“Bible promises: Under the rainbow”
Genesis 9:13
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Eighty-five years ago, back in 1939, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, usually known as MGM, was planning to film a one-of-a-kind, never-done-before movie about a girl from Kansas who somehow ended up in a land called Oz. They called it The Wizard of Oz.
Now two men, one named Harold Arlen, and the other, Yip Harburg, had already written all of the movie’s other music, like Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead, We Welcome You to Munchkinland, We’re Off to See the Wizard, and If I Only Had a Brain, but there was one scene, what they called, “the Kansas scene,” that still didn’t have a song.
And they were under pressure! It was the first song the audience would hear, and time was quickly running out.
So not knowing what else to do, Arlen, the composer, carried blank sheets of music around in his pocket all the time, just in case he got the right idea.
Until one day, he said to his wife, “Let’s go to Graumen’s Chinese Theatre, but why don’t you drive, because I don’t feel so well right now.”
Then on the way, he said he really wasn’t thinking about work. He just wanted to relax. But as they drove along Sunset Dr., he suddenly said, “Pull over, please.” And that’s when he pulled out a crumpled sheet of manuscript paper from his pocket and wrote down what has become one of the most famous songs of all time.
You know how it goes: “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there’s a land that I heard of, once in a lullaby. Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true.”
It seems we have a fascination with rainbows!
Munch on a handful of Skittles, and you can “taste the rainbow.” If you try hard enough and are fast enough, you just might find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow (at least, that’s what a leprechaun will tell you!) Lucky Charms taste magically delicious! Young girls might have a “rainbow pony.” There’s even an entire grocery store chain named “Rainbow Foods”!
And that’s not all! Ancient Albanians believed the rainbow was Prende’s belt, the goddess of beauty, the Greeks believed it was a footpath, a stairway, reaching between heaven and earth, Siberians said it was the tongue of the sun, and North American Indians said it was a bridge between the living and the dead. Ancient Europeans said that if you point at a rainbow, your finger will fall off!
And let’s not forget about Kermit the frog! Remember the song he sang? While sitting in a swamp and strumming on his banjo, he sang, “Rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide. So we’ve been told, and some choose to believe it, I know they’re wrong, wait and see. Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me.”
Ever heard of a man named Roy G. Biv? He’s not a man really. The name is actually the colors of the rainbow--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Another way to put it, (at least if you grew up in England), is “Richard of York gave battle in vain.”
But best of all, a rainbow is a picture of Christ! At least that’s what it says in Ezekiel chapter 1: “Above the expanse over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance…Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around” (Ezekiel 1:26, 28).
Even a rainbow’s colors are a symbol of Christ--red is the color of blood, the only way to God (I Peter 1:18-19). Orange is the color of warning, repent! (Matthew 3:2). Yellow is the color of sunlight--He’s the light of the world (John 8:12). Green is the color of new life, for He’s the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Blue is the color of the sky above--heaven--our forever home (John 3:13). And purple is the color of royalty, for He’s the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords (I Timothy 6:15).
And since there’s always rain and there’s always sun, there’s always a rainbow somewhere on earth.
But of all the rainbows that have ever been or ever will be, the very first one is found in the words of Genesis chapter 9. I’ll start at verse 8: “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth” (Genesis 9:8-13).
Nothing like it had ever happened before and nothing like it would ever happen again. Man had become so sinful and so corrupt that God had no choice but to destroy them all and start all over again.
As it says in Genesis chapter 6: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (Genesis 6:5-7).
And for the next seventy-five years, Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japeth, would build an ark, the largest ship their world had ever seen. And just as soon as they built that ark, along came the animals--two-by-two.
Then what came next was an absolute catastrophe. All of a sudden, without warning, the earth’s crust heaved and buckled, unleashing volcanic eruptions and massive earthquakes from one end of the planet to the other, belching fountains of water deep inside the earth high into the atmosphere. And along with that gushing water, rain poured down from dark, thundering skies in unending torrents. Tsunamis swept across the sinking land, causing loosened earth, rocks, and trees to slide down hillsides, burying plants and animals by the millions.
