A New Rainbow

Scripture: Isaiah 54:9-10 – “This is like the days of Noah to me: Just as I swore that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” (NRSVue)

On Tuesday, April 29, our Book and Bible Study group will begin an examination of Bible Stories for Grown-Ups by Josh Scott. The book looks at six classic Bible stories that we (may have) learned in Sunday School and sees how we might approach them differently as adults.

The first story is that of Noah. And this got me thinking, what is the message of Noah’s Ark? It is considered one of the happiest stories in the Bible. I remember getting a little Ark playset for my kids when they were preschoolers with a happy little Noah and space on the plastic boat for all the cute animals. But as adults, we see that the message is less about animals and more about God’s wrath, and about how only a faithful remnant of a single family survived the flood that wiped out everyone else.

But I don’t think that the most important part of the story is the flood or the Ark or the cute animals. It’s the rainbow. It is what happens after tragedy in which we see the truth of God’s love. After all, in the ancient world, everyone had a flood story. It was found in the mythology of ancient Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), Greece, and India as well. In these stories, the emphasis was on the power of God, the creation of modern society, and perhaps the immortality of humanity.

But they lack the rainbow. The rainbow is the promise of God that such wrathful destruction, as found in those other myths, would not happen again. For the Hebrew God was uniquely a God of forgiveness and mercy.

Many years later, the Book of Isaiah used the example of Noah and the Ark when speaking about hope for the people who had long suffered in exile. And the takeaway was not wrath or human origins, but a promise of forgiveness and peace in the future. The prophet said that just as the flood would never happen again, so too would exile as a punishment. There might be suffering in the future, but even if the mountains themselves were destroyed, God would never stop being with them and showing them a path of love and peace. It was like God was providing a new rainbow.

I think we need to look up at God’s rainbow today. When the metaphorical, and increasingly literal, floods of life overwhelm us, when the mountains of certainty crumble away, God’s love is always with us. God is loving us, not punishing us. God is showing us a way through. In whatever is troubling you today, look for a rainbow of hope. As God promised, you are not alone.

Prayer: God, there is a lot of rain in my life. Send me an umbrella of relief but also let me see a new rainbow of hope. Amen.