Today we begin with the history and significance of the rainbow.
You’re probably quite familiar with the story of Noah, the worldwide flood, and how the rainbow came to be. That’s all surface gold – placer gold. You’re probably not aware, however, of the fortune in lode gold begging to be mined.
The biblical account, the only reliable account of what transpired, can be found in Genesis chapters 6-9. After Adam and Eve had taken it upon themselves to find out what good and evil was all about, contrary to God’s command, they immediately became corrupted and began to die. Envy and jealousy incited their firstborn son to murder their second son. God allowed the world to continue in the darkness of their sin for perhaps as much as a thousand years without any further commands, allowing man to fully experience the evil he had desired to know, unquestionably demonstrating what corrupted man would become without help.
The Lord witnessed the extreme wickedness of man on the earth. He saw that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was nothing but evil. The whole earth was filled with violence, and God had no intention of dealing with that for the rest of eternity. He was grieved to the point that He was actually sorry He had made man and decided to wipe mankind off the face of the earth.
However, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, and God had grace on him and his family. God told Noah he was going to destroy the earth and all flesh that lived in the air and on the ground, because of man. However, He had Noah build a gigantic ship, sealed inside and out with pitch, having three decks filled with rooms, for the salvation of his family as a remnant of mankind. God also saved male/female pairs of every separate kind of birds, animals, and bugs, so that they, too, could regenerate their populations. Thus, God was both destroying and saving the world at the same time. Before Noah even began building the ark God was already letting him know that afterward He would be establishing a covenant with Noah and his family, and by extension, all their descendants – in other words, all mankind.
Decades and decades later, when Noah had finally finished the ark, and all the remnant of flesh chosen by God to survive had entered the ark as directed by God, the Earth’s crust divided, and all the fountains of the deep burst open, and together with the floodgates of the sky, they flooded the earth. For the first time in the history of the earth rain was falling – torrential rain – for forty days and forty nights. All of mankind except for eight people were either drowned or smashed by earthquakes and massive tsunamis. Life on the face of the earth was wiped out.
Then God remembered Noah and all the life that was with him in the ark. The floodgates of the deep and the floodgates of the skies were closed, and God caused a wind to blow over the waters. As the waters began to subside, the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat in what is modern day Turkey.
After 40 days Noah opened the window the ark and sent out a raven. The floor around until the water was dried up and never came back. Then he sent out a dove, but there was still too much water for the dove the rest, so it returned to the ark. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again. She returned to him with a freshly picked olive leaf in her beak, so Noah knew that water was gone. After having spent a year in the ark, Noah and his family and all the birds, animals, and bugs with them disembarked.
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, “Now behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will 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 never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Genesis 9:8-17 NASB 1995
That’s the end of the historical account of the flood and subsequent covenant with its sign, the rainbow. In the next episode we will dig deeper and get ourselves some lode gold.
Lewis was born the first time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He went to the United States Naval Academy out of high school where he had an Ecclesiastes chapter 2 experience and was born again at the University Of Miami, Florida.
He attended Campus Crusade for Christ’s Institute in Biblical Studies in the summer of 1974, then spent a semester at Biola College where he and wife, LeeAnn, were the first couple to be married at the Talbot Seminary Chapel. They now reside in the Mother Lode country of California where they have raised four beautiful children.
