“The rainbow shall be seen in the cloud” (Genesis 9:14)

After God destroyed everything that had breath, except Noah’s family, He made a covenant: “It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow 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; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:14-15).

The rainbow can be seen as a symbol of God’s greatest mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ. When do we see the symbol? The rainbow is seen in a sky with clouds. When does a sinner look to Christ? When he remembers his sins, and his conscience is filled with dark clouds.

Christ said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-16), “and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).

God's rainbow comes after the clouds of our sorrows and the rain of God’s judgment. But until there’s real anguish in his conscience, the sinner won’t look to Christ. When the chastisement he feels becomes too much to bear, it’s then, by the grace of God, he looks to the rainbow with faith. What’s left of the rain is turned into a magnificent prism of many colors, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Beloved, our God, who is as the sun to us, always shines, but we don’t always see Him - clouds hide His face; but no matter what drops may be falling, or what clouds may be threatening, if He shines, there’ll be a rainbow soon. It’s said that when we see the rainbow, the shower is over. When we look to Jesus, our sins vanish, and our doubts and fears subside.