Rainbow

This week, I have been seeing a lot of rainbow decorations in the news and on social media. They serve as a good reminder of the past and the future.

Genesis 9:13 says, "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth." God had destroyed the entire earth, all land-dwelling, air-breathing animals, and mankind in a worldwide flood. He saved one family, Noah, and representative animal kinds aboard the ark. The rainbow promise was that God would never send such a flood again.

I've seen some people claim that Noah's flood was only a local event and didn't encompass the entire planet. However, if that's the case, then God's promise to never send such a flood again has been broken many times. Just in my lifetime in central Iowa I have seen devastating local floods, including this year. Catastrophic local floods have happened many times in history throughout the world. One in more recent times was caused by Mount St. Helens and carved out a canyon 25% the size of the grand canyon. God promised to never again send a global flood, not local.

In Noah's flood, everyone who was saved had to go through the door of the ark. Jesus compared Himself as a door that if we enter by Him, we will be saved (John 10:9). Peter also said that as the world was once destroyed by the flood, it will again be destroyed, but by fire. It will also be a global judgment, not just a local event.

The rainbows I have seen recently were meant to promote a particular lifestyle choice. However, that was not the rainbow's original sign, and that meaning still holds very true today. No matter what life choices someone has made, they are not beyond God's saving grace. Whether they are lies, theft, adultery, or even murder, they can all be forgiven. Just as their was a judgment during the flood, it will come again for everyone.

I pray that whenever the rainbow is seen, in any context, that it will serve as a reminder of what is to come.