Image by Free-Photos, from Pixabay.com
Rainbows are beautiful - - aren't they?
We have been having some stormy weather, off and on, as Spring moves into Summer, here in north Georgia. The other night, a limb fell off one of our trees into the yard. I'm glad the other trees and limbs have "stayed put". This morning, when I arose early, as usual, the skies were stormy. But, looking out the front door I could see, just peeking through the many trees, a rainbow.
Weather and heavenly phenomena have long mystified us humans, but in Genesis 9 God cleared up a lot of the mystery about rainbows, when He established what bible scholars call the Noahic Covenant. Speaking to Noah, God said....
11And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
Genesis 9:11-13 (BSB)
In the several verses following verse 13, God seems to repeat Himself, for emphasis. There is no doubt the meaning behind and the purpose of the rainbows we see periodically. Now, of course, God does not forget. It is impossible for Him to forget anything, although in Hebrews 8:12 we read that God "remembers our sins no more". Isaiah 43:25 is another, similar passage. In other words, His forgiveness is so utterly complete, it is as if He forgets the sins of those who have trusted His Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior. He no longer "charges them to our spiritual account", as Jesus paid that bill "in full". He chooses not to remember them, because the sins of the saved people are "under the blood of Jesus Christ."
Why the rainbow, then? I can't think of another Old Testament covenant that has such a tangible symbol.
Maybe He does not want us to forget - - to forget the horrendous sins that required a world-wide flood in the first place. For a catalog of some of them, go read Romans 1, which I've been looking at recently. Well, here; let me make it easy for you:
21For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 27and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 29They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 31senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:21-32 (NET)
Yesterday, an infamous trial in New York State came to an end.1 The leader (Keith Raniere) of a perverted sex cult (NXVIM) was judged by a jury "guilty on all counts". The things that went on involved all manner of perversion, including unspeakable acts with children. The acts were so heinous this whole, sordid tale has had limited airing on the news. I pity the poor jurors on that case because surely they were witnessing a story like a scene right out of Romans 1.
In our modern culture, the rainbow has been co-opted by some whose lives are characterized by patterns, habits, practices right out of Romans 1 as well. The dictionary defines "co-opt" as follows: to divert or use in a role different from the usual or original one.2
The Bible makes plain the rainbow's distinct meaning. It is very sad, although not at all surprising, that a segment of our modern society has perverted the rainbow's meaning, to support and celebrate sinful lifestyles.
No, God's word is sure. His promises are true. Every.Single.One. of them, including the one earlier in Genesis that says He will not strive with man forever, nor the one in Galatians 6:7, where He says He will not be mocked. He will never again destroy the Earth with water, and He's given us the rainbow to remind us of that fact.
However . . .
Every single human born and who reaches the age when the gospel message can be understood will be judged for his or her sins. Those who will escape the eternal judgment of God will do so ONLY because their sins have been forever forgiven and covered by God's Son's sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead. Those who mock God, rejecting His offer of salvation in order to wallow in their own sins face an excruciatingly painful eternity without Him, and if that's not Hell, I don't know what is.
Sources:
1 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48699099
2 https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+co-opted&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS829US829&oq=define%3A+co-opted&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.3936j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
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