The planting and harvest seasons in ancient Israel were different than what we might expect in the West. The first rains that softened the ground lasted from October through December, just before the planting season. The last rains ripened the harvest between March and April, just prior to reaping. The prophet Zechariah used the rains as a metaphor for God’s intentions for Israel.
“It shall be in that day that…I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:9-10, NKJV).
Here we see Zechariah foretelling an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days. A similar deluge is described in Joel 2, which I believe to be Pentecost. “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29).
This is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost! The Holy Spirit poured like a flood into the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and it has steadily continued throughout the centuries. God’s people have been daily refreshed by it for nearly 2,000 years. Isaiah refers to it as “a vineyard of red wine! I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day” (Isaiah 27:2-3).
The two outpourings in Zechariah and Joel are the first (former) and last (latter) rains: “And it shall be that if you diligently obey my commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil” (Deuteronomy 11:13-14).
The Spirit’s work is always focused on the harvest of precious souls. Down through the generations, God’s desire is to redeem us back to him, as many as will come.