CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 9:9. My covenant] Usually means a compact made between two parties, delivered in solemn form, and requiring mutual engagements. As employed in Scripture, from the nature of the case, it must also be extended to mean God’s promise by which He binds Himself to His creatures without terms, absolutely (Jeremiah 33:20; Exodus 34:10). Gesenius derives the term from the verb “to cut,” as it is a Hebrew phrase “to cut a covenant,” and it was customary for the purpose of ratifying such to divide an animal into parts. Others derive it from the verb “to eat together,” thus explaining the phrase “covenant of salt.” By others it is referred to purifying (Malachi 3:2).—
Genesis 9:13. I do set] Heb. “I give—constitute—appoint.”—My bow] This implies that the bow previously existed, but was now appointed as the sign of the covenant. It was already a symbol of constancy in nature. The rainbow is used in Scripture as the symbol of grace returning after wrath (Ezekiel 1:27-28; Revelation 4:3; Revelation 10:1).—Token]. Some appointed object put before two parties for the purpose of causing them mutually to remember (Genesis 31:48; Genesis 31:52).
Genesis 9:14. When I bring a cloud] Heb. “In clouding a cloud,” denoting intensity. A probable reference to the violent showers of the eastern world, issuing from thickly congregated clouds; on which dark ground the rainbow would appear.—
Genesis 9:16. The everlasting covenant] Heb. “The covenant of eternity.”—
Genesis 9:17. Token of the covenant] The Hebrew word is not used of miraculous signs. Any permanent object would serve. A memorial was all that was required.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— Genesis 9:8-17
GOD’S COVENANT WITH THE NEW HUMANITY
God makes a covenant with Noah as the head of the new race, and also with his sons, to show that it includes the whole human family. This is the first covenant made with mankind in distinct terms; that made with Adam being implied, rather than formally indicated, by the relationship in which he stood to God. Now, a terrible Divine judgment upon human sin had intervened, so that God’s dealings with man expressed themselves with suitable enlargements and circumstances. The moral necessities of man call for fresh revelations and provisions of Divine mercy. God meets man in an especial manner at every great moral crisis of human history. Of this covenant we may observe:—
I. It was a covenant originating with God Himself. The usual meaning of a covenant is that it is a compact entered into by two parties, with engagements on both sides, and ratified in solemn form. But here it signifies God’s gracious promises to men, whereby He engages to grant them certain blessings on His own terms. While He is gracious towards sinners, God retains His prerogatives, and magnifies His glory. This covenant was not made at man’s suggestion, nor accommodated to his terms. It was originated and framed by God alone.
1. Men have no right to dictate to God. He cannot deal with men on precisely the same terms on which men can deal with one another. The creature belongs to God, and must be content to receive whatever His goodness pleases to bestow. The case is still stronger when the creature has fallen, and can only stand in the position of a suppliant for mercy. When angels bow in silence, sinners must lie humbled in the dust.
2. God reserves the power to bestow goodness. Men are absolutely helpless in those things which concern their real life and supreme interest. They must perish in the consequences of their own sin, unless God interferes and stretches forth His hand to save. Man learns, sooner or later, that the great issues of his life are in the hands of God. This oppression of inability is intended to tame the wildness and presumption of man’s nature, and to cast him entirely upon God.
3. The character of God leads us to expect the advances of His goodness towards men. Power by itself is a terrible attribute; admirable, but alarming. But power, when engaged on the side of mercy and love, gives encouragement and hope. The forces of nature impress us with a crushing sense of power, and the only refuge we have is in that infinite heart of goodness which lies behind them. From what we know of God’s character, we may expect much from the gifts of His goodness. We may also, from His past dealings with the race, learn to trust His mercy. He had spared these eight souls, and this was a pledge that He would still be gracious, and that the resources of His mercy would not be overtasked by human sin.
4. When God enters into covenant with His creatures He binds Himself. God is infinite, yet for the sake of His creatures He condescends to bind Himself to certain courses of action. This He does, not as constrained by necessity or moved by caprice, but of His own free will and by the direction of His infinite reason. Creation itself was a limitation of God; it cannot all express His greatness or His glory, for God must be greater than all He has made or ordained. As the will of man can be limited by his determination, so God’s design to bless and save imposes in its measure a restriction upon Himself. Thus God suffers Himself to contract duties towards man. This bears upon
(1.) The creation of rights in His creatures. If God did not thus limit Himself, His creatures could have no rights, for they can enjoy no good but as He gives; and this is determined by His pleasure, and His pleasure binds Him when once expressed. God allows His creatures to have rights, which is in effect the passing over to them a portion of His own independence.
