The Token!

Genesis 9: 12-17

“And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it; that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth”.

We’ve all seen this token, the bow set in the clouds, the rainbow. I did not always know that it had Biblical significance, most unbelievers do not. The common worldly thought is that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and if you are ‘lucky’, you may find it someday. Some refer to real gold, some refer to your dreams coming true, true love and whatever else the human heart can imagine is in this pot at the end of the rainbow. Isn’t it interesting that most fiction and fables have had their beginning in the Truth of Scripture.

It is a promise from God to preserve the earth eternally and to never again destroy the earth and its inhabitants with the floodwaters. I know that now and I remember that promise when I see a rainbow. God tells us that when He looks upon the rainbow He will remember His promise, what comforting words those must have been to Noah after coming through that great flood and now standing, delivered on dry ground.

I was reminded by a brother that the rainbow covenant is not only a promise to preserve the earth but is a reminder to the elect of eternal salvation in the renewed Earth. The renewed earth spoken of in Revelation 21, the holy city, the New Jerusalem prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The new city where He will dwell with us and be our God and where He will wipe away all tears from our eyes; where there will be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor any pain. I hope to remember all of His promises the next time He blesses me with the rainbow. It is a comforting truth to all believers that every promise of God is a sure pledge and is without fail.