Firstly, we need to see the background of God's first step in fulfilling His purpose.
I love the Bible. I have been with the Bible exactly 50 years and I love it today more than ever. As we come to Genesis 2:4-7, I want to say a word to the young people. When I was a young Christian, I was troubled by Genesis 2, thinking that it did not sound very biblical. I felt that the Bible should be classical, but Genesis 2 did not seem very classical to me. For example, in Genesis 2:5 it says, "for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth." I wondered why this was included in the Bible. I did not think it was very important. Then verse 5 continues by saying, "there was not a man to till the ground." What is the meaning of this? It did not sound like a word of the Bible to me. Earlier in verse 5 it mentions "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." What is this? I thought it was like the vocabulary of a fourth-grader. Furthermore, we are told in verse 6 that "there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." It did not sound like the words of the Bible to me. Many of you may say, "Romans 8 is good. It sounds the way a Bible is supposed to sound. But I don't like Genesis 2. There is no spirit there, no mind and no life. It just talks about herbs, plants, and mist." Nevertheless, Genesis 2:5-6 is part of the Bible, and without these verses the Bible is imperfect. The Bible needs these two verses of Genesis chapter 2 in order to perfect it. It is very significant for us to see what is revealed in this passage.
Do not despise any line in the Bible, for the Bible proceeded out of the mouth of God. Every word, phrase, clause, and sentence proceeded out of His mouth. It is a serious matter to read a phrase in the Bible. You may prove this by reading Genesis 2:5-6 again and again with a praying spirit. If you pray and read these verses in such a way, you will be nourished. However, if you do the same thing with some lines from the Los Angeles Times or the Santa Anna Register you will be killed. There is a great difference between secular writings and the Holy Bible. Every word in the Bible is holy; it is something of God.
God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. This signifies that God had not sent down His Spirit to mingle with man who was to be made with the dust of the ground. In Joel 2:23, 28-29 we see that God's Spirit is allegorized as the rain.
Some Christians criticize us for allegorizing the Bible too much. However, we must realize that allegorizing the Bible is proper because much of it, especially Genesis 1 and 2, is written in figurative language. Paul himself allegorized the Old Testament. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 he mentions the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. This certainly refers to Genesis 1. That the very God who commanded light to shine out of darkness now shines in us means that God's work in Genesis 1 is an allegory of what He is doing within us today. In Galatians 4 Paul allegorized Sarah, Abraham's wife, and Hagar, Abraham's concubine. Paul allegorized these two women as two covenants. Therefore, the best way to understand the Old Testament is to allegorize it.
In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus allegorized almost everything. He allegorized all of the types, shadows, and figures found in the Old Testament. He said that He was Solomon, David, the sabbath, the light, the food, the air, the door, the Shepherd, and the pasture. He was everything. Therefore, we need to allegorize the Bible. I encourage you to do this.
Now we are going to allegorize Genesis 2:5-6 where we are told that God did not cause rain to come on the earth. This signifies that God had not yet sent His heavenly rain, His Spirit, down to earth. When the rain descends to the earth, it soaks into the ground and mingles with it for the purpose of producing life. Now we can see the point: that there was no rain before God created man signifies that the Spirit from heaven had not yet mingled with something of dust to produce life.