(2.) The possibility of man’s sin being borne with. God, in a moment, could silence all rebellion, but He gives promises which bind Him to delay punishment, or to devise means for restoration to His favour. Thus when the highest justice might take its course, He still bears with man’s sin; for He has determined that His dealings shall take the course of mercy.
3. The preservation of general laws for the benefit of men. The laws of nature preserve certain rights of man, ensure his safety, and minister to his enjoyment. The laws of the spiritual world concern him as he is a responsible creature and a candidate for immortality. If he will conform to the will of God these will further and secure his most lasting interests. Yet in ordaining these laws God binds Himself towards His creatures. How gracious is the purpose of God when He thus suffers Himself to be limited by the measures of man’s necessity!
II. It was a Covenant of Forbearance (Genesis 9:11; Genesis 9:15). This covenant was simply a promise that God would not destroy the world of His creatures any more by means of a flood. He would not, until the consummation of all things, visit sin again by such an universal calamity of punishment. Here we have the forbearance of God. Severe judgments had been inflicted upon mankind, and now God promises the new race that His patience will not be exhausted while man remains upon the earth.
1. This was an act of pure grace. It has been said that man in Eden was under the covenant of works. This is not true, for no creature could be placed strictly in such a condition. Man was always under the covenant of grace; for whatever he possessed, or whatever he was permitted to do or enjoy, was possible to him only through the favour of God. The sin of man calls for fresh provisions, but they all come from grace. The forbearance of God is one particular form which His grace assumes toward mankind.
2. Human history is a long comment upon the forbearance of God (Romans 3:26; Acts 14:15). In the history of mankind, how much would arise to provoke continually the Divine displeasure! Yet, God would withhold Himself from destroying mankind as He did by the flood. His judgments, however severe, would not reach this awful limit. The contemplation of the sin of the world is a pain and distress to a good man, often awakening a holy zeal which prays that God might arise and scatter His enemies, that He might avenge the wrongs which sinners have inflicted upon the meek of the earth. Yet man’s knowledge of the world’s evil is limited, and therefore his sense of it imperfect. How much indignation against sin must a holy God feel who sees the iniquity of all times and places, and knows all the dark things of the heart and life! If history reveals the sin of man, it also reveals the forbearance of God.
3. This forbearance of God was unconditional. It was not a command relating to conduct, but a statement of God’s gracious will towards mankind. This is evident from the subjects of it, some of whom are irresponsible and unconscious of any relations to God. Not only men capable of exercising reason, but infants also, and even the earth itself are included in this covenant. Still, though unconditional, God’s gracious dealings were intended to evoke piety and devotion.
3. This forbearance throws some light upon the permission of evil. We ask, why does God permit evil to exert its terrible power through all ages? Our only answer is that His mercy triumphs over judgment. God bound Himself by a promise to continue the present course of nature and of His dealings, notwithstanding the persistence and awful developments of human sin. This indicates a leaning in the Divine Nature towards tenderness and compassion. Evil is permitted that greater good might arise, and that God might magnify His mercy. God’s forbearance has a moral end in view—to lead men to repentance. It is His gracious purpose to allow sufficient time for the maintenance and issues of the conflict between good and evil, truth and error.
III. It was a covenant which, in the form and sign of it, was graciously adapted to man’s condition. Man was weak and helpless, his sense of spiritual things blunted and impaired by sin. He was not able to appreciate Divine truth in its pure and native form. God must speak to him by signs and symbols, and encourage him by promises of temporal blessing. In this way alone he can rise from sensible things to spiritual, and from earthly good to the enduring treasures of heaven. In the form and sign of this covenant, we discover the Divine condescension to a creature of narrow range, materialised ideas, and a gross way of thinking. The great God speaks in human language, as if limiting Himself by man’s weakness and ignorance. He allows men to conceive of Him in the forms and limitations of their own thought and being. We must thus think of God, in a greater or less degree, until “that which is perfect is come.” In the education of mankind the spiritual must come last. God accommodates Himself to man’s condition, and deals with him in ways having reserves of meaning, which they give up to him as he is able to receive.
