Praise the Lord
for this wonderful new day in our Lord's Kingdom. We will meet for our
Wednesday gathering this evening at 6 PM with a special meal prepared with much
grace and served with much love. We will be looking at references to the
rainbow in Scripture. At 7:30 there will be a special choir rehearsal in
preparation for the service of dedication for the new addition of
the church, this coming Sunday at 10.00AM. There will be a church-wide Family
style Chicken BBQ, this coming Saturday June 15,2013 starting at 4 PM. Come,
Share and Rejoice.
Alice and I drove
to the beautiful Charm City, Baltimore, yesterday. The Lord blessed us with a
wonderful trip. I got a very good report from doctor. My doctor is a committed
Christian who belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church. He and his wife (also a
medical doctor) are blessed with a son. He shared with us they are going back
to Greece in August for their son's baptism. In Greece baptism is a great
celebration of the Grace of the Lord on our children. The Baptismal service is
" Huge". He said it almost as big as "My Big fat Greek Wedding". The weather
in Baltimore was stunning -- in the 90's. One of the staff members at Johns
Hopkins said, " It is like the tropics", and I agreed with her. On our way back
home we saw a brilliant and astounding Rainbow. The Color purple was dominant.
Alice and I both paused to gaze at the Rainbow, the Lord's gift of grace to
us.
I was pondering on
the rainbow. It is written in Genesis
9:13-16: "I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a
token of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I
bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall 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 the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember
the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that
is upon the earth."
The Hebrew
word translated bow (or rainbow) is of tremendous significance
because it is the same word that refers to the familiar weapon. In
fact, of the 77 occurrences of the Hebrew qeshet in the Old Testament,
virtually all of them refer to the familiar weapon used by the hunter
(Genesis
27:3)
and the warrior (1 Samuel
31:3)
that shoots arrows (2 Kings
9:24). The bow is a truly ancient weapon, mentioned in
Scripture for the first time in Genesis
21:20. The rainbow is an amazing and beautiful phenomenon,
one that mesmerizes us every time it appears. It's probably safe to say few
humans can see a rainbow and not stop what they are doing and gaze upon it.
Prior to the flood, a mist watered the earth and rain, as we know it, was
unknown. (Genesis
2:5-6). No wonder the people of Noah's day scoffed at
the man as he built the great ark.
The rainbow
appears several times times in Scripture. When we compare all these
occurrences, we see a three-fold significance that applies to the storms of life
that believers encounter. First, Noah saw the rainbow after the storm. While
a storm rages, it is difficult to think about anything else. Our foremost
thoughts are simply finding shelter and hoping it doesn't do serious damage.
Like Noah, we must wait until it's all over before seeing the sun again. Then
are reassured by the rainbow that every storm is temporary and that no matter
how much damage it does it could be worse.
Second, the prophet Ezekiel saw the rainbow
during the storm. Ezekiel 1—3 records the prophet's call, first describing the
visions he saw (Ezekiel
1)
and then the voice he heard (Ezekiel
2
Ezekiel
3).
No Scripture writer ever tried to describe God directly but did so only using
images that the human mind could grasp. Ezekiel's visions of God began with a violent
storm of horrendous wind and fiery lightning, demonstrating God's judgment power
and blazing glory (v. 4). Then came four "living creatures" (vv. 5-14),
undoubtedly cherubs (Ezekiel
9:3;
Ezekiel
10:5-20), which are always symbolic of God's holy presence
and unapproachability, as in their guarding God's glory in the Holy of Holies
(Exodus
25:10-22; Psalms
80:1). Next, beside each cherub was a wheel within a
wheel (vv. 15-21), which seems to picture a chariot-throne that is in motion and
moving toward judgment upon Jerusalem.
Finally, Ezekiel also had a vision (vv. 22-28)
which included a "firmament" (an expanse) over the heads of the cherubs that
dazzled like crystal, "the likeness of a throne," and the "likeness...of a man"
on that throne, undoubtedly the pre-incarnate Son of God. It was then that a
rainbow appeared, "the brightness" of which shown not in the semi-circle of a
normal rainbow, rather "round about" a complete eternal circle all around to
"the likeness of the glory of the LORD" (v. 28). Indeed, Ezekiel saw the rainbow
during the storm, one unlike any other, and in response he "fell upon [his]
face" in humble submission. Let us be reminded during the storms that come that
God is on the throne and we are to submit to all that He is
doing.
Not only do we the rainbow in Scripture after
the storm (Noah) and during the storm (Ezekiel), but we also see it before the
storm, as revealed in the New Testament. Similar to Ezekiel, the apostle John had a
vision of the throne of God in heaven and wrote, "And he that sat [on the
throne] was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a
rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald"
(Revelation
4:3).
Again similar to Ezekiel, John saw a rainbow
encircling God's throne, announcing the completeness and perfection of God.
This multi-colored bow is dominated by a soothing emerald green. As a symbol,
then, of peace and God's faithfulness to His promises, this bow assures John
before the coming horrendous judgments even start that there will be peace when
it is all done.
It is
difficult, indeed, perhaps even impossible, for us today to fully fathom the
solemnity of that moment when the first rainbow appeared. After what Noah and
his family had been through, their first response upon exiting the ark was
worship (Genesis
8:20), praising God for their deliverance from the
incomprehensible destruction that had just occurred. Then God gave His promise
and hung His assuring sign of that promise in the sky. The Rainbow Is a remembrance of
God's power.
Every time we
look at a rainbow, we are to remember the flood. For believers this is
virtually automatic. In remembering the flood, we should remember that in His
sovereign, omnipotent power God destroyed the earth because of sin.
We also
remember God's power to execute wrath and His power to save. As He saved Noah
and his family because they believed and obeyed what He said, He also saves
those today who receive Him as Savior and Lord.
This prompts us also to remember constantly
God's wondrous grace. "Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD"
(Genesis
6:8).
We find the phrase "found grace," in fact, 18 times in the Old Testament. Lot
"found grace" in God (Genesis
19:19), and Moses "found grace" in God
(Exodus
33:12-13). Even in wrath there is mercy and grace, and how
we should rejoice in it! The Rainbow Is a Reminder of God's
Purpose
The appearance
of the rainbow to Noah, Ezekiel, and the apostle John are all powerful reminders
that God always has a purpose, even in and through the storms of life. As He
revealed to the Apostle Paul, "We know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose"
(Romans
8:28). Paul went on in the next two verses to outline
what theologians have called "God's Golden Chain of Salvation": "For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified:
and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
Just as our salvation is by God's sovereign
purpose, all the storms that come our way are also by His sovereign purpose.
Storms come, but Paul assured Timothy, "Yea, and all that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy
3:12), but we can be certain that there is a reason for
it all. Peter reassures us: "That the trial of your faith, being much more
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be
found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom
having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter
1:7-8).
In
Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/e8HgAVenbUU
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