This evening, Mom (I think it was Mom!) spotted a big, brilliant, beautiful rainbow. I was able to run out to the horse field (see map below) and get a clear shot of it. How beautiful!
Obviously, however, this is not the first rainbow. The first rainbow appeared shortly after the global flood of Noah's day. God established it as a sign of the covenant between Himself and the human race. This meant that it was a sign of a promise, a promise He would keep with mankind forever. The promise is detailed in Genesis 9:
When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Gen. 9:14-15)God promised that every time a rainbow was seen in the clouds, He would remember His promise to never again wipe out all living creatures.
This covenant He made is an "everlasting covenant" (Gen. 9:16), and therefore is true even today. Yet perhaps God designed it this way because of its New Testament parallel. He had a reason for the rainbow, for it was a picture--a Messianic picture.
Jesus Christ is like the New Testament "rainbow." His death on the cross covered all who who believe in Him, so that whenever God looks at Christ on the cross, He remembers His promise to never again destroy those who are beneath it. Romans 8:1 states this well: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." For all who are "in Christ," there is no condemnation. God sees Jesus' substitutionary death on the cross of Calvary, and it is enough; He will not further condemn us.
What a wonderful truth! God's wrath can never again fall upon us. Never! For those who are beneath the "rainbow" of Jesus Christ, there is no divine condemnation, but only grace! What a glorious Gospel. What a wonderfully good news. Our sins are atoned for. No matter how hard we fall, as long as we're under the rainbow of Christ, "there is . . . no condemnation." That is a wonderful way to live!
12 comments:
Glad to finally see the rainbow! Wish I'd looked in the right direction at work that day and seen it. Thanks for capturing its loveliness. :) And for your exposition on the first rainbow, and the Christ-rainbow...great reminder. "His banner [rainbow!] over me is love" now...it really is amazing, isn't it?
Great picture and comments Sam. Thanks for taking the time to run out and capture it.
That last comment was from Dad. Ooops.
Hello Mr. Van Der Hoeven,
I have enjoyed poking around your site and you take some great pictures. That is an excellent rainbow photo.
God bless,
Zachary Pruett
Hello, Mr. Pruett! Thank you, and I'm glad you enjoyed "poking around my blog" :)
Thanks for visiting my blog Mr. van der Hoeven.
In response to one of the questions you asked me (the answer to the other is in the comment stream on my blog), I found your blog by perusing a profile interest search of the term "bible study". I looked at dozens of profiles and blogs, giving preference to those that included bible study and photography included in their interest. I found many that were outdated and a few that weren't to my tastes, but I found yours and I'm glad I did.
So there it is in so many words, God bless!
Zachary
Neat! Any chance you could give me a link to that profile search?
Incredible photo Sam...even more so, how incredible the grace provided through Christ Jesus...God is so good to provide such mercies to us!! :)
Sorry about being slow to get back to you, but no I have no way to give you the link to the profile search. You can do one any time by using the profile interests links on your own or anyone else's blogger profile.
I get it now :) Before I thought you might have been talking about some online profile search. I didn't know I could click on the hyperlinked interests in my own profile! Learn something new every day I guess :) Thanks!
Sam, for some reason, I could not find where the "post a comment" was for your Watoga Day 2 blog entry, so am posting one here. In your first video, where you dropped your camera...that song is a hoot! Who is singing that?? Did you all make that up, and is the family singing it? lol It certainly fits with your blog! heehee Thanks for a good chuckle...that was great! :)
Btw, glad your camera was okay...understand that concern! :)
Thanks for notifying me about that issue, Mrs. Kerr. I think I know what the problem is, so it should be corrected on future posts.
As to the song, yes it is a hoot! But it is not any of our family singing it (though most of us could!). It comes from an old kindergarten computer game. Actually, this is only part of the song, but it is as much as I could fit on the video. Pretty funny though :)
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