1. The terms of the covenant refer to the averting of temporal punishment, but suggest the promise of higher things. The determination that the earth should be no more destroyed by a flood showed a tendency in the Divine mercy, from which greater things might be hoped. It seemed to encourage the expectation that God would be ready to save men from a more awful doom, and swallow up the worst penalties of sin in His own love. It may reconcile us to the permission of evil, that there are remedies in the grace of God. The human race was not now ripe for the full revelation of God’s mercy. It was necessary, therefore, to give mankind such a sense of it as they could feel and understand. By a long and weary journey must they be led to this promised land.
2. The sign of the covenant was outward, but full of deep and precious meaning. Covenants were certified by signs or tokens, such as a heap or pillar, or a gift (Genesis 31:52; Genesis 21:30). The starry night was the sign of the promise to Abraham (Genesis 15). Here, the sign of the covenant was the rainbow; a sign beautiful in itself, calculated to attract attention, and most fitting to teach the fact of God’s constancy, and to encourage the largest hopes from His love. All this was an education for man, so that he might adore and hope for the Divine mercy.
1. Mankind were to be educated through the beautiful. From the works of nature, men could learn lessons of the faithfulness and constancy of God; but there are certain features of His character which can only be learned through beauty. He who is perfect and holy is full of loveliness, and whatever is beautiful helps us to rise to the thought of it. Something more is necessary than the bare knowledge of spiritual truth, the soul must be filled with admiration and delight. The sense of beauty helps a man to rise out of himself, lifts him from all that is mean and unworthy, and prepares him for the scenes of grander worlds. He learns to look upon sin as a deformity, and upon God as beauty and love itself. The loveliness around us is so much of heaven on earth, as if that other world did not merely touch, but even overlap this. The beauty of the rainbow helped men to thoughts of heaven.
2. Mankind were to be taught the symbolic meaning of nature. All nature is a mighty parable of spiritual truth. Man puts meaning into things around him, and as his mind enlarges and his heart improves they give forth their meaning more plentifully, and strengthen his expectation of better things. They impart instruction, consolation, and hope, according to the soul which receives. It is scarcely a figure of speech that all things arise and praise God, for they embody His ideas, represent His truth, and show forth His glory.
3. Mankind were to be taught that God is greater than nature. The creature, however beautiful, or capable of inspiring awe and grandeur, must not be deified. This was God’s bow, not Himself. God is separate from nature, and greater than it; a living personality above all things created. If we could pursue nature to its furthest verge, we should find that we could not thus enclose and limit God; He would still retire into the habitation of eternity!
(4.) Mankind were to be taught to recognise a presiding mind in all the phenomena of nature. “My bow.” God calls it His own, as designed and appointed by Him. It can, indeed, be accounted for by natural causes. Science can explain how these seven rich and radiant stripes of colour are painted on the waters of the sky. Yet these laws of nature are but another name for the regular working of an Infinite Mind. God still upholds and guides all things; the numbers, weights, and measures whereof are with Him. There is no resting place for our mind and heart in second causes; we must come at last to a spiritual and intellectual subsistence—to a living personality. Nature without this view becomes a ruthless machine.
(5.) Man was to be assured that the mercy of God is equal to his extremity. He will remember men for good in their greatest calamities and dangers. “I will look upon it that I may remember.” Such words are accommodated to our ignorance and weakness, for the Infinite Memory has no need for such expedients. Such a device is out of tender consideration for us. Yet we may suppose that there is a sense in which God may be said to remember some things as standing out from the rest. He remembers the acts and signs of faith, the deeds of love. Not even a cup of cold water given in the name of His beloved Son can escape recognition. He who provides for all worlds, and sustains the mighty cares and interests of them, can yet stoop to the lowly, and puts the tears of His persecuted saints into His own bottle. In this appointed sign of the rainbow, the eye of man meets the eye of God. Men look to God from the depths of their calamity, and He looks to them and remembers the token of His mercy. The human and the Divine may meet in a symbol, which is a light held to the struggling soul, a comfort and an assurance. Such is the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. Some might say, Could not Christ have trusted unceasing devotion to Himself, to the love and spirituality of his followers? Surely their knowledge of His character, and their zeal for Him, would never suffer them to forget Him? But He knew the human heart better than to trust this to a purely spiritual feeling, and therefore appointed an outward sign. Here Christ and His people look upon one common object, eye meets eye, and heart unites with heart. Such symbols train men in spiritual ideas, they fix the heart and entertain it with delight, they render devotion easy. Man in this first stage of his education for higher worlds needs them, and will still find sweet uses in them until he dwells in the “new heavens and the new earth.” Those aids from form and sight shall be no longer needed when the eye is entertained with the vision of God.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 9:8. God spake to Noah as the head of his family, and therefore the representative of the whole human race.
