In the first episode we saw the origin of the rainbow, rooted in its purpose as a perpetual sign from God of the covenant that he made with the entire earth, but most importantly man, that never again would He destroy all flesh with a flood of water.
It almost sounds like God was hedging His bet a little bit, qualifying His promise. But if you think that’s strange, think about this: not once did He use the word “rainbow.” The way he worded it was, “I set My bow in the cloud.”
Two questions are in order here: 1.) Why did He say, “bow” and not “rainbow?”; and 2.) What did He mean by “My bow?” As with puzzle pieces, once we get those two it won’t be as hard to answer the third question which presents itself: why did He put His bow in the cloud?
The answer to the first question can be found in Young’s Analytical Concordance. In the Old Testament there is only one word for bow and that is the one used in Genesis 9, the Hebrew word qesheth. It occurs 68 times, and every time it is used it is referring to an archer’s bow. Of those 68 times, only once is the bow being used for hunting. All 67 other times it is a weapon of war. That helps a little bit with question number two, why did God call it His bow? least we know that this point that those two pieces put together mean that He used His weapon of war as the sign of the covenant.
Before we answer the third question we probably ought to answer the new question that has now sprung up: what war? What war is God fighting? If we have even done a cursory study of the word we know that there is a huge spiritual war for our souls. There is war between God and sin, and it is serious. God has been waging a war against sin that only He can win, and He has won. If we look at the Flood on a deeper level, we realize the main characteristic shared by both flood of water in the flood of sin brought universal death to mankind. That placed God in a position of waging war not only on sin but on death itself. You may recall, He won that one.
So, what is His bow, then? What is His weapon of choice in the war on sin and death?
We know from our own experience observing rainbows that there are three things we immediately notice about God’s bow: 1.) It is beautifully multicolored. It contains the complete spectrum of light except for the two extremes—ultraviolet and infrared; 2.) the bow appears to be bent as if it were ready to shoot; and 3.) it is aimed straight up into the heavens.
And we now know from science that light is the unity of all those colors. God Himself is a unity. John 1:5 tells us that God is light, and Psalm 27:1 tells us that “Yahweh (God’s personal name) is my strength and my salvation.” So, we’re already beginning to see that this beautiful bent bow that is God’s weapon of choice is actually God Himself, our salvation.
But what about the beauty? What does that tell us? Well, that’s a story in itself, so stay tuned for the next episode of “Rainbows.”
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.
