Today a blanket of gray-blue clouds slowly rolls east while the sun sinks on the western horizon. Diffused sunlight, my friend calls it “God light,” pierces through the gray rain curtain and is diffused once again. We drive toward the rain, heading home from a long day, and watch the intermingling water and light paint a double rainbow in the evening sky. It begins as only a partial arch, but gradually grows into a complete rainbow, a celestial overpass spanning the highway ahead.
As we race ever closer to the rainbow, we begin to clearly see one end of it casting its multi-colored light on the golden wheat fields and summer-green forests. What looked like plain, old yellow-hued sunlight just moments ago is now a full-color display.
I wonder how Noah reacted when he saw that very first rainbow. It’s a treat for me to see one, but a treat I have enjoyed several times each summer throughout my life. Noah was about 600 years old before he saw his first rainbow. It must have been quite an amazing sight — all that color splashed on a dreary backdrop of gray water and sky! And Noah didn’t have modern science to explain how light waves have different lengths, to which God assigned different colors, some of which are invisible to the unaided human eye. He only saw something beautiful and miraculous in the heavens.
And that it was, a beautiful, miraculous sign from God. The rainbow symbolism has been hi-jacked by certain special interest groups in recent years. But in Genesis 9, God proclaimed it a sign of His promise to never flood the entire earth again.
“And it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant which is between Me, and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:14-15)
You know, I always thought the rainbow appeared to remind us of God’s promise. I find it intriguing that God says it is a reminder to Him. Surely God could never forget any of His promises. He’s the only one I can always count on to keep a promise. Maybe when His patience with human shenanigans is wearing thin, considers raining down judgment… quite literally! Then He remembers the rainbow and holds back.
But God will not be patient forever. He’s made another promise, one we don’t like to talk about as much. He’s promised to return and judge all mankind and this earth. God will keep His promise not to flood it again, but it will be destroyed.
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and it works will be burned up.” (II Peter 3:10)
God never breaks a promise.
Pretty sobering, right? Well, the story doesn’t end there. There’s one more promise that gives this story a happy ending.
All who love and follow God can look forward to the new heaven and the new earth God will create for our eternal home – an earth free from sin and its trappings. You can read about it in Revelation 21:1-4. And that’s a promise!
