What the Rainbow Means

I've seen a lot of rainbows on Facebook recently,  in light of the Supreme Court decision, and it occurred to me that it is not being used correctly.  It's a symbol, to be sure, but not originally of the LBGT community, and its adoption by that group is simultaneously sinister and a portent of things to come.  I feel like it is my duty to point out what the rainbow stands for and what it certainly does not.

Let me begin with a disclaimer of sorts.  I am a follower of Christ.  I believe the Bible to be the inerrant word of God.  What I mean by “inerrant” is that there are no mistakes in the original manuscripts of the Bible.  It is perfect.  There are differences in certain translations or versions of the Bible today, but its core message has persisted for nearly 5,000 years since its earliest books were authored.  I trust the Bible completely.  I believe everything it says.  I work hard to live according to its commands.  I know that not everyone agrees with this, but I want you, the reader, to know that this is the place I begin, and I won’t argue this point with you.  If, after reading this, you disagree with what I believe because you reject scripture, that is beyond the scope of what I intend to address here.  

Also, let me clearly state that, while the end of this essay will focus on the LBGT community in particular, what I write here applies to all sinners.  I am included.  My struggles against sin don’t fall in the same category as those who fall to homosexual desires, but my sin is just as heinous and would damn me just as surely were it not for the love, grace, mercy, and sacrifice of Christ on my behalf.  

Lastly, as a final preface, let me define what I mean by “sin.”  That word is used widely in Christian circles, but outside of the conversations of those who are familiar with scripture, it has a judgmental tone.  When someone is called a “sinner,” they feel that we, the church, are condemning them.  We are not.  It is only God who judges, God who condemns.  When I use the word “sin,” I mean any action that falls outside of the will of God for our lives.  Scripture has several lists of sins.  Let me nutshell it for you.  If God has told you to do it (positive commands), and you don’t, you sin.  If God  has prohibited it (negative commands), and you do it, you sin.  My sins, which include pride, gluttony, anger, and many others, are just as much of a problem and separate me just as much from a Holy God as those whose sins I will address pointedly at the end of this essay.  We are all sinners, and we all have to deal with that reality before God.

Anyone with any kind of Sunday school or church exposure can identify the first appearance of the rainbow in scripture at the Noahic covenant in Genesis 9, and I'll get to that passage soon, but I want to point out the real origin of the rainbow in Heaven first, to help us better understand the importance of what happens in Genesis 9.

Let's begin in the throne room of Heaven, as described for us in Revelation 4:2-3

"At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald."

The rainbow here is part of the glorious picture of God enthroned in Heaven.  In fact, it is described as being his throne itself.  Picture this, would you?  God's throne is a rainbow.  Now, before you get all Care-Bears in your imagination,  let me assure you that there is nothing soft or cuddly about this image.  Just look at the rest of that paragraph if you need help setting the mood in your mind....

"From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal."

This in not a calm, quiet, the-storm-is-over-so-everyone's-safe-now kind of rainbow.  Not only is the storm still raging, but the thunder and lightning are coming from the throne itself--from the rainbow!  This is an all-out display of the power of God enthroned in the Heavens, and the best that John can do to describe it is to say it's like a terrifying rainbow.

Let's look at another passage before we dive into our main text in Genesis 9.  Consider with me the vision of the pre-incarnate Christ in Ezekiel 1:27-28.

"And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around."

Notice again the feeling of this passage.   Nothing is soft.  Nothing is friendly.  Nothing is safe.  There's fire, molten metal, and terror.  And there is a rainbow.  This time it's a part of Christ's person, or perhaps a garment He wears.  In either case, the rainbow is nothing you'd embroider on the chest of a stuffed bear, unless you wanted the child who received the bear to learn at an early age the fear of a Holy God and the power at His disposal.

One last note before visiting the Noahic passage: in Hebrew, the word is never "rainbow,"  like it is in English.  There is no compound word of that meaning.  It is, like in the Ezekiel passage above, a bow in the sky.  The term "bow" in Hebrew means exactly what it does in English, an object you go to war with.  Something you launch arrows with. Something that is meant to take life.  This goes even further to help us understand that when Jesus wears a rainbow, he isn't, by any means, "gay" (whether by that word you mean happy or effeminate).   He's dressed for war.  He has girded himself for battle.  If this image were to be given to us today, we might describe him as having on camo and carrying a .50cal rifle.  That's what you are supposed to see when you see a rainbow.  It's God's Armory on display.

Understanding this,  then, let's go to Genesis 9,  to the Noahic covenant.

"Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 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.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

God, after annihilating every air-breathing creature on the planet because of the sin of man, declares that He will never flood the whole earth again, and He gives testimony to this pledge by hanging his weapon up.  In modern terminology, He has unloaded his weapon, lowered his gun.  He allows us to see his arsenal, in mothballs, whenever it starts to rain so that we can have confidence that it is not currently pointed at us.  It's like a U.N. weapons inspection.  "Here's the instrument of my wrath.  I'm not holding it right now. It's not going to hurt you today."

Not only is it no longer pointing at you and I, notice where it does point. It points upward,  toward heaven.  Toward God himself.  Picture a Russian team of ICBM inspectors visiting a nuclear silo in Wyoming in the 1990's and not being satisfied that the warheads were removed and the fuel was drained.   Instead, they demand that the targeting software of the missile be reprogrammed to deliver its destruction to our nation's capital or to New York City.  Imagine that we agreed.   Now, should the system ever misfire,  we would annihilate ourselves,  not the enemy.   That is what God has done.   He has made Himself the target for a season.

You see, we live in an age of grace.  2 Corinthians 6:1-2 says:

“Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you,and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

For a while, God has hung His weapon in the sky, pointing at Himself, as a testimony to this age of grace.  When we sin, He does not take the weapon off the pegs and point it at the sinner.  He has pointed it at Himself, at His Son.  Jesus took the wrath of God because of sin.  He will not fire his wrathful arrows at you and I, sinners who deserve to receive His blows.  He instead has already fired them, already spent His wrath against sin upon His Son.  Christ took the blows for our punishment, and “by His stripes, we are healed” (Isa 53).

This season will not last forever, however.  While the love of God is infinite, so is His justice perfect and His holiness uncompromising.  He will again judge sin with His terrible weapons, with his bow.  Read the description of the final judgement in Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and most clearly in Revelation.  God will again take up his weaponry and punish sin.  All the sin that has occurred during this season of grace which has not found its payment in the blood of Christ will again find itself in the way of the wrath of a Holy God.  Don’t be deceived, my brothers and sisters, saying to yourself (as 2 Peter 3 warns us),

“‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

You see, this age of grace will end.  God will again take up His bow and judge sin, and the vehicle of his wrath will come as fire, in the final apocalypse.  There will be a day of reckoning, to be sure, but until that day, God is biding his time, being patient with us, so that there is the greatest opportunity for us to repent of our sin, place the penalty of our sin on Christ crucified for us, and escape that horrible day.  

In various armed conflicts, when a nation wanted to minimize the civilian casualties of war, they would drop leaflets warning the innocent civilians to flee from a military target and save themselves from the coming destruction.  This is what God is doing every time He lets us see His bow in the heavens.  “Be warned!  My weapons are here!  They are pointed at my Son now, but I will take them up again!  Repent and be saved from the coming wrath!”

Before you dismiss this view as just more judgmental hate-mongering by the religious conservatives, hear the mercy in the warning.  God doesn’t owe us a warning.  He doesn’t owe us a chance, and He certainly doesn’t owe us the courtesy of pointing His weapon at Himself.  Yes, this is a militaristic picture, but it is also one that is dripping with grace and mercy.  Also, before you reply with, “Don’t Judge Me!”  or something similar, let me be very clear again, that this is God’s judgement of sin.  That is his weapon to wield, not mine, not the church’s.  Christ alone will judge the living and the dead.

What does it mean, then, when the LBGT community adopts this image as their own?  Certainly, they don’t mean to wrap their sinful lifestyle in the glory and judgement of God, but it is a most sinister move of the adversary to choose the very symbol of God’s delayed judgement for a “lifestyle” of destruction and sin.  Imagine if North Korea were to choose for their national emblem the demilitarized zone keeping them away from American might just a few miles away from their southern border.  How odd would that be?  Or how strange would we think it if Japan were to change their flag to the USS Missouri, the weapon of war upon which they surrendered at the end of WWII, and which currently floats as a museum a few hundred yards out my back window?  The LBGT community is basking in this period of mercy, this cease-fire, this unilateral armistice, and flagrantly sinning while they proclaim, by their choice of symbol, that God will not judge them for it.  

Sadly, they’re only half true.  God is not judging them for it now.  His weapon is still in mothballs, still pointed at His Son.  There will come a time, though, when that changes, and then they will know the terrible folly of their “lifestyle” of sin.  I pray to God that they will repent before it is too late.  

So what does the rainbow mean?  It is a symbol of the terrible righteous power of a Holy God, of His sovereign choice to enter into a period of Grace, of His indescribable love at taking the penalty for our sins on His Son, and a clear warning that there will come a day when sin will again be judged and accounts settled.  Won’t you accept His grace today?  For today is the day of salvation.