It was a catastrophe like the earth had never seen and would never see again.
For forty days and forty nights, the rain pummeled the earth until absolutely everything was obliterated--gone. As the Bible says in chapter 7: “And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died…And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days” (Genesis 7:21-22, 24).
And all that was left was that one boat rocking quietly, silently, on the waves.
Then what? Just as soon as the ark came to rest on the top of Mount Ararat, Noah first sent out a raven, and then a dove. And when the dove found a home and didn’t come back, that’s when he knew it was time to start life all over again.
I want you to imagine something for me. Imagine the trauma of living through a torrential rain that lasted forty days and forty nights, a rain so thick and so heavy that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
Imagine the trauma of experiencing all the subterranean waters breaking loose from one volcanic eruption after another after another, causing global, seismic shifts.
Imagine the trauma of realizing that your family was the one and only surviving family on earth. Absolutely everyone else perished because they had cursed God, rejected and rebelled against Him, and refused to follow and obey Him.
And imagine the trauma of living on a boat for an entire year, and of having that whole year to think about righteousness, sin, death, and God’s judgment.
As one commentator wrote, “If anyone ever needed a promise, it was Noah.”
But finally, after that whole time passed, as Noah and his wife and their sons and their wives first stepped out of the ark, and all the animals with them, they saw something they never expected to see, something they had never seen before. High in the sky there was a brilliant, translucent, vibrant, majestic, resplendent symphony of light, as if an orchestra of instruments were all playing at the same time in perfect harmony. As one author wrote, it was “red like a fire truck racing, orange like leaves dancing, yellow like custard eating, green like a frog jumping, blue like a dolphin swimming, indigo like blueberries snacking, and violet like a flower smiling.”
And along with that incredible arc of light spanning from one end of the sky to the other came something more, something better. It was a promise from none other than God Himself.
As He said in chapter 9: “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember My covenant that is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:12-15).
Did you notice that word “bow”? “I have set My bow in the cloud”?
Did you know that God never called it a rainbow? We call it a rainbow, but God never did. Instead, He said, “I have set My bow in the cloud” (Genesis 9:13). So why did He call it a “bow”?
What’s a bow? It’s a tool of hunting, of war, of battle. It’s a sign of hostility and aggression. Point a bow, loaded with an arrow, at someone or something, and you know there’s going to be trouble.
So when God hung that bow, that rainbow, in the sky, He was, in effect, saying that when you see that bow, you can know for certain that He would never, ever destroy the earth that way again.
And which way does that bow point? Not towards earth. Not towards sinful humankind. Instead, God’s bow points up toward heaven, toward the heart of His own Son.
And so, painted so gloriously high in the sky, an instrument of war becomes a symbol of peace.
I can’t leave this text without saying one more thing.
Have you ever seen a rainbow on a bright, sunny, picture-perfect day? No, you haven’t and you never will.
Do you know why? Because a rainbow only appears at the end of a storm. It’s only after the thunder and lighting have passed and the rain is beginning to subside that the sun comes out. And that’s when you see a rainbow.
And you know, it’s not much different in our walk with Christ. When things are going good and life is easy, the rainbows don’t appear. It’s only after we go through the hard times, when our faith is tested and we keep our trust in God, that’s when we really see the full effect of His grace, His mercy, and His love. That’s when we see His greatest riches. That’s when we see our rainbow.
And you know, in heaven we’ll see that rainbow once more! For as John wrote in his book of Revelation: “After these things I looked, and behold, a door opened in heaven…and a rainbow was around the throne” (Revelation 4:1, 3).
And that is a promise!
We thank You, Father, for all Your promises that find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Help us always to find our strength and hope in You, for His sake. Amen