# Rainbows



## Ravens (Nov 22, 2006)

I only had the "lights turned on" regarding the truths of covenant theology a year and a half or so. Not Reformed soteriology, for that was earlier. I'm still pondering about how the Noahic covenant fits into it all.

That being said, to make a long story short, if all the covenants are an unfolding of the original promise to Adam and Eve, then can the rainbow be seen, not only as a sign that "God won't flood the earth again", but as a promise of Christ, or, if not that, at least a promise of God's ultimate redemptive purposes for the entire created world that will be achieved through the Seed (e.g. Romans 8)?

That thought would greatly bless me if it turned out to be accurate.


----------



## Ravens (Nov 22, 2006)

Read this last night after posting. Is this a consensus opinion among Reformed theologians?

Witsius, Vol. 2, pg. 241:



> 2dly. But then, as this covenant presupposed, and in its universality, implied the covenant of grace, we are not to deny, but the promises of it were also sealed to believers by the rainbow. Hence John mentions a rainbow, Rev. iv. 3. and x. 1. which he saw _round about the throne and the head of Christ:_ "That we may acknowledge," says Rivet, Exercit. 60. in Genesin, "that Christ's throne is encompassed with mercy, and that he shews it on his countenance, whenever he manifests himself. But especially, that in his face we have that rainbow, by which we are assured, not only that the waters shall no more overflow the whole earth; but especially, that we are not to be afraid of the deluge of divine wrath, seeing Christ has reconciled the Father, so that while God beholds him, he remembers his mercy and his promises, which in him are yea and amen. Christ therefore appears crowned with a rainbow, as the messenger of grace and peace." For he is "the prince of peace, and our peace," Isa. ix. 6. Eph. ii. 14.


----------



## ChristopherPaul (Nov 22, 2006)

I think so Joshua.

Men are evil and deserve the wrath of God, but the rainbow was as sign of the grace of God in that, He will preserve the wicked world from His global wrath in order for Eve's seed to suffer God's wrath once and for all.

God is promising to not destroy the world before He saves His people.


----------



## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 22, 2006)

John Gill says:



> Genesis 9:9
> 
> Ver. 9. And _, behold,  establish my covenant with you,.... Not the covenant of grace in Christ, but of the preservation of the creatures in common, a promise that they should not be destroyed any more by a flood; to which promise it seems an oath was annexed, as appears from Isa 54:9 which passage refers to this covenant, as Aben Ezra on the place observes; and both to raise attention to what is here affirmed, and to show the certainty of it, the word "behold" is prefixed to it; nor is it amiss what Jarchi observes, that this follows upon the direction and exhortation to procreation of children, and is an encouragement to it; since it is assured that posterity should be no more cut off in the manner it had been; for this covenant was made and established not only with Noah, and his sons, but with all their succeeding offspring, as follows:
> 
> and with your seed after you; with all their posterity to the end of the world; so that this covenant was made with all the world, and all the individuals in it, from Noah's time to the end of it; for from him and his sons sprung the whole race of men that peopled the world, and still continue to inhabit it; hence here is nothing in it peculiar to the seed of believers._


_

but Matthew Henry says:




Articles of agreement among men are usually sealed, that the covenants may be the more solemn, and the performances of the covenants the more sure, to mutual satisfaction. God therefore, being willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his councils, has confirmed his covenant by a seal (Heb. vi. 17), which makes the foundations we build on stand sure, 2 Tim. ii. 19. The seal of this covenant of nature was natural enough; it was the rainbow, which, it is likely, was seen in the clouds before, when second causes concurred, but was never a seal of the covenant till now that it was made so by a divine institution. Now, concerning this seal of the covenant, observe, 1. This seal is affixed with repeated assurances of the truth of that promise of which it was designed to be the ratification: I do set my bow in the cloud (v. 13); it shall be seen in the cloud (v. 14), that the eye may affect the heart and confirm the faith; and it shall be the token of the covenant (v. 12, 13), and I will remember my covenant, that the waters shall no more become a flood, v. 15. Nay, as if the Eternal Mind needed a memorandum, I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant, v. 16. Thus here is line upon line, that we might have sure and strong consolation who have laid hold of this hope. 2. The rainbow appears when the clouds are most disposed to wet, and returns after the rain; when we have most reason to fear the rain prevailing, then God shows this seal of the promise that it shall not prevail. Thus God obviates our fears with such encouragements as are both suitable and seasonable. 3. The thicker the cloud the brighter the bow in the cloud. Thus, as threatening afflictions abound, encouraging consolations much more abound, 2 Cor. i. 5. 4. The rainbow appears when one part of the sky is clear, which intimates mercy remembered in the midst of wrath; and the clouds are hemmed as it were with the rainbow, that they may not overspread the heavens, for the bow is coloured rain or the edges of a cloud gilded. 5. The rainbow is the reflection of the beams of the sun, which intimates that all the glory and significancy of the seals of the covenant are derived from Christ the Sun of righteousness, who is also described with a rainbow about his throne (Rev. iv. 3), and a rainbow upon his head (Rev. x. 1), which intimates, not only his majesty, but his mediatorship. 6. The rainbow has fiery colours in it, to signify that though God will not again drown the world, yet, when the mystery of God shall be finished, the world shall be consumed by fire. 7. A bow bespeaks terror, but this bow has neither string nor arrow, as the bow ordained against the persecutors has (Ps. vii. 12, 13), and a bow alone will do little execution. It is a bow, but it is directed upwards, not towards the earth; for the seals of the covenant were intended to comfort, not to terrify. 8. As God looks upon the bow, that he may remember the covenant, so should we, that we also may be ever mindful of the covenant, with faith and thankfulness.

