In this message we will consider Jehovah's punishment of Israel with drought.
Jehovah's punishing Israel with drought was a curse for Israel's breaking of Jehovah's covenant. In Deuteronomy 11:17 Moses warned the people of Israel that if they turned aside from Jehovah and served other gods, the anger of Jehovah would burn against them and He would shut up heaven so that there would be no rain. Deuteronomy 28:23 refers to this curse by saying, "Your heaven, which is above your head, will be brass, and the land, which is under you, iron."
The curse of drought was the ceasing of God's heavenly supply to the earth. Such a thing took place during the time of Elijah (1 Kings 17:1), and it will happen again in the future (Rev. 11:6a; Zech. 14:18).
Deuteronomy 11:14 and 15 say, "I will give rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the late rain, so that you may gather your grain and your new wine and your fresh oil. And I will put grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied." These verses speak of God's giving rain for the nourishment of His people. It is He who gives "the early rain and the late rain, in its season" and who "preserves the appointed weeks of the harvest" (Jer. 5:24). However, as a curse for Israel's breaking of Jehovah's covenant, "the showers have been withheld, / And there has been no later rain" (3:3). This means that, as a punishment, God's nourishment to His people has been cut off.