From a Friend
I just asked a simple question. What does this mean and this is the answer I received. Thought that you would be interested. Ray Interestingly, the true meaning of the rainbow or rainbows is only in in the first book (Genesis) and the last book (Revelation) of the Bible. The book of Ezekiel also has a reference to a rainbow.
In the Genesis account, a rainbow appears right after the great worldwide flood brought in order to remove sinful and evil-minded man from the earth. It symbolized God's mercy and the covenant He made with Noah (representing mankind) not to destroy the world in by flood again:
"And God said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
"'I set My RAINBOW in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 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. The RAINBOW shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.' ” (Genesis 9:12-16, NKJV throughout) The cloud which has the bow set in it, in a way, pictures God, as Exodus 13 states:
"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of CLOUD to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. " (Exodus 13:21)
In his first vision from God, known as the "wheel in the middle of a wheel" vision, the prophet Ezekiel compares the glory of God he saw with a rainbow!: "And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. |