Click to expand...


and Franz Delitzsch says:




To give Noah and his sons a firm assurance of the prosperous continuance of the human race, God condescended to establish a covenant with them and their descendants, and to confirm this covenant by a visible sign for all generations. bªriyt (OT:1285) heeqiym (OT:6965) is not equivalent to bªriyt (OT:1285) kaarat (OT:3772); it does not denote the formal conclusion of an actual covenant, but the "setting up of a covenant," or the giving of a promise possessing the nature of a covenant. In summing up the animals in v. 10, the prepositions are accumulated: first bª embracing the whole, then the partitive min (OT:4480) restricting the enumeration to those which went out of the ark, and lastly lª , "with regard to," extending it again to every individual. There was a correspondence between the covenant (v. 11) and the sign which was to keep it before the sight of men (v. 12): "I give (set) My bow in the cloud" (v. 13).

When God gathers ( `aanan (OT:6049) v. 14, lit., clouds) clouds over the earth, "the bow shall be seen in the cloud," and that not for man only, but for God also, who will look at the bow, "to remember His everlasting covenant." An "everlasting covenant" is a covenant "for perpetual generations," i.e., one which shall extend to all ages, even to the end of the world. The fact that God Himself would look at the bow and remember His covenant, was "a glorious and living expression of the great truth, that God's covenant signs, in which He has put His promises, are real vehicles of His grace, that they have power and essential worth not only with men, but also before God" ( O. v. Gerlach ). The establishment of the rainbow as a covenant sign of the promise that there should be no flood again, presupposes that it appeared then for the first time in the vault and clouds of heaven. From this it may be inferred, not that it did not rain before the flood, which could hardly be reconciled with Gen 2:5, but that the atmosphere was differently constituted; a supposition in perfect harmony with the facts of natural history, which point to differences in the climate of the earth's surface before and after the flood.

The fact that the rainbow, that "coloured splendour thrown by the bursting forth of the sun upon the departing clouds," is the result of the reciprocal action of light, and air, and water, is no disproof of the origin and design recorded here. For the laws of nature are ordained by God, and have their ultimate ground and purpose in the divine plan of the universe which links together both nature and grace. "Springing as it does from the effect of the sun upon the dark mass of clouds, it typifies the readiness of the heavenly to pervade the earthly; spread out as it is between heaven and earth, it proclaims peace between God and man; and whilst spanning the whole horizon, it teaches the all-embracing universality of the covenant of grace" ( Delitzsch ).

Click to expand...


and Charles Spurgeon says:




Leaving, however, all those points, which I have only started to excite thought among you, we come to this. We have scriptural reason for asserting, that this venerable covenant, that the world shall no more be destroyed by a flood, is typical of a yet more ancient compact, which God made with Christ, that he would be unto his people a God, and they should be his chosen ones, world without end. In the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah we find such language as this: “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee; neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” The covenant of Noah, then, is typical of the great covenant made with Christ on the behalf of his people; and the rainbow, as the symbol of the covenant with Noah, is typical of our Lord Jesus, who is the Lord’s witness to the people. You read in the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation, in the third verse, “there was a rainbow round about the throne;” showing that the bow is not a temporary symbol for earth only, but is a symbol of everlasting and heavenly things; and in the tenth chapter of the book of Revelation, if I mistake not, in the first verse, you will find that the mighty angel with the book in his right hand, who shall put one foot upon the sea, and another upon the land, is described as having his head crowned with a rainbow. In this place our Lord Jesus Christ, in his mediatorial capacity, wears the symbol of the covenant about his brow; and in the other passage our Lord, as King, is represented as sitting upon the throne, surrounded with the insignia of the covenant of grace which encompasses the throne, so that there are no goings forth of his majesty and his power and his grace, except in a covenant way and after a covenant sort, since the rainbow must be passed, before the bright rays of his power and love can reach the sons of men.

Click to expand...

_


----------



## Robin (Nov 23, 2006)

Ever wonder why the rainbow looks the way it does? A warrior's drawn bow aimed upward towards God. It is a sign of the self-malidictory oath God vows in Genesis 15 to Abraham.

See Michael Horton's book: "God of Promise"

 

Robin


----------

