Back to the Beginning No.14 The Significance of the Rainbow

Let's turn to the Word of God, as found in the book of Genesis, in chapter 9. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood, I will surely demand an accounting.

I will demand an accounting from every animal, and from each man too. I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.

For in the image of God has God made men. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply on the earth and increase upon it.

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth. I will 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. God said this is a sign of the covenant I'm making between me and you, and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you, and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy your life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.

So God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth. Listen to a definition of a Christian. A Christian is a person who, on seeing a rainbow, takes off his hat, bows his head, and says the Lord's Prayer.

Now you're looking as though you believe that the sell-by date has arrived as far as my tenure of this pastor at this pulpit is concerned. But I want to tell you historically that within the illustration I've just given you is actually the ingredients of the Christian faith, an acknowledgement that God in nature has displayed His grace. And the man who takes off his hat, so to speak, on realizing something of the wonder of God, both in nature and the rainbow's manifestation, and at the cross, gazing on the figure of the one who was crucified, that man has embraced the essentials in some fashion of the Christian faith.

We're going to be talking about the significance of the rainbow. Earlier on in these chapters from Genesis, we have come across the thought that whenever man is engaged in tragedy, God is always quick in mercy. So Genesis 3 follows Genesis 2. That is not being trite.

In Genesis 2, God expels man from the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, God involves himself in the consequence of man's tragedy. Genesis 2, Adam steps out.

Genesis 3, God steps in. Cain is punished. Genesis 4, Cain is protected.

The last part of Genesis 4, wherever there is a display of human tomfoolery, there is also an evidence of the magnificence of the grace of God. Here I say in the beginnings of this book in the Bible, you find the essentials of the faith to the extent that if you understood the first chapter of the Bible, I go further. If you understood the first verse of the first chapter of this book of Genesis, then you would have a full grasp of the essentials of biblical theology.

Here in the ninth chapter of Genesis, we find ourselves in the post-flood era. Here, I argue, is a picture of an age beyond this age, so to speak. What I mean by this is, here in Genesis 9, is some semblance of what the world will eventually be.

Because in Genesis 8 and that lengthy chapter, you get recounted the problem of man's sin and the deluge that came as a result. But in Genesis 9, you get the idea of a world that has been cleansed, of, if you like, a renewed society. The Bible tells Christian people, and indeed all who will read it carefully, that when Jesus Christ returns to this earth, he will restore the heavens and the earth to what they originally were.

Not just post-deluvian. He will take us back to what it was at the very beginning and heighten even the glories of that. This is what God has in store.

So the apostle Paul says, I have not seen nor have you heard the things that God hath in store for those who love him. But here I say, in the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis, you get some sort of feeble anticipation of this. You've had the animals and man living harmoniously together in the ark, which has been a haven of security when the world order had ceased.

You have doves and ravens expressive of a harmony between the animal and the human world. You have the wolf flying down with the lamb together. A new creation where man no longer violates animals, and animals pose no threat for man.

That is how it was at the beginning. That is how it ultimately will be. And I want to say that Christian people in the here and now should have a concern for the preservation of what is good in this world in anticipation of the heightening of the glory that is innate within it.

For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So when you look at Genesis 9, what you have in the story of the physical salvation of Noah is a glimpse of an even bigger cosmic picture. Noah is a herald of righteousness, and the rainbow is a sign of what ultimately will be.

So as I take you back to the beginnings, as we unpack this chapter for a little while this morning, you find example within it the sort of salvation experience which you and I have also had. Noah was saved. Saved by an ark.

Noah and his family. You are saved. Saved by the cross, which in biblical theology and in Christian history has always been taken as a sort of equivalent to the ark in Old Testament times.

Noah is released free into a renewed world as Jesus grants freedom to you and to me. He who the Son sets free is free indeed. Noah has known a baptism, and 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 21 will tell you that you have been baptized, buried with the Lord Jesus Christ, as you have confessed your faith in him.

Noah, when he leaves the ark with his wife and his children, offers a sacrifice to the Lord in the cleansed, renewed earth, as it is your duty to bring a spiritual sacrifice to the Lord day by day. And if you had any sensitivity at all, you will know that one of the peaks of our service was when you gave money to the cause of Christ. It was not just a taking casually of a collection.

It was the offering of a piece of devotion. It was the extension of Noah's response, so to speak, as far as you're concerned, the gratitude that you feel to God, who has given you in this sin-stained world a new lease of life. And to the people who sent through my personal mail over 5,000 pounds this last week for the work of God in India, I want to tell you that monies like that, sacrificially given, are recognized by the Lord, are blessed by God.