God still speaks to mankind, not as divided by separate interests, but as forming one family having the same superior and permanent interests. From this family He is ever gathering another, more exalted and select, united to Himself by the dearest ties of spiritual likeness and generation.
A nation can never be wise and great until the families of it hear and obey the voice of God. The purity of family life is the true defence and safety of the State.
1. The speaker Elohim, the mighty God who was able to do every word.
2. The hearers whom this concerned, Noah and his sons with him. Such as could understand, to them only he speaketh, though the matter which he spake concerneth such as could not understand, as infants and beasts.
3. The speech, which was intent and pressing, He said in saying, that is, He seriously and earnestly spake what followeth.—(Hughes.)
Genesis 9:9. God enters into covenant relations with Noah as the second head and father of the race.
This covenant was not made until Noah, as a representative of the new humanity, had by sacrifice confessed his sin and signified his hope of salvation. (Genesis 8:20-21.) It was a proof that his offering was accepted.
God prevents man, with the blessings of His goodness, anticipating his desire and need; yet that goodness is not declared and revealed until man has felt his deep necessity. This covenant does but express in due form what the love of God had long before intended.
God’s covenants show—
1. That He is willing to contract duties towards man. Man can therefore hope for and obtain that which he cannot claim as a right. Thus “Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” (James 2:13.)
2. That man’s duty has relation to a personal Lawgiver. There is no independent morality. All human conduct must ultimately be viewed in the light of God’s requirements.
3. That man needs a special revelation of God’s love. The light of nature is not sufficient to satisfy the longings of the soul and encourage hope. We require a distinct utterance—a sign from heaven. The vague sublimities of created things around us are unsatisfying, we need the assurance that behind all there is a heart of infinite compassion.
4. That every new revelation of God’s character implies corresponding duties on the part of man. The progress of revelation has refined and exalted the principle of duty, until man herein is equal unto the angels, and learns to do “all for love, and nothing for reward.”
“With your seed after you.” God’s promises extend to the latest hour of human history; they encourage us to expect a bright future for the race. Let us not indulge in any melancholy or depressing views, but wait in patience and hope until these promises have yielded all their wealth.
My Covenant. The covenant which was before mentioned to Noah in the directions concerning the making of the ark, and which was really, though tacitly, formed with Adam in the garden.—(Murphy.)
We see here
(1) the mercy and goodness of God, in proceeding with us in a way of covenant. He might have exempted the world from this calamity, and yet not have told them He would do so. The remembrance of the flood might have been a sword hanging over their heads in terrorem. But He will set their minds at rest on that score. Thus He deals with us in His Son. Being willing that the heirs of promise should have strong consolation, He confirms His word by an oath.
(2) The importance of living under the light of revelation. Noah’s posterity by degrees sunk into idolatry, and became “strangers to the covenants of promise.” Such were our fathers for many ages, and such are great numbers to this day.
(3) The importance of being believers. Without this, it will be worse for us than if we had never been favoured with a revelation.
(4) The kind of life which it was God’s design to encourage: a life of faith. “The just shall live by faith.” If He had made no revelation of Himself, no covenants, and no promises, there would be no ground for faith; and we must have gone through life feeling after Him without being able to find Him: but having made known His mind, there is light in all our dwellings, and a sure ground for believing not only in our exemption from another flood, but in things of far greater importance.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 9:10. As the flood destroyed all the animals who entered not into the ark, so they were interested with man in the terms of this Divine promise. “The whole creation” is represented by Paul as groaning and travailing in pain together in sympathy with the curse upon man (Romans 8:22). God, by the prophet, represents this covenant as confirmed by all the solemnity of an oath. “I have sworn,” etc. (Isaiah 54:9.)—(Jacobus.)
God stands in certain relations to creatures who are entirely unconscious of them. What these relations are, we cannot fully know; but we may be assured that they exist. God will yet give a voice to the dumb agony of creation, and redeem the creature from that emptiness of all solid result in which all things, at present, seem to end.
When man fell, there was a corresponding reduction along the whole scale of nature; when he was restored to God’s favour, the promise was given that there would be as far-reaching an extension of blessing. A covenant with man cannot concern him alone, for he is bound up with all nature under him as well as with all that is above him.
