The Bow of God's Promise
It won’t be long before the chill of winter is gone and the snow turns into rain and we’ll see that beautiful bow in the sky.
We have to go back to the early chapters of Genesis to find the story of the first rainbow. (It’s in Genesis 9. Go ahead and read it; I’ll wait.) Noah and his family have just spent 40 days in a floating zoo and as they come out of the ark, God makes a covenant with Noah, and by extension all of humanity.
The Hebrew scriptures borrowed the notion of covenant from the ancient secular world. In the politics of the ancient world, a covenant was an agreement between one of greater power with one of lesser power. King Bob takes over the small country next door. King Bob promises to provide protection from mutual enemies, and in the little country promises loyalty and an annual protection payment to help finance King Bob’s army. Covenant.
When God makes a covenant with God’s people, it’s obvious that the promise is made by one who has great power. But the covenants of God are different. They always shine a bright light on God’s character. They are promises of grace and mercy and steadfast love. Here, the promise is that God will never again bring a cataclysmic, destructive event like the flood. Even further, God promises loving protection and provision, not only for the human family, but for all the living creatures on the earth.
In order to remind God of the promise God had made, God put a bow in the sky. An archer’s bow is a symbol of war and violence. In effect, God was saying, I’m hanging up my weapon. I’m hanging it up on a nail in the sky as a reminder of the promise that I am making. If you think of the rainbow as an archer’s bow hanging on a nail in the sky, you see that it’s pointing away from us.
And did you catch this marvelous detail? God put it there as a reminder to Godself. I was always taught that the rainbