Like Jehovah’s Dewdrops Among Many Peoples

JEHOVAH’S dewdrops are beautiful; they are exceedingly many, and, most important of all, they are refreshing and life-sustaining.

Fittingly, in the Scriptures various persons and things are likened to the dew. Thus Moses likened his farewell prophetic song to the dew. (Deut. 32:2) The favor of the king is also likened to the dew. (Prov. 19:12) The loving unity of brothers is compared to the dew. (Ps. 133:1, 3) Jehovah even likens himself to the dew. (Hos. 14:5) And he also likens his faithful servants on earth, the remaining ones of spiritual Israel or Jacob, to dew: “The remaining ones of Jacob must become in the midst of many peoples like dew from Jehovah . . . that does not hope for man or wait for the sons of earthling man.”—Mic. 5:7.a

Concerning the beauty of the dew, W. A. Bentley, a leading American meteorologist, once stated: “The myriads of opalescent, iridescent drops sparkling over meadow and hillside of a dew morning create one of Nature’s loveliest effects.” God’s anointed servants are like dew in this respect, for they are prophetically spoken of, at Canticles 4:7, as being “altogether beautiful” in the eyes of their Shepherd-Bridegroom Jesus Christ. And so they also appear to Jehovah God and to men of goodwill: “How comely are the feet of those who declare good news of good things!”—Rom. 10:15.

Just as dewdrops are many, so, today, those associating with Jehovah’s “dewdrops” and becoming like dewdrops themselves are exceedingly many, their numbers at the present time increasing some hundred a day and totaling well over nine hundred thousand now. Concerning these the psalmist David prophesied: “You have your company of young men just like dewdrops.”—Ps. 110:3.

But in particular are God’s people like dew in their refreshing and life-giving activities. Concerning this quality of Jehovah’s literal dewdrops we are told: “The value of this blessing cannot be adequately appreciated by the Western reader; but in Palestine . . . rain rarely, if ever, falls from April to September and, the heat of the sun being at the time very strong, all vegetation would be parched and dried up were it not for the copious dews which fall during the night . . . during the months of April, May, August and September, and after the early and before the latter rains.”—McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopædia.

Concerning these dews of Palestine, Newsweek, August 26, 1957, after quoting Genesis 27:28, had the following to say: “Despite a few such scattered hints in the Bible, the agricultural importance of dew has been ignored in recent centuries. Textbooks carefully explain how water in a plant is transported upward from the roots; a reverse process, the intake of the dew and its movement downward, is never mentioned.

“Now a modern Israeli scientist, who was inspired by the Bible to study dew, has established that this nocturnal deposit of water may spell the difference between a bountiful harvest and drought-ridden starvation. . . . He tells how a water spray simulating dew brought full recovery to wilting citrus trees unirrigated for many rainless months. His bedewed cucumbers were half again as plump as unbedewed ones. Most vegetables . . . grow faster, and yield more when ‘dew’ irrigated . . . Absorption can be so pronounced, he reports, that the soil around the roots will become moist, giving the plant an added reservoir to draw from the next morning.”

Surely, just as Jehovah provided literal dewdrops for the refreshment and life of vegetation, so he has provided symbolic dewdrops to serve for the refreshment and life of those who are “hungering and thirsting for righteousness.” To accomplish their purpose, these who are likened to dewdrops must go forth, searching for men of goodwill and, upon finding them, offer them the refreshing waters of life, in keeping with the prophetic invitation: “The spirit and the bride keep on saying: ‘Come!’ And let anyone hearing say: ‘Come!’”—Matt. 5:6; Rev. 22:17.

The fact that the dew falls ever so gently shows that these Christian ministers are to be kind and gentle in bringing the truth to the people. And just as the dew keeps falling regularly every evening, during its season, so these Witnesses must be regular, not spasmodic, in serving as refreshing dewdrops, especially in faithfully conducting Bible studies with the people in their homes, so that these can become refreshed and revived and take their stand for Jehovah and join in serving, like dewdrops themselves, to bring refreshment to still others.

Surely this is a most happifying work in which to be engaged! During the month of October these Christian witnesses will bring refreshment to the people by offering the Awake! magazine on a subscription basis.

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