God shows compassion for creaturely life upon the earth.
Man is viewed in revelation both as he is connected with God and nature.
Such as know not God’s covenant may have a part in it.—(Hughes).
Genesis 9:11. The covenant was reduced to a single provision,—that the judgment of such a flood should not again be visited upon mankind. Such was the simple form which the promise of God assumed in this infancy of the new humanity. Yet here was a Divine forbearance which was a prophecy of better things, as it afforded scope for the deeds of mercy.
The covenant of law, as given to the old man, is all “Thou shalt.” So God to Adam said, “Thou shalt not eat of it; in the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die:” and by Moses repeating the same covenant of law, each command reiterates the same, “Thou shalt.” Such a covenant is all “of works.” There is a command to be fulfilled by man, and, therefore, its validity depends upon man’s part being performed as well as God’s. Such a covenant cannot stand, for man ever fails in his part. Thus the covenant of law or works to man is only condemnation. But finding fault with this, the Lord saith, “I will make a new covenant,” and this new covenant or gospel throughout says, not “Thou shalt,” but “I will.” It is “the promise,” as says St. Paul to the Galatians. All that it requires is simple faith (Galatians 3:16-29). “This is the covenant I will make in those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws in their hearts; I will write them in their minds; I will be merciful to their transgressions; I will remember their sins no more; I will dwell in them; I will walk in them.” It is this “I will” which Noah now hears, and to which at this stage God adds “a token” set in heaven.—(Jukes: Types of Genesis.)
This expresses also the security of the moral world against perishing in a deluge of anarchy, or in the floods of popular commotion (Psalms 93).—(Lange.)
Genesis 9:12. Every covenant requires an outward sign or token, by which God suffers Himself to be reminded of His promise.
A token is needed to confirm our faith in that which was done in the past, and though it still abides with us in unworn energy of blessing, we need the aid of these things that we may recognise God.
God does not leave men to general notions of, and vague expectations from His goodness. On fitting occasions in the world’s history He certifies that goodness to them.
Such tokens are instances of God’s condescension to the weakness of man. This principle will account for much concerning the form in which revelation is given us. All such communications from God must be conditioned by the nature and capacity of him who receives.
God’s mind is to teach His Church by visible signs as well as by His Word.—(Hughes.)
Genesis 9:13. God made or constituted the rainbow to be the sign of His covenant, and therefore calls it “My bow.” The covenant token, as well as the thing itself, was God’s own.
This token was made to appear in the clouds, because their gathering together would strike terror in those who had witnessed the deluge; or who would afterwards learn, by report, of that awful judgment. In the very danger itself, God often causes the sign of hope to appear.
As it is the sun’s rays shining through the rain drops that reflect this glowing image on the black cloud, so is it also a fitting symbol of the Sun of Righteousness reflected, in His glorious attributes, upon the face of every dark and threatening dispensation towards His Church.—(Jacobus.)
Men find their last refuge and hope in looking up to God, who fails not to comfort them with the token of mercy.
The appointment of the sign of the covenant, or of the rainbow as God’s bow of peace, whereby there is at the same time expressed—
1. The elevation of men above the deification of the creature (since the rainbow is not a divinity but a sign of God, an appointment which even idolatrous nations appear not to have wholly forgotten, when they denote it God’s bridge, or God’s messenger).
2. Their introduction to the symbolic comprehension and interpretation of natural phenomena, even to the symbolising of forms and colours.
3. That God’s compassion remembers men in their dangers.
4. The setting up of a sign of light and fire, which, along with its assurance that the earth will never be drowned again in water, indicates at the same time its future transformation through light and fire.—(Lange.)
To the spiritual mind, all natural phenomena are God’s revelation of Himself; each one of them answering to some other truth of His.
The rainbow is an index that the sky is not wholly overcast, since the sun is shining through the shower, and thereby demonstrating its partial extent. There could not, therefore, be a more beautiful or fitting token. It comes with its mild radiance only when the cloud condenses into a shower. It consists of heavenly light; variegated in hue and mellowed in lustre, filling the beholder with an involuntary pleasure. It forms a perfect arch, extends as far as the shower extends, connects heaven and earth, and spans the horizon. In these respects it is a beautiful emblem of mercy rejoicing against judgment, a light from heaven irradiating and beatifying the soul, of grace always sufficient for the need, of the reunion of earth and heaven, and of the universality of the offer of salvation.—(Murphy.)
