The rainbow is an interesting choice for those who have tried to make it their banner of late. Is it a Freudian slip or an intentional affront? Either way there is an aspect to it that is quite appropriate.
In the Bible story, the rainbow is the sign given that God will never again destroy the earth with water (Genesis 9:11-17). All of the chapters that cover Noah and the flood are interesting reading; the story is in Genesis 6 through 9. It is hard to imagine what the world was like before this cataclysmic event.
We read of life spans hundreds of years long. The pristine, untouched world, brimming with natural resources. How different would that be from our crowded cities? Genesis 2:6 says, “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” Was the environment completely different than it is today?
A rainbow can be seen when sunlight passes through moisture in the air. The light refracts (changes direction) and is reflected back. The effect is relative to the position you are viewing it from. The bow is visible at a 42 degree angle from your point of view and the double rainbow occurs at 51 degrees. Did God only put these principles into place after the flood or did the conditions on earth change in such a way to allow us to view this phenomenon? We can only speculate on the fundamental, scientific differences that may have been.
One thing that hasn’t changed is human nature. The reasons for the flood are the fundamental problems that have plagued humanity throughout history and will continue to do so until the end. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11).
These are the problems we face today; the same sins that have always incurred God’s wrath. One of the last things we read about Noah is that he was violated by his grandson Canaan (Genesis 9). Canaan’s descendants are those who were driven out of the promised land hundreds of years later after thoroughly corrupting themselves.
Many of those sins were sexual and are explicitly listed in Leviticus 18 as a warning. “None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord” (verse 6). “Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her” (verse 20).
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:” (verses 22-26).
It doesn’t matter if it occurs as overt paganism or is couched in the feel good language of “love” and “acceptance.” God abhors sin. It is an affront against Him and an automatic curse against ourselves. The same is true of all sin. Stealing is wrong even if you fancy yourself striking back at evil corporations. Lies destroy trust, personally and in our institutions.
These standards are permanent, written in stone like the Ten Commandments. They don’t change to suit our whims. Proverbs 18:2 says, “A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” Society is being deceived by exactly that.
We are being told that if you feel a certain way, it is your truth, so embracing and exploring it must be the path to happiness. Ridiculous. How can any moral standard be subject to individual desire? If that were so, there could be no standard of any kind!
Children have to be taught and trained to know what is good for them. Otherwise they would eat candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Does wanting it make it a good idea? The truth –– what is right –– exists outside of our desires. Our challenge is to bring ourselves into alignment with it.
Real truth has become politically incorrect. There are lots of sins to take issue with, but until they dedicate a month to blasphemy or covetousness we’ll have to play the hand we’re dealt. Sodom lent its name to a particular act when a crowd surrounded Lot’s house and demanded, “Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them” (Genesis 19:5).
Like the flood, what happened there is a warning to all generations. “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves” (Isaiah 3:9). That warning was for Jerusalem towards the end of the kingdom period.
Compare it to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Forgiveness is available, but these acts will not be tolerated forever.
The church in Rome was told what would come if they left God and pursued “vain imaginations.”
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet” (Romans 1:26-27). The conclusion is in verse 32, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Can we ignore this affront? The Bible is clear about the reasons for God’s coming wrath (Colossians 3:6, Ephesians 5:6). The rainbow reminds us that God will not flood the earth again, but we should also remember why He took such drastic action.
God takes no pleasure in the sins or the pride of man. Those who disregard His warnings are in for an awful shock some day. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). We would do well to remember that next time it’s fire.
