He Comes To Us Like Rain.

That then they shall improve in the knowledge of God: Then shall we know, if we follow on to know, the Lord. Then, when God returns in mercy to his people and designs favour for them, he will, as a pledge and fruit of his favour, give them more of the knowledge of himself the earth shall be full of that knowledge, Isaiah 11:9. Knowledge shall be increased, Daniel 12:4. All shall know God, Jeremiah 31:34. We shall know, we shall follow to know, the Lord, (so the words are) and it may be taken as the fruit of Christ's resurrection, and the life we live in God's sight by him, that we shall have not only greater means of knowledge, but grace to improve in knowledge by those means. Note, When God designs mercy for a people he gives them a heart to know him, Jeremiah 24:7. Those that have risen with Christ have the spirit of wisdom and revelation given them. And if we understand our living in his sight, as the Chaldee paraphrast does, of the day of the resurrection of the dead, it fitly follows, We shall know, we shall follow to know, the Lord for in that day we shall see him be perfected, and yet be eternally increasing. Or, taking it as we read it, If we follow on to know, we have here, A precious blessing promised: Then shall we know, shall know the Lord, then when we return to God those that come to God shall be brought into an acquaintance with him. When we are designed to live in his sight, then he gives us to know him for this is life eternal to know God, John 17:3. The way and means of obtaining this blessing. We must follow on to know him. We must value and esteem the knowledge of God as the best knowledge, we must cry after it, and dig for it (Proverbs 2:3,4), must seek and intermeddle with all wisdom (Proverbs 18:1), and must proceed in our enquiries after this knowledge and our endeavours to improve in it. And, if we do the prescribed duty, we have reason to expect the promised mercy, that we shall know more and more of God, and be at last perfect in this knowledge.

That then they shall abound in divine consolations: His going forth is prepared as the morning, that is, the returns of his favour, which he had withdrawn from us when he went and returned to his place. His out-goings again are prepared and secured to us as firmly as the return of the morning after a dark night, and we expect it, as those do that wait for the morning after a long night, and are sure that it will come at the time appointed and will not fail and the light of his countenance will be both welcome to us and growing upon us, unto the perfect day, as the light of the morning is. He shall come to us, and be welcome to us, as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth, which refreshes it and makes it fruitful. Now this looks further than their deliverance out of captivity, and, no doubt, was to have its full accomplishment in Christ, and the grace of the gospel. The Old-Testament saints followed on to know him, earnestly looked for redemption in Jerusalem and at length the out-goings of divine grace in him, in his going forth to visit this world, were as the morning to this earth when it is dark for he went forth as the sun of righteousness, and in him the day-spring from on high visited us. His going forth was prepared as the morning, for he came in the fulness of time John Baptist was his fore-runner, nay, he was himself the bright and morning star.

As the rain to this earth when it is dry. He shall come down as the rain upon the mown grass, Psalm 72:6. In him showers of blessings descend upon this world, which give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, Isaiah 55:10. And the favour of God in Christ is what is said of the king's favour, like the cloud of the latter rain, Proverbs 16:15. The grace of God in Christ is both the latter and the former rain, for by it the good work of our fruit-bearing is both begun and carried on. - Matthew Henry