An arch, cheering and bright, embraces the firmament. On a scroll of variegated light there is inscribed—“These storms drop fertility: they break to bless and not to injure.”—(Archdeacon Law: “Christ is All”)
Genesis 9:14. The regularity with which the rainbow appears in the sunshine after rain does not set aside the fact that it is brought to pass by the ever-living energy of the Creator. “When I bring,” etc.
A purely spiritual mind sees in all things in nature the working of a personal will, and does not require that distinct evidence of it which a miracle supplies.
Science deals with nature as a collection of facts, to be classified and explained as modes of the operation of general laws; but the Bible only considers the religious idea of nature.
The sun looks forth from the opposite skies. Its rays enter the descending drops, and returning to the eye in broken pencils, paint the bow on the illumined back-ground. Heaven dries up the tears of earth, and the high roof above seems to take up the Gospel hymn, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.”—(Archdeacon Law: “Christ is All.”)
Genesis 9:15. This token is for God as well as for man. God deigns here to appoint it as a remembrance to Himself. “It is a bow (says Dr. Gill), yet without arrows, and pointed upward to heaven, and not downward to the earth.”—(Jacobus).
The following prayer, found in the Talmud, is directed to be recited upon every appearance of the rainbow: “Blessed be thou Jehovah our God, King of eternity, ever mindful of thy covenant, faithful in thy covenant, firm in thy word.”
When the Scripture says “God remembers,” it means that we feel and are conscious that He remembers it, namely, when He outwardly presents Himself in such a manner, that we, thereby, take notice that He thinks thereon. Therefore it all comes to this: as I present myself to God, so does He present Himself to me.—(Luther.)
We can only conceive of God through our human thoughts and feelings. In this way we obtain those consolatory views of His nature which we miss when we are ambitious of an over-refinement.
When God appoints the sign of the covenant, He obliges Himself, or contracts the duty, to meet man there.
How sacred are those symbols that may be said to arrest the glance of the Infinite eye—to concentrate the attention of God! They give that reality to spiritual blessings which, in the mere processes of thought, would become a cold abstraction.
The Scripture is most unhesitating and frank in ascribing to God all the attributes and exercises of personal freedom. While man looks on the bow to recall the promise of God, God Himself looks upon it to remember and perform this promise. Here freedom and immutability of purpose meet.—(Murphy.)
Genesis 9:16-17. It was to be an “everlasting covenant,”—to last until it should be needed no more.
If God looks upon the rainbow to remember, so should we, with a fresh sense of wonder and recognition of His presence. Faith in Him can alone prevent our losing this sense of wonder.
Memorial was the chief purpose intended by this sign. In that early age of the world all was wonderful, for everything seemed fresh from God. Signs were not then intended to generate faith, but to be a memorial of it.
As the rainbow lights up the dark ground that just before was discharging itself in flashes of lightning, it gives us an idea of the victory of God’s love over the black and fiery wrath; originating as it does from the effects of the sun upon the sable vault, it represents to the senses the readiness of the heavenly light to penetrate the earthly obscurity; spanned between heaven and earth, it announces peace between God and man; arching the horizon, it proclaims the all-embracing universality of the covenant of grace. (Delitzsche.)
We could not know that God had appointed such a sign but for the inspired record. Revelation is needed even to teach us the significance of nature.
How can we render thanks enough for this superadded pearl in our diadem of encouragements? We are thus led to look for our bow on the cloud of every threatening storm. In the world of nature it is not always visible; but in the world of grace it ever shines. When the darkest clouds thicken around us, the Sun of Righteousness is neither set nor has eclipse, and its ready smile converts the drops into an arch of peace.…
In our journey through the wilderness, the horizon is often obscured by storms like these: terrors of conscience,—absence of peace,—harassing perplexities,—crushing burdens of difficulties. But from behind these dusky curtains, the bow strides forth in its strength.—(Archdeacon Law: “Christ is All.”)
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Noachic Covenant! Genesis 9:1-17. We have here
(1) Principle of Government, as God’s institution for the good of His saints;
(2) Promulgation of Covenant, as God’s instruction to mankind of an everlasting covenant in Christ; and
(3) Proclamation of Rainbow, as God’s intimation of His faithfulness, in which no arrow shall ever find a place. There are men who can see no lofty aim in this chapter 9, and who only see the abstract moral principle of right and wrong, virtue and vice. Like the first visitors to the coral lagoons, they can only perceive a sheet of water; whereas deep down are the pearl-treasures—the gems of great price. Dost thou well
“To challenge the designs of the All-wise;
Or carp at projects which thou may’st but scan
With sight defective: typal contrivances
Of peerless skill and of unequalled art,
Framed by divinest wisdom to subserve
The subtle processes of grace?”
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Nature-Symbolism! Genesis 9:12-17.
(1) All Nature, says Leale, is a mighty parable of spiritual truth. To the attentive ear, all the earth is eloquent; to the reflecting mind, all Nature is symbolical. Each object has a voice which reaches the inner ear, and speaks lessons of wise and solemn import. The stream murmurs unceasingly its secrets; the sibylline breeze in mountain glens and lonely forests sighs forth its oracles. We are told that the invisible things of God, from the beginning of the world, are clearly seen; being understood by the things that are made. From the very first, a spiritual significance was embodied in the physical forms and processes of the universe. Nature, as a whole, was meant to be for man the vesture of the spiritual world.
(2) But, in addition to this, God takes one of these symbols in Nature, and, as it were, consecrates it to new use—appropriates to it new and refreshing spiritual significance. He seizes upon an existing phenomenon, which, as Wordsworth says, had hitherto been but a beautiful object-lesson shining in the heavens, when the sun’s rays descended on falling rain, and consecrates it as the sign of His love to man.
“And thus, fair bow, no fabling dreams,
But words of the Most High
Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky;
When o’er the green, undeluged earth
Heaven’s covenant thou didst shine.”
Rainbow! Genesis 9:13. If a boy, says Newton, has a ball, and wishes to know what it is made of, he takes it to pieces; and in the same way we can take the sunlight to pieces, and find out of what it is made. Go into a room which has a window towards the west where the sun is shining. Close the shutters, after boring a hole in the shutter large enough to insert your finger. A beam of sunlight comes through that hole. Hold a prism, i.e., a three cornered piece of glass so that the shaft of light falls upon it. Before that beam enters the prism, it is white; but in going through the glass it is broken up and taken to pieces. It comes out in seven different colours. Now, whenever the rainbow appears, this is the way in which it is made. God has been breaking up the light. He uses not the prism of glass, but the drops of falling rain.
“When thou dost shine, darkness looks white and fair;
Forms turn to music, clouds to smiles and air;
Rain gently spreads his honey-drops, and pours
Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers.”
Covenant Rainbow! Genesis 9:13.
(1) The beautiful rainbow, in which all the seven prismatic colours are blended together in sweet and graceful proportion, is declared to be an emblem of His covenant with His people. And as the seven-fold colours thus sweetly blend in harmony of grace, so in His covenant every attribute of God is exhibited in its infinite perfection, and in it they all beautifully and gloriously harmonise together.
(2) This comes out in Ezekiel 1:27, where we are told by Ezekiel that, in the vision vouchsafed to him of Christ upon the mercy seat in the heavens, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. If this symbolises anything, surely it symbolises the excellent grace and surpassing harmony of the Divine attributes in the covenant of Christ.
“When I behold thee, though my light be dim,
Distant, O bow, I can in thine see Him
Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne,
And minds the covenant betwixt All and One.”
Divine Action! Genesis 9:13.
(1) Not only is the cloud necessary, but also the sunlight. The dark cloud is of itself utterly powerless to give birth to the smiling arch of light. The bright rays of the sun are requisite to paint its glowing colours on the dark background. The sun must kiss the dark face of the storm-cloud with his lips, before it can become wreathed with beauty. The cloud alone can make no rainbow glitter on its breast; but the moment the light darts through the gloom and kisses with its golden rays the threatening cloud—that very moment, a belt of light encircles the cloud.
(2) In the Christian life-sky, the clouds of sorrow and affliction are an essential element of Divine discipline, for there drop from the clouds the raindrops of invigorating refreshment. But those clouds have on their breast no bright light of truth and faithfulness, except the Sun of Righteousness dart His enlightening beams. It is when Jesus smiles upon our cloud-woes, that the eye of the soul beholds the eternal iris of grace of truth, and as it beholds adores Him who says, “I, the Sun of Righteousness, do set My bow in the cloud.”
“Oft, O Lord! Thy azure heaven
Did grey rainy vapours shroud,
Till at last in colours seven,
Shone Thy bow upon the cloud;
Then, for saving mercies there,
I, on my steep mount of care,
Altar built for thankful prayer.”—Gerok.
