During the summer it can be dry for months in Israel. Then everyone longs for a refreshing rain shower. And see, it looks like it will come; firm clouds gather in the sky, and the wind is starting to blow. Everything indicates that rain is coming. And yet, it does not happen.
The precipitation, so needed and so longed for, is not coming. The earth remains bone-dry.
What a big disappointment for man as well as for livestock.
It is the same when someone has announced with much fanfare that a present is on the way. It has created great expectations, but it is all empty talk. Of all the promises made, none come to fruition. Jude once wrote, Waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever
(Jude 1:12–13).
These powerful verses show how dangerous it is when someone promises something but is unable to follow through. The trust in each other is then being dented. Society stagnates.
This passage wants to warn us about that. Watch what you say and do what you have promised.
14 Comme des nuages et du vent sans pluie,Ainsi est un homme se glorifiant à tort de ses libéralités.