Ferocious Rainbow
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. 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. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
taken from the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC (I wasn’t driving ;)
Rainbows cheer anyone who sees them. They are a sigh of relief that the storm has passed. They give a sense of delight even as you face the clean up or return to the work that was delayed. They contain the A to Z of the color spectrum. They reveal the secret that all seemingly “white” light contains these hues. It’s a gift to anyone who sees one. Don’t be fooled by their delicate charm.
Rainbows symbolize the ferocious love of God. Robert Jenson writes about God’s love for us: “His [God’s] boundless personal investment in his creatures is his most determining characteristic…He is a lover and therefore jealous, for there cannot be an actual lover who is not jealous…our only hope is God’s personal stake in the good he wills for us.”[1] The opposite of love is not hate but indifference. Have you ever had someone pursue you, be super into you? It’s why anyone gets married—on some level you pursued and you were pursued and it was the best feeling ever. You have the rings to prove it. Even if the marriage did not last, it drove you to exchange vows and rings at one point. It’s also the mother who deeply loves her daughter yet hates the addiction that kills her. It’s the friend who stood beside you when your reputation was ruined. The origin of this love, with which any experience of love echoes, is a God who loves you deeply.
“Set me as a seal upon your heart,
As a seal upon your arm,
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy is fierce as the grace.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
The very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can floods drown it” (Song of Solomon 8:6,7).
This poem between bride and groom also describes God’s love for you. He loves you fiercely, jealously through his Son, Jesus. The story of the flood and Noah’s rescue is a preview of the story of God’s love for sinners. His love is a rescuing love that sees the worst we have and redeems it. The rainbow at the end conveys his delight. He saved us from the floods and gave a visual pledge of grace to Noah and you and me. God had brought justice through the most ferocious storm in the history of the world. He had uncovered wrongdoing and no one repented. He shed his multi-colored light on us and exposed that his newborn children were evil. “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” (Genesis 6:5). It’s a crushing diagnosis. Yet it is one we all come to grips with before we encounter grace.
God followed through with his judgment against evil and wickedness. No one “deserved” to survive it, and no one would have except that God chose to save Noah and family. We often say we want “justice,” and we do. Victims want and need justice. Victimizers need to be brought to account. God will bring it in the final judgment. The flood is a foreshadow of it.
We want judgment, and then we don’t. Tim Keller explains the benefits of the final judgment for both traditional and post-modern mindsets. Go read it! And his book! I’d like to continue with the rainbow and the ferocious love of God. If there were no judgment then there would be nihilism. No wrongs would be put right.
The Disney movie, Incredibles 2 argues this. The mother, Elastagirl, says that without laws there would be chaos. Mr. Incredible, her husband and father of their three super-human children, argues back, What if the laws are bad?! She replies, Then make new laws to fix them. The Protestant Reformers talked about the need for order in our sinful world where “every intention of the heart was only evil continually” as the “first use of the Law.” There is civil law to restrain us from being as bad as we possibly could be, to protect us from ourselves, to give a modicum of order. Though it’s only partial and temporary to this broken world. The Haitian refugees will tell you that it’s only partial and temporary…weak in the hands of sinful politicians. Anglicans talk about this when they say to obey the civil magistrates for peace and order (read Article 37 “Of the Power of Civil Magistrates”)… but it will not get you into heaven. It will not save you from the flood. It will not change your heart that is stuck in Genesis 6:5. Only the blood of Christ will and you need to be dragged to him kicking and screaming to get it. Thankfully, that is what the Spirit of God specializes in.
That is what the 2nd use of the Law does: it exposes that you are kicking a screaming against God. If you are already a Christian, it will expose that place in you where you still are. This second use of the Law is far more important than the first. It is absolute and final and always kills any notion of self-righteousness we have. This is what Noah received and the rest of the world did not: the gift of repentance. The 2nd use of the Law is meant to expose our sin, convict us of guilt, and handcuff us until a Savior frees us with his forgiving grace. Certainly, as Noah and his family floated upon the waters of judgment with no other survivors, he was humbled. God had had mercy on him and his family. He was not “better” than anyone else. (Just to make sure we don’t idolize him, his story ends with a window into his sin as he gets blackout drunk after the flood. He too turned to the wrong things to deal with stress (Genesis 9:20-23).) He was saved not because he deserved it, but because God is merciful. “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). God zeroed in on one particular man and family to show what he would do with a host of sinners. The flood shows what sin deserves. God’s holy, good Law handcuffs us in the rain and the storm. It uncovers the selfishness under the good exterior; it shines upon our secret mal-intent. You are truly blessed if you read this story and see your heart with sorrow! The Lord is at work! Just as he did with Noah, the Spirit shoves you into the stinky, wooden ark (of Jesus’ bloody death on the wooden cross) and slams the door (so you won’t leave ;) and you are saved.
This story of the flood is a nugget of the Gospel. Jesus draws many parallels with it and his return at the end of the world and final judgment in Luke 7: 22-33. He says everyone will notice he has returned, as you notice when lightning fills the whole sky (or when a flood fills the earth). There will be those who ignore him just like they did with Noah, yet they will encounter judgement for their sin all the same. The Spirit made Noah, Moses, Luke and other people write this down so that you and I would be among those who would be saved. He convicts us of our need for mercy, of our need for Jesus. The story of Noah plays out the entire story of the Gospel: our sin is uncovered, Jesus rescues us in the ark of his cross, God pledges grace to sinners, and he brings us to a new world of his promise. It foreshadows the final judgment when Jesus comes again to take us out of the ark and into the new heavens, new earth and new bodies forever (Revelation 21). The rainbow then becomes a pledge of grace from above and a cry for one from below. He has exposed our sin and redeemed it from A to Z. He loves you in violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and especially flaming red.
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy is fierce as the grace.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
The very flame of the Lord.
[1] Robert W Jensen, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible: Ezekiel, Grand
Rapids: Brazos, 2009, pg. 63.
Recommended Reading