Rainbow-Myths! Genesis 9:14. It was a beautiful superstition which maintained that, wherever the glittering feet of the rainbow rested, there a hidden treasure would be discovered. And some foolishly set out in quest of this hidden treasure, wandering far and wide, only to find fairy gold—a glow of beauty which vanished ever and anon the nearer they approached it. But there was mystic truth in the fable. Where the magic hues lay, there the dull soil brightened into fruitfulness. Golden harvests—the only true riches of earth—sprang up, and rewarded those who sought wealth, not in idle, superstitious wanderings, but by steady, trustful industry, in those spots where the feet of the bow of promise touched the earth. Macmillan says that our cornfields grow and ripen seemingly under that covenantarch, whose keystone is in the heavens, and whose foundations are upon the earth. And surely it is beneath the feet of the “Faithful and True Witness” (Revelation 1) that the golden harvest of redeemed ones, to be reaped by His angels, spring up, under the genial showers of the Holy Spirit of Grace. So that when God set his opal rainbow in the clouds He made it a teacher of the great harvest of grace, as well as
“A token when His judgments are abroad
Of His perpetual covenant of peace.”
Rainbow! Genesis 9:15. God was pleased to adopt the known and most beautiful, as well as welcome token of a retiring storm, as the sign of His covenant of mercy. And thus, in the visions of heaven, the throne of God is over-arched by a rainbow, and a rainbow is displayed as a diadem above the head of Christ (Revelation 10:1). Whenever we see a rainbow, let us
(1) Call to mind that it is God’s bow seen in the cloud;
(2) Conclude that, in His darkest dispensations, there is ever a gracious purpose towards us; and
(3) Consider that all warnings of wrath to come are accompanied with offers of pardon to the penitent. It is a suggestive fact that the rainbow is never seen except in a cloud from which the rain is at the same time falling. So that if the shower reminds us of the flood, the bow in that same shower-cloud shall remind us of the Covenant:—
“A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow,
Conspicuous, with three tinted colours gay,
Betokening peace with God, and covenant new.”—Milton.
Apocalyptic Rainbow! Genesis 9:16.
(1) In St. John’s local description of the celestial presence chamber, he tells us of his initial glance into the heaven of heavens. The august throne of Deity arrests his gaze. It has been rightly remarked that, combining the description in Revelation 4 with others which follow, this grandest of visions consists in the manifestation of God as the God of Redemption. We have Jehovah seated on the throne—the Lamb in the midst of the throne—and the seven lamps or torches before the throne. The throne itself has the three primary colours; while encircling all was the rainbow.
(2) As in Ezekiel’s vision by the banks of Chebar, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was encircled by the appearance of the bow in the cloud, to assure him to fear nothing of Babylon or Assyria, inasmuch as He who sat enthroned above the complications and seeming confusions of earth was faithful and true; so to the Seer of Patmos was vouchsafed a similar assurance, “I do set my bow in the cloud.” He saw God, in His covenant aspect, as the God of salvation—His throne encompassed with the emerald iris—
“Beautiful bow! A brighter one
Is shining round th’ eternal throne!
And when life’s little storm is o’er
May I gaze on this bow for evermore.”—Watson.
Everlasting Covenant! Genesis 9:16. The rainbow of the covenant of grace lasts for ever; it never melts. The one on which Noah gazed soon lost its brilliancy. Fainter and fainter still it grew, until, like a coloured haze, it just quivered in the air, and then faded from the vision. Ten thousand rainbows since have arched our earth, and then melted in the clouds; but the rainbow of God’s mercy in Christ abides for ever. It shines with undiminished splendour from all eternity, and its brilliancy will dazzle the eyes of redeemed humanity through the countless cycles of the same eternity. As has been said by Guthrie, it gleams in heaven to-night, yea, it beams sweetly on earth with harmonious hues, mellowed and blended into each other as fresh as ever. And when the sun has run his course and given place unto eternity, that bow of grace will still remain for ever, and be the theme of the ceaseless songs of spirits glorified in heaven, as, wrapt in the radiance of that sinless, sunless land, they realise that the darkness of earth was but the shadow of God’s wing sheltering them from earth’s too scorching sun.
“As fresh as yon horizon dark,
As young thy beauties seem,
As when the eagle from the ark
First sported in thy beam.”