So if Noah is a type of Christian people, so what dominates this chapter, the creation of the rainbow, is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The rainbow was given by God. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent by God into this world.

For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. The rainbow has God as its source. It is a heavenly creation.

There is no palette given to any artist that can fully capture on any manuscript, on any piece of paper, the wonder of the rainbow. There is a specific purpose that God designed that rainbow for. I establish my covenant.

This is the sign I'm making between you and me. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. God promises Noah that He will never cause such an equivalent deluge to come on the earth again.

And through our Lord Jesus Christ, God promises the possibility, indeed makes the certainty of salvation for those who trust Jesus Christ as Savior. He makes that certainty their own. In the old world, as I've just indicated, and by that I mean a past generation, when people saw a rainbow, they would have a much greater respect than we moderns have.

The passing of time would become more casual. Twenty-eight years ago, or twenty-seven years ago, when I came to this church, if I took a funeral service, and at the end of the service the coffin is taken onto the pavement, people would stop. Some would bow their heads, and if men had their heads covered, they would uncover their heads.

We've tended to lose these niceties now, I think actually to the impoverishment of our age. You can learn a lot, not only from a funeral service, but also from the appearance of the rainbow, because it will teach you of God's handiwork, and it will teach you about the salvation work of our Lord Jesus. So let me move on and put up the question, what does the rainbow teach? Few sights are more compelling than that of the brightness of the rainbow against the background of a storm.

Some have translated the passage that speaks of the rainbow as though it was God's bow of judgment, which He then hangs up. And in one sense, I like that idea, because in the eighth chapter of Genesis, with the storm, with the flood, with the lightnings and the thunder that precede the storm, and the consequences that lasted for so long, there you have the bow of God, there you have the judgment of God. But God takes His bow, and He hangs it up, and if you like, the weapon of judgment becomes an offering of mercy.

I have set my bow in the heavens. The span of judgment merges into an overarching display of care. He who made us still loves us.

So I argue, brothers and sisters, this rainbow speaks of the grace of God. Nor was saved, not because He willed it, but because God wanted it. And that's the same with you and me.

Salvation offered and made possible through the irresistible grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor was saved by mercy and not by merit. And that's the same for you and me.

Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I am constrained to be. Nor the covenant man was kept safe in the ark, and now he can live safely under the blessings of the rainbow. It speaks, I say, of the grace of God.

And that's what you see in the ninth chapter. But pause and take it through into the New Testament. Develop the negative and see the photo in all its clarity, in all its dimension.

As nor was saved through grace, so you are saved through grace. The rainbow speaks of the grace of God, but moreover the faithfulness of God. It tells you that God can be trusted.

This is the sign of the covenant that I am making. Verse 9, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you. Verse 11, never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood.

The faithfulness of God. Here is God's unconditional promise. The rainbow is God's yes to the indestructibility of creation.

The world is the Lord's. Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch theologian who founded the Free University of Amsterdam in one of his great volumes has Jesus speaking about the earth and Jesus says it's all mine. Every foot, every inch, every centimeter.

Mine, mine, mine. This universe belongs to Him and the rainbow speaks of this. I have set my rainbow in the sky.

This is my guarantee of the indestructible nature of this universe. Though it will respond to the cleansing and regenerating work of God in the future as it responded to the deluge and emerged somewhat cleansed. God remains true to His earth is what the rainbow says because God remains true to Himself.

He cannot deny Himself. The grace of God, the faithfulness of God. Moreover, it speaks of the memory of God.

Forever, says the psalmist, forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in the heavens. God is not man that He should lie. When He says never again will the earth know this flood in this proportion.

He means it. Now there have been natural catastrophes subsequently and man time and time again is reminded of the flimsy nature of his own life and the fragility with which he occupies planet earth. But the principle remains true that the Creator has not abdicated His responsibility towards His creation nor towards this planet nor towards this universe.

He has set the bow, His bow, in the heavens depicting the grace of God, the faithfulness of God and the mercy of God. God cannot forget. You can forget.

You so often do. The things that God has done for you. Sometimes you live your life in such a fashion that it seems to indicate that all that God has done for you has really had very little bearing in the way that you have responded.

But not so as far as God is concerned. He never forgets. Can I, Gethsemane, forget? Or should my memory flee? Yet in the depths of sin I know thou wilt remember me.

When I see the rainbow I will remember. When I see the blood I will remember. When I see Christian men and women taking bread and wine, sincerely consuming it with thoughts of my son, Paramount I will remember his death and I will forget their sins.

