Rainbows

RAINBOWS



Genesis 9.8-17

In our scripture reading in Deuteronomy this week we read about Moses leading the people of Israel in a renewal of the covenant. (c.29)

This morning we are going back to Genesis, to the first covenant God made. It was just after the flood, Noah and his sons and their wives had come off the ark. God promised that He would never again destroy the earth by water.

Each covenant has a sign:

Old Covenant- circumcision

New Covenant-baptism

Covenant with Noah and his sons- the rainbow

The rainbow is a sign in the sky from God to the earth and it inhabitants.

1. Exactly What are Rainbows?

They are what happens when the sun shines through the rain. The rain acts like a prism and separates the light into different colors.

Let's go back to the first one: Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth." (Genesis 6.6) God destroyed the earth's inhabitants with the flood. People had grown so wicked that God wiped them out. He was grieved that He had created man. But Noah found grace in God's eyes. Noah came out to find everyone he had known save the 7 people on the ark were gone without a trace. Cities were gone. The terrain was different. There were not the birds flying around like before. The animals came out and the earth was starting over in many ways. As wicked as the people were Noah had preached to them. You cannot truly preach to people unless you love them. There was the loss of all theser souls. Like Jeremiah he did not have a single convert.

Rainbows are a symbol of God's love. The Son of God works in our sorrows.

Hallelujah, What a Savior! was written by Philip Bliss

Philip was one of the most prominent hymn writers of the late 1800's He wrote at a time when many hymns were being written. Great moves of God were taking place at that time. The China Inland Mission led by Hudson Taylor was underway. D.L. Moody was going around the world with the Gospel. George Muller was supporting both as well as 10,000 orphans in England. Denominations which formed the evangelical movement were in their seed state.

Bliss worked on a farm growing up and in lumber camps, but eventually he became a music teacher. He sold his first song at age 26 and later worked for a hymn publisher. It was Moody who urged Bliss to become a song evangelist, and so he did beginning in 1874. He wrote Hallelujah What A Savior in 1875. In 1876, while traveling through Ohio, Bliss and his family were involved in a horrible train wreak. He went back into the fiery train to save his wife, bu they both died.

Deuteronomy 29.29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God... Why would this happen to this wonderful write of hymns at age 37, such a young man? I don't know. Yesterday Tim Smuck spoke at the funeral of his 5 week old daughter, Sophie: "My heart is broken, but my faith is not." Bliss hymns are part of the rainbow. Tim's words are as well. Tears shining God's love because the Light is coming through!

2. When are Rainbows Seen?- v.13

Mostly in the evening.

They are seen in the rain (in the storms of life) when the sun peeks through or even fully shines. Beauty comes when God shines through our storms and trials. Bitterness comes when we shut out His light and love.

Psalm 19.1-5- could David have had the rainbow in mind?

The Beauty of the LORD coming t us in our pain.

3. Who Sees Them?

Those who learn to dance in the rain

Those who don't mind getting wet!

Those who look to heaven.

God has Jesus' story in the sky: Creation, His Birth, Ministry, His Death, Ascension and His Return Rainbows remind us that the LORD is faithful to all His Promises.

4. What They Look Like From Heaven.

A ring, an unbroken circle- God looks down from His Throne in love, His Great love, higher than the heavens!

In the storms look for the rainbow!