Thursday's Thoughts: The Covenant Of The Rainbow

I have set My rainbow in the clouds and it will be a sign
of the covenant between Me and the earth."
(Genesis 9:13)

The Promise Of God

Randy Burns

Fine Art America

"As the old world was ruined, to be a monument of justice,
so the world remains to this day a monument of mercy. 

But sin...that drowned the old world... will burn this..."
-Matthew Henry's commentary

As the prophet Isaiah attested of this future time for the earth:

"For the Lord is indignant against all nations, and His wrath
is against all their host.  He has utterly doomed them. He
has given them over to the slaughter.   All the host of heavens
shall be dissolved and crumble away, and the skies shall be
rolled together like a scroll; and all their host, the stars and
the planets, shall drop like a faded leaf from the vine, 
 and like a withered fig from a fig tree."
(Isaiah 34: 2,4 )

In his second letter the apostle Peter reminded believers:

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens
will vanish with a thunderous crash and the material elements of
the universe will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the
works that are upon it will be burned up."
(II Peter3:10)

In exile on Patmos, the Apostle John further confirmed this future time...

"And the stars of the sky dropped to earth like a fig tree shedding
 its unripe fruit out of season when shaken by a strong wind.
And the sky rolled up like a scroll and vanished and every mountain
and island was dislodged from its place."
(Revelation 6:13-14)

Continuing with Matthew Henry's commentary...

"The seal of this covenant was the rainbow, which, it is likely, was seen in the
clouds before, but was never a seal of the covenant till now it was made so.
The rainbow appears when we have most reason to fear the rain prevailing;
God then shows this seal of the promise, that it shall not prevail.

The thicker the cloud, the brighter the bow in the cloud.  Thus, as threatening
afflictions abound, encouraging consolations much more abound.  The rainbow
is the reflection of the beams of the sun shining upon or through the drops
of rain: all the glory of the seals of the covenant are derived from Christ,
the Sun of Righteousness.

And He will shed glory on the tears of His saints.  A bow speaks of terror,
but this has neither string nor arrow, and a bow alone will do little hurt.
It is a bow, but it is directed upward, not toward the earth, for the seals
of the covenant were intended to comfort, not to terrify.

As God looks upon the bow, that He may remember the covenant,
so should we, that we may be mindful of the covenant with faith
and thankfulness.  Without revelation this gracious assurance 
could not be known, and without faith it can be of no use to us..."
-Matthew Henry Commentary

Image courtesy/ Farmer's Almanac

"But unto you who revere and worshipfully fear My name shall the
 Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings and His beams,
and you shall go forth and gambol like calves
released from the stall and leap for joy."
(Malachi 4:2)