Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Jeremiah was a prophet who lived around 600 BC, during a time when the nation of Judah — the southern part of what had been the united kingdom of Israel — had drifted far from God into idolatry and injustice. Known as the 'weeping prophet,' Jeremiah grieved deeply over his people's condition. In this verse, he describes a specific kind of spiritual failure: the people have stopped acknowledging God as the source of their provision. In ancient Israel and Judah, the 'autumn rains' softened the hard summer soil for planting, and the 'spring rains' helped crops mature before harvest. These were not incidental weather events — they were survival. The tragedy Jeremiah names isn't violent rebellion; it's that the people have simply stopped connecting God to the gifts He gives them.
Lord, forgive me for the seasons I've walked through Your world without noticing You in it. Open my eyes to the rain, to the harvests, to the ordinary gifts I've stopped calling gifts. Teach me to say Your name again — not just in church, but in the kitchen, the commute, and the quiet. Amen.
The most dangerous kind of drift doesn't look like rebellion. It's quieter than that — less dramatic, harder to name. It looks like just not thinking about it. Not tracing the rain back to its source. Not asking who arranged the seasons that keep you alive. The people Jeremiah describes weren't card-carrying atheists. They were ordinary people who got busy, got comfortable, and stopped saying the words: 'Let us fear the Lord our God.' The forgetting happened the way most forgetting does — one distracted, overfull season at a time. Be honest with yourself: how often do you eat a meal, receive a paycheck, wake up with your health intact, or look at someone you love — without a single thought of God? Not out of anger or rejection, just absence of thought. Jeremiah's indictment isn't aimed at the openly hostile. It's aimed at the quietly comfortable. And the antidote he implies isn't dramatic or complicated. It's just noticing. Saying the sentence out loud, even in your own head: He gives this. This came from somewhere — and that somewhere is Him. Gratitude, it turns out, is a spiritual discipline, not just a feeling.
What does it mean to 'fear the Lord' in this context — is Jeremiah calling for terror, reverence, awe, or something else entirely?
In what areas of your daily life do you most easily forget to acknowledge God as the source of what you have? Be specific.
Is spiritual drift — the kind born from comfort and busyness rather than crisis or doubt — a bigger threat to your faith than you'd normally admit?
How might actively and regularly acknowledging God's provision change the way you treat or think about people who have less than you?
What is one daily habit, routine, or marker you could build to regularly remind yourself that what you have comes from God — not just in theory, but in practice?
They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
Jeremiah 50:5
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:45
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
1 Kings 17:1
Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
Jeremiah 5:22
Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
Jeremiah 3:3
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
James 5:7
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.
Joel 2:23
'They do not say in their heart, "Let us now fear and worship the LORD our God [with profound awe and reverence], Who gives rain in its season, Both the autumn and the spring rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the harvest."
AMP
They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
ESV
'They do not say in their heart, 'Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain in its season, Both the autumn rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the harvest.'
NASB
They do not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
NIV
They do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”
NKJV
They do not say from the heart, ‘Let us live in awe of the LORD our God, for he gives us rain each spring and fall, assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’
NLT
It never occurs to them to say, 'How can we honor our God with our lives, The God who gives rain in both spring and autumn and maintains the rhythm of the seasons, Who sets aside time each year for harvest and keeps everything running smoothly for us?'
MSG