. Our text outlines for us the blessed effects when the Holy Spirit comes down in fulfillment of God's promise. You can read this in verse 4. And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord. There's three things again that the text puts before us. The first is that there will be, when the spear works, there will be conversions, even abundant conversions. In Psalm 72, a messianic psalm, it says, they of the city shall flourish like grass upon the earth. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the parched ground and He's poured forth. The day of Pentecost there were 3,000 conversions. And then later you read of thousands and thousands more. Wherever the Spirit comes, it cannot contain the blessing. How we ought to pray for abundant conversions. McChain says, count the blades of grass that spring in a clear shine after the rain. So many shall the Lord's people be. Sometimes we think that the Lord's people are becoming smaller and smaller, and indeed in certain places in the world it may look like that. But the promise of God stands sure. There will be a full harvest. The Lord will have his people in every age. And not only will there be abundant conversions, there will be strong spiritual growth. That we should pray for as well. Notice how it says as willows by the watercourses. If you have a willow bush or a willow tree in your yard, one thing about the willow is, the willow loves water and it puts its roots there in the water and it just can't have enough water and it just grows. We have willow bushes and four feet of growth per season, especially with lots of heavy rains. There they keep growing. You have to cut them back. Willows grow. How do they grow? Because of the water. They're planted by the water courses. And that's what the Lord promises here as well. And how necessary for it is us to put our roots down deep into the water of God's Word, and into the water which is in Christ, the fountain himself. That's where we grow. Do you want to grow? Your growth is in Christ. From me is thy fruit found. This is a blessing that the Lord promises here, which we may plead. Not just abundant conversions, but strong spiritual growth. But there will be also this, and here the prophet speaks not really with imagery like grass or willows, but he says it clearly. One shall say, I am the Lord's. He or she consecrates themselves to the Lord. They come. Whereas up till this point they've lived for themselves. I am my own. That's been their refrain. That's been their joy. That's been their delight. But now the opposite is the case. I am not my own, but belong unto the Lord Jesus Christ. There's such need in your soul in a moment like that. that when the preacher comes and he says, wilt thou go with this man? Wilt thou belong unto this man, Jesus Christ? He seeks sinners. This man comes and has come to seek sinners. You go with this man, to belong to this man. Yes, in your soul you may have a lot of fears, a lot of doubts, a lot of sense of your own unworthiness. But need is pressing you, and driving you, and you can't live for yourself. You're done with yourself. So worst thing in your life is to now live for yourself. Jonathan Edwards said this, I've been this day before God, and I've given myself, all that I am, and all that I have, to God. With all my unworthiness, with all my sin, with all my shame, I've given myself away to God so that I am in no respect my own. I can challenge no right in myself, in my understanding, in my will, in my affection. Neither have I right to this body or of any of its members, no right to the tongue, no right to my hands, no right to these feet, no right to these eyes, these ears. I've given myself clean away. I am the Lord's. That's what the Spirit does, and He works in fulfillment to this promise. But yes, there will be variety in how we experience this thing, as we see in our fifth point, a rich experience. Because the text says in verse five, one shall say I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel. So the prophet here says one does this, another does that, and another does that. And that means that there is a variety of experience in the Christian life. Not everyone is exactly the same. Not everyone speaks exactly the same. Not everyone's life looks exactly the same. We're not cookie cutter Christians, that everyone looks exactly, speaks exactly the same. One shall say this, another shall say that, and another shall say that. And yet when you listen to what they're saying, The words are different, but the reality is the same. The heart is the same. The essence is the same. And so you can speak to another Christian, who looks very different than you. Who's come from a different background than you. Whose experience is different from you. And yet there is the same essence. And there is that recognition, one of another. And when it all boils down, it is exactly this. I'm not my own. but belong. I've given myself away. But there's something else in this text. And it's interesting that the name Jacob is used here. Another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. The name Jacob is the name that the patriarch Jacob carried before his conversion, but also after his conversion. And it meant liar, deceiver. The Bible actually uses that name Jacob more than the name Israel, even though that name was changed. Occasionally the Lord will say, Israel. Most of the time it's Jacob. Why? Because Jacob still had that old nature. And he'd come to see that. And the Lord knew that. In fact, the Lord in the Bible is pleased to call himself the God of Jacob. Think of that. To attach his glorious name to that awful name of Jacob. There are times when the Lord teaches His people that Jacob nature. You realize that even after received grace, if it were up to you, left to yourself, you're no more than Jacob, a liar, deceiver. That's why Paul says, even at the end of his life, he says, sinner, sinners Jesus came to save. A sinner of whom I am chief. I am chief. It's as if he's saying there, I still know and feel that Jacob nature. Call me Jacob. I'm a sinner. But, there's a God of Jacob. And He's my hope. And He's my expectation. But there are other people who may more focus on this Israel. The Lord has touched the hollow of their thigh. And the Lord has changed their name. And they can rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And they know it, not out of themselves. This is not them. But they know that God has made them to sit with princes, even the princes of His people. And that the work that God has begun shall by His grace be fully done. And there are times when they can boast and say, there is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? I know whom I have believed. And don't we need each other? Don't we need the full compass of Christian experience? How important it is to be real, one with another. Sometimes people feel the urge to parrot one another, to talk like other people do. But here in our text it says it. People will feel themselves and know themselves and call themselves nothing more than a Jacob. But that's when I need you and you need me and we balance each other out. And we're the body in which not all members are the same. We can lean on each other, you and me, and I and you. We can be an arm and a foot to one another. And it's all from the Lord, because the Lord makes it so. Because as we see in our final point, fulfillment and the absolute certainty the foundation of it all lies in God and that's what we see in verse 6 we can't omit that after in verse 5 people have been talking by the Spirit and through the Spirit the Lord takes the word again in verse 6 thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts I am the first and I am the last Beside me there is no God. The Lord starts the promise with Himself, and He ends the promise with Himself. I will, thus says the Lord. He's the first, He's the last. And that's what makes it so secure. It's all in God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And it's His word, His word to plead. Lord, hast Thou not promised? Lord, hast Thou not written it? As in blood, Thy Son's blood, I will pour. As we close congregation, how thirsty are you? How dry are you? In a way it doesn't matter, because here's a promise for each and every one here tonight. Be done with your own water. Be done with the fountains of this world. Pray God to pour water from out of His Son, I'm out of the cross of Christ. In that day shall a fountain be opened for sin and for uncleanness. Oh, to cry to God and to believe the God who promises. He is the God of hope who cannot lie. And he says here, I will pour. I wonder tonight if you're like that little girl Church had a prayer meeting because there hadn't been rain, and the crops were failing. They called for a special prayer meeting, but months since the last rain, and everything outside was parched and dry. This little girl, she not only came to the prayer meeting, she came with an umbrella, because she knew and believed that the God who says call upon me and I will answer, the God who says I will pour, He can do it. He can do it for His own namesake. Oh for that expectation. Oh for that childlike trust that looks to the Lord. Oh Lord do it. Do it now. Do not wait. Lord I thirst for Thee. the ground is so dry. My offspring needs Thee, O rend the heavens, and come down, and leave a blessing behind. All for Thy glory's sake, Amen.