The Rainbow: a Blessing, or a Curse?
Click the pic to see our mini-vacation photos! In 1 week we visited 7 friends and relatives in 5 cities in 4 states who have disabilities. My wife Cheryl is a good counselor and comforter to these people. Altogether, we drove 1,550 miles in 7 days. As we were approaching our home in Pittsburgh, we were treated to a double rainbow, the brightest one shining right over the area where we live. It was a real blessing!
As you know, the first appearance of a rainbow recorded in the Bible was after Noah and his family survived the Great Flood. In Genesis 9:12 & 15 we read – "And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature with you, for everlasting generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth . . . and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.'"
But as you also know, symbols of God's goodness and mercy can sometimes be distorted into just the opposite: when the Israelites in the wilderness grumbled against Moses – "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this disgusting bread", God sent serpents to bite them. When they repented, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, and "if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the serpent of brass, he lived" (Genesis 21:5-9).
So Israel kept the bronze serpent and it passed down from generation to generation. But in 2 Kings 18:4 we read that when Hezekiah became king – "he cut down the poles of Asherah worship and demolished the bronze serpent which Moses had made, for up to those days the Israelites were offering incense to it and called it Nehushtan." They made this life-saving bronze serpent into an idol and used it in their sex orgies that were part of Asherah worship. It's interesting that in the Bible idolatry is almost always linked with sexual sins.
In the same way, the rainbow that was a symbol of God's mercy has become a symbol of sexual sins: lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgenders all claim the rainbow as their symbol. This transmutation of symbols, meanings, and values is common throughout history. The Israelites had holy days for harvest time, but rather than worshiping God they turned away from holiness to wickedness –
"Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and grew rich. They have grown fat, they shine: yes, they surpass in deeds of wickedness; they don't plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy they don't judge. Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? An awesome and horrible thing is happening in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end of it?" (Jeremiah 5:24-31).
Notice here that some people use deceit to become great and rich – embezzlement, and it involved the religious leaders, the prophets. And the "people love to have it so." People often play religious games, "play church," thinking that their religious jargon, costumes, symbols, and rituals will somehow earn God's favor. Meanwhile, they practice deceit, embezzlement, and extortion... especially the religious leaders who know how to misuse these religious symbols in order to manipulate and deceive, become great, and grow rich.
How long will we have to put up with this? "God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods. 'How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?' Selah. 'Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked'" (Psalm 82:1-4). God presides, He rules over all. He will call to account all those phony religious leaders who extort, embezzle, and commit adultery. But here's what the Lord requires –
"Thus says the Lord, Keep justice, and do righteousness; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, the Lord will surely separate me from his people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord of the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant: To them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah. 56:1-5).
The eunuch is one who is celebate, or should be. Such people sometimes wish to break their celibacy and they fall into sin. Those who fall will have their names in ignominy. But those who remain pure will be memorialized with "a name better than of sons and of daughters."
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