Who Doesn't Love A Rainbow!

Yes, it would be hard to imagine anyone not loving the sight of a rainbow – we often stop in our tracks and gesture to the heavens when we see one – I even stood in the road and stopped traffic on my street recently when there was a double rainbow above my house – no-one seemed to mind!

The meaning of a rainbow

But there’s much more to a rainbow than just its stunningly beautiful array of colours. According to the Bible, God put rainbows in the sky to tell us that he had promised never to flood the earth again as he had done in the days of Noah. The world had become so bad in those days that the Bible says ‘The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time’ (Gen 6:5). So God wasn’t apologising for flooding the earth at that time – he did it as an act of mercy. No-one wants to live in that kind of depraved world, let alone bring children into it. God is both just and merciful and while everyone will ultimately face his judgement in the end, he is incredibly patient and as one of his closest followers said, ‘The Lord… is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9).

The nature of a rainbow

A rainbow is a multi-coloured arc made by light striking water droplets. It is produced when sunlight strikes raindrops in front of a viewer at a precise angle of 42 degrees (according to the National Geographic). It provides seven colours – seven is a symbol of completion or perfection. In the Bible it is God’s favourite number – it is actually used over 700 times! For example, in seven days he created the world; there were seven feasts in the Old Testament that the people of Israel had to keep; in 2 Kings 5:10 Naman a non-Jewish national figure who had contracted leprosy is told to wash seven times in the Jordan river to be completely healed; John in the book of Revelation wrote to seven churches, (these are just a sample of the many times the number seven is used in the Bible). 

In contrast note the six colours of the LGBTQ+ flag! (created by Gilbert Baker in 1978) – symbolically this is less than seven and implies that humanity doesn’t want anything to do with God but wants to stay at ‘six’ which is man’s number according to Rev 13:18 ‘let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man 666’.

The extent of a rainbow

Also, God doesn’t play favourites, the promise displayed in a rainbow is universal – God said, ‘I now establish my covenant with you… and with every living creature on the earth’ (Gen 9:9-11). It is also unconditional – the promise is based on God’s faithfulness alone – there are no strings attached.

The significance of a rainbow

Possibly the most striking thing about the rainbow is its shape. The Hebrew language doesn’t have a separate word for ‘rainbow’, it is simply ‘bow’ (Keshet) which is the word for the bow that shoots arrows. God is not afraid to use a bow as David says of God in Psalm 18:14: 

He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,    with great bolts of lightning he routed them

So, the rainbow is a symbol of hostility and enmity – it is actually a weapon! But notice which way the bow is facing – it is facing upwards to heaven – not downwards to earth! So God is saying ‘I am aiming the deadly arrow at myself instead of you’. We, in our personal and global wickedness deserve God’s judgement and condemnation but instead of him aiming the bow at us, he has aimed it at himself! That is why Jesus (the Son of God) went to the cross – to take the punishment we deserve on himself. As Isaiah said: ‘…. he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.’ (Is 53:5)

The message of the rainbow

So the rainbow carries a very important message to all of us – God reminds us every time we see a rainbow that he offers us forgiveness – as Ezekiel the prophet said, the rainbow should remind us of the glory of the LORD, ‘Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD’ (Ezek 1:26-27).

But you don’t need to wait until you see another rainbow, you can ask him to forgive all your sin and be given the gift of eternal life – which means now and forever. As John the disciple of Jesus said: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).

So why don’t you pray to him now and ask him to do just that…?

If you prayed this prayer or have any questions, feel free to contact me: 

Peter Thomas (Pastor - Bowral Baptist Church, www.bowralbaptistchurch.net)      Peterthomasp16@gmail.com; 0432376701                                                                            

By the way, there’s a wonderful promise to anyone who trusts in Jesus and so goes to heaven –‘I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne’ (Rev 4:2-3)         

That’s a rainbow you don’t want to miss!