This is what the rainbow speaks of. What the rainbow teaches. But let me move on, and quickly.

What does the rainbow typify? Well, technically, it's an arch in the sky displaying the colors of the spectrum formed by the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays through rain or mist. In other words, the color is only detectable as a result of the rain which came about as a result of the storm. So rainbow is a combination of the miraculous forces of nature.

It needs the darkness of the clouds. It needs the fury of the tempest for the rainbow eventually to come and to herald a calm and to herald better weather. William Wordsworth says, My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.

I don't know what you think of Greenpeace. This modern ecological movement at least a movement for the preservation of the planet's ecology they've made mistakes. But sometimes I think that they articulate what Christian people ought to be saying in terms of the abuse of God's handiwork in terms of the rape of nature.

Man does not own this world. We are but tenants. And we will have to give an account to God for the way that we allowed pollution and contributed to it and the crass cruelties that even this country allows towards the animal kingdom.

There is not an inch of this universe over which Jesus Christ does not say, It is mine. I repeat the words of Kuyper. When do you find further reference in the Old Testament to the rainbow? The answer is, you discover it in Ezekiel.

And in the first chapter of Ezekiel there is a description of the awesomeness of God. The opening chapter gives you this incredible vision of a most mysterious person. And I take up the reading from the 25th verse of Ezekiel 1. Then there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood with lowered wings.

Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire. And high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal as if full of fire.

And from there down he looked like fire. And brilliant light surrounded him like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. So was the radiance around him.

What does the rainbow typify? According to Ezekiel it typifies the awesome majesty the wonder of God. Now, when you move through to the book of Revelation you find one further reference there are only three grouping the ones in Genesis together to a rainbow. And here in the 10th chapter is depicted another scene in which we read of a mighty angel coming down from heaven.

He was robed in a cloud with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll which lay open in his hand.

He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. And he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted the voice of the seven thunders spoke.

Greenpeace has as one of its vessels a ship called the Rainbow Warrior. I'm not suggesting for a moment that the people who launched that ship and chose that designation had any notion that that is a messianic term which speaks of our Lord Jesus. You don't often subsume link into the word rainbow the concept of being a warrior.

But this is what the Bible speaks how the Bible describes our Lord Jesus. He is awesome in majesty one foot on the sea another foot on the land. The earth is the Lord's.

Do you want any further scriptural evidence to support my conclusion that the way that we treat our world we are answerable to God for. The rainbow typifies the awesome majesty of the Lord. What's more the rainbow typifies the fullness of light.

In the rainbow or at the back of the rainbow there is just one color as Derek pointed out to the children break it up, it's refracted and blended, harmonized the primary ones, blue, red and yellow the actual color of any object is the result of the capacity that it has to absorb the rest. But put that to a sentence he that sees the rainbow sees the essence of light. Jesus comes into the world how do you describe him? He is the light of the world.

Everything that is essentially of the nature of God flows in to him. So in Jesus the justice of God turns into his truth and the truth of God melts into his mercy and the mercy of God into his love. Jesus becomes God's holy arch.

Don't you see? I have set the rainbow in the sky nor makes deductions from this. I have set my son in history and the New Testament enables you to make conclusions from that. The rainbow typifies the majesty of God the fullness of his light and the foundation of hope.

Oh yes Noah he can leave that ark assured that he goes under the canopy of God's protection for that's what the rainbow spoke to him of. And that of course is true as far as we are concerned. The rainbow was born out of the wrath of God as our Lord Jesus came into this world and received the wrath of God in his body on the cross.

Here in the New Testament is the perfect fulfillment of all that you find in Genesis chapter 9 the previous chapter the awfulness, the terror of the storm, of the flood of the catastrophe and then the rainbow and the future, the possibility of Noah and his sons living with God. I know they didn't. I know that they let God down.

I know that by the end of the ninth chapter Noah himself has disgraced himself but that's not my point. My point is this that the mercy of God was extended to Noah and it came out of his wrath his judgment on the earth that was in those days. Now see that central cross there's a darkness that hides everything and from the darkness comes that awful cry my God, my God why have you forsaken me? But the third day he's raised from the dead in the power of an endless life a light is lit in the heavenlies a way of salvation is made possible on earth the angels they don't understand it the archangels they cannot comprehend it here is God moving in mercy towards man and from the wrath of God he leads on to the mercy of God from the judgment of God is revealed the love of God what is a Christian? A Christian is a man who takes his hat off when he sees the rainbow do you understand me? and he bows his head and he says our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever Amen the rainbow shows the superabundance of God some say that the rainbow is actually a circle there's more to a rainbow than meets the eye that's why the artist can never depict it accurately that's why the photographer can never really pick it completely up there's more in the beauty of a rainbow than your eyes can behold here's a man from Nazareth all the beauties of the Godhead coalesce in him you tell me that he's lovely he's more than lovely he's altogether lovely you tell me he's beautiful he's more than beautiful he's the classic you tell me he's a perfect man he's more than a perfect man he is God manifest in the flesh everything you say about him you exhaust the vocabulary of the English language you go to the luscious language of the French people you go to the Chinese with all the characteristics of their alphabet you bring all the words that there are in the world and you distill it so that you can get the best illustration and definition of perfection and even then not the half has been told about this Lord Jesus Christ he comes as God's rainbow Noah needs that rainbow God reminds himself every time he sees it of the physical covenant that is made with Noah and the world when God sends his son onto the earth he puts the rainbow spiritually in the stratosphere and there is a sense in which those who have been under the canopy of the rainbow and stay there they become rainbow warriors the concern for the advance of the gospel in the Middle East in the Far East the concern for the improvement of humanity not only spiritually but materially they are concerned when man violates this planet and takes down far more trees than is necessary when man cruelly doles out to animals and forces them into conditions that God never intended them to live in the rainbow warrior says that is wrong in the name of this God the rainbow warrior says it is wrong that any man should be ignorant of the gospel the rainbow warrior says it is wrong that a man should have leprosy or suffer from an eye disease when we have the medication to prevent the former and to ameliorate the latter the rainbow warrior is not just destined for a new world though that is part of his privilege he is also concerned about the world that is here and now and if you think I am wrong then I quit because that is the only way that I understand this gospel we are called to live for Jesus in time as well as eternity we are children under the rainbow rainbow warriors evangelism at the forefront the amelioration of poverty part of our agenda the desire to share our privilege the opening of our heart something we do involuntary the invitation to our table something that comes naturally we do it because we are rainbow children living in this world as a result of the mercy of God spiritually and the mercy of God physically what is a Christian? a man who takes off his hat when the rainbow appears bows his head and says our father my father my God let's pray father take us beyond the listening and beyond the preaching to the outworking thank you for your promises you remember us remember us through grace remember us through your mercy remember us because of our Lord Jesus we bless you and ask that we might live our lives under the canopy of the gospel of salvation and tell others not only by our words but by our attitudes by our generosity that we are rainbow warriors as Jesus was Amen I told you some years ago about the story of the little boy who came home from Sunday school and his eyes were brimming with tears and his mum says what are you crying for? and he said I don't like the new song in Sunday school and mum says why not? and he said well they taught us Jesus wants me for a sunbeam and the mother said what's wrong with that? he said I want to be a railway driver well maybe not Jesus wants us for a sunbeam maybe Jesus wants us for a rainbow but I don't know a hymn that goes like that so we're going to an old one which speaks in a similar sort of language telling us affirming the promises of God it's a hymn that you'll love to sing we haven't sung it very often at the tab but it's one that underlines underpins some of the things I've tried to share this morning 242 in the supplement coming up on the overhead standing on the promises of Christ my King standing is the Word of my Saviour standing on my sins I cannot fail my dear and Saviour standing standing standing on my sins standing standing on my promises I cannot fail my Saviour as my Holy standing standing standing and God said this is the sign of the covenant I'm making between me and you and every living creature with you a covenant for all generations to come I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind Creator God Father of our Lord Jesus one on whom we are utterly dependent we thank you for the gift of life for the grace of life for the food we eat for the house in which we live for the transport which we make convenience of we acknowledge so many bountiful gifts that you have granted to us but as you held nor accountable so we recognize our responsibility before you help us to live as people under the rainbow as people as generous as our Lord Jesus was generous as people as thoughtful as he was enable us to treat one another and the environment in which you have placed us in a way that is agreeable to you and for those who are ignorant of the great and glorious gospel we pray that their ignorance may be curbed by satellite or radio or literature or spoken word they shall hear of the mighty message of Jesus so hastening the day when he shall return and cleanse this foul earth and renew the universe and set up his kingdom when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of his Christ and your son shall reign forever and ever and all God's people in anticipation said Amen do sit down thank you so much for coming hope we'll have the privilege of you being here this evening when we have a remarkably gifted man gotta be gifted to be the manager of the English cricket team so he'll be speaking on the miracle of the miraculous I would think I jest he has been with our men's fellowship before and that's the reason why we've invited him back we appreciated him so much good morning, God bless you, thanks for coming