Sunday, July 26, 2015

What the Rainbow Really Means

Here is an essay I wrote for English.
 
What the Rainbow Really Means
 
Who isn't familiar with the arc of colorful bands known as a rainbow? Throughout history, this bow has stood for something. Its colors are often portrayed on a flag as a symbol of a particular political or cultural idea. Along with the peasant's boot, such a flag signified a new beginning of hope and social change in Germany during the German Peasants' War in the sixteenth century.[1]  Created in the 1920s, the rainbow flag known as the Wiphala quispemanta has represented freedom in South American countries such as Peru and Ecuador.[2] Five decades later, the colors of this wonderful bow were seen once again waving in the wind as homosexuals fought for equality with heterosexuals.[3]  June 2015 brought an abundance of rainbow paraphernalia as a result of the Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage is constitutional.[4] The rainbow has become a very common sight; for all its prominence, however, people have virtually forgotten what the rainbow really means.
The first book of the Bible reveals the origin of the rainbow. We read in Genesis that men eventually became so unlike God in character that everyone, except a man named Noah and perhaps his family, was altogether evil. They were so evil, in fact, that God had no choice but to destroy the world with a universal flood. He commanded Noah to build and ark in preparation for that day, and told him to seek to have as many people to go in with him as he could. Noah faithfully labored on the ark for one hundred twenty years, while entreating people to heed the divine warning; but because the idea of rain, let alone a flood, was foreign to the world at that time, almost everyone mocked him and thought he was strange. When those years were over, and the construction of the ark completed, the message of mercy sounded no more. Since no one else had listened, Noah and his family as well as the animals, boarded the ark. The door was shut, and the deluge began, killing everything and everyone else.[5]
  In the eighth chapter of Genesis, we read of Noah leaving the ark at the end of the Flood and offering a sacrifice to God. This sacrifice was a "sweet savour" to the LORD, and He decided that the ground would not be cursed again due to man's ever-rebellious nature, and that seedtime and harvest would continue while the earth remained.[6] After giving instructions to Noah and his sons on how to live,[7] God said: "And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.[8]
In His mercy, our Maker declared that He would never again destroy the whole planet by water. More than that, He made a covenant, or an agreement, with our world on this point.[9] So that no one would doubt His Word, He gave us a sign, or token, that it was indeed true. "And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth."[10] The phrase "in the cloud" surely denotes the rainbow. In Ezekiel 1:28, speaking of the "brightness round about" God's throne, the prophet states that it is "as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain." Instead of declaring that sin is all right, as the world likes to think, clearly the rainbow is there to remind us of God's judgment against sin and of His love and grace for humanity.
Our subject is not mentioned in the Old Testament only. The book of Revelation in the New Testament also speaks of it. Chapter four verse three is particularly noteworthy. When he described the throne of God, John the apostle wrote: "And He that sat 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." It was not by accident that John employed the emerald to convey his point.
Colors often mean different things in the Bible. Generally, the color of an emerald is green. Green is a combination of the colors blue and yellow. Numbers 15 gives us an indication as to what blue refers to. God told Moses to instruct the children of Israel to "make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them."[11] In other words, blue stands for the law of God. In Psalm 68:13, we find the expression "yellow gold." Searching for more references for gold, we find that Jesus counsels us to buy "gold tried in the fire" from Him.[12] Peter tells us what this signifies: "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."[13] It signifies faith. The law of God and faith in Him are parts of the foundation of His kingdom, and they are blended together in the green of the bow of Revelation four. The apostle Paul explains how the two fit together. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."[14] It is faith, "faith which worketh by love"[15] that enables us to keep the law.
Far from referring to one of the sins that demanded the Flood, or anything else man decides upon, the rainbow points us back to the results of such transgression—and simultaneously to God's love and mercy, and His promises. As we look at the rainbow, we should remember that the earth is still here—God has kept His Word concerning the earth; and He will fulfill His other promises to us if we will but trust and obey Him. Yes; if we do this, we may "be partakers of the divine nature"[16] and overcome every defilement—even homosexuality. Faithful is He that has promised. This is the real meaning of the rainbow.





[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag.
[3] Ibid.
[4] (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/supreme-court-gay-marriage/).
[5] (Genesis 1-7).
[6] (Genesis 8:20-22).
[7] (Genesis 9:1-7).
[8] (Genesis 9:8-11).
[9] (Genesis 9:11).
[10] (Genesis 9:12-13).
[11] (Numbers 15:38-39).
[12] (Revelation 3:18).
[13] (1 Peter 1:7, emphasis added).
[14] (Romans 3:31).
[15] (Galatians 5:6).
[16] (2 Peter 2:14).

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