Is There a Rainbow at the End of All This Rain?
Good Morning Friends,
It has been raining for about 24 hours. And I am about ready to come out of my cave and witness a bit of the glorious creation I live in, much like Elijah, but I am wondering what God might want us to learn from the experience of all this persistent precipitation. Is There a Rainbow at the End of All This Rain?
Scripture: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Genesis 9:13 (NRSV)
Like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendor all round. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.
Ezekiel 1:28 (NRSV)
And the one seated there looks like jasper and cornelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.
Revelation 4:3 (NRSV)
And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.
Revelation 10:1 (NRSV)
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
1 Peter 3:20-22 (NRSV)
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell–and great was its fall!”
Matthew 7:24-27 (NRSV)
Message: Oh, it rains here a lot….it is Florida… but this is January and it is supposed to be the dry season. At choir practice last night one of the members who was a little damp around the edges said she was thinking of building an Ark and wondered if I knew of someone who could help. Even before I thought that the church is a kind of ark, before I thought that I found myself saying, “I Know a (Noah) Man.” Then I thought of Jesus. Still as it continues to rain as I write, I think there is a modern echo of the message of the old story of the flood. There has to be a bright side to this story. The story of Noah is straight forward and has a message for us in the rainbow. There are four mentions of rainbows in the Bible. The most well-known is that associated with the flood. Here is the backstory. Mankind had become unbelievably evil… so much so that God was grieved and filled with pain and decided to send a flood to destroy all of mankind. But God found one man named Noah, and his family, who were worth saving. God instructed Noah to build a huge box of a boat called an ark and brought the animals to be saved to Noah. The floods came, the ark rose, and the whole earth was covered with water. Noah and his family stayed on board the ark for the better part of a year, and once they came off the boat God promised He’d never flood the earth again. As I was pondering on the passages in the Bible that referred to flood I concluded that every single one of them spoke of God’s judgment. Every single passage about the flood in Scripture told of man’s sin and God’s condemnation. Every single passage told of evil of man and the destruction brought by God. Every single passage except 1 Peter 3:20-22. And it is about Jesus. Friends, the rainbow is the new covenant. The rainbow is the light of the world broken for us so we might see the splendor of God. Friends, the ark had a door and for us Jesus is the door. Noah covered the ark in pitch and Jesus covers us in the blood of salvation. So too the rainbow is a symbol of God’s faithfulness and mercy. And in the rainbow around the throne, it too is the symbol of hope and the bright emblem of mercy and love, all the more true as a symbol because it is reflected from the storm of life itself that burst forth from the cross to bring the light of life into our lives.
Pray we realize that God can be gentle of firm…patient or powerful when it comes to rain. Pray we realize that the message does not have to be all about droughts or floods or even rains for our crops but more about cleansing. Pray we realize that that the rain will eventually stop but that the light of Jesus…the light of grace will shine through the door. Pray we be rainmakers through Christ. Pray even as the rain falls gently on our homes and that we realize that somewhere someone has a leak that needs to be fixed but if they believe in Jesus somehow it will all work out. Pray we believe that soon the sun will warm our face and the wind will be at our back proclaiming God’s presence in our lives. Pray for showers of…
Blessings,
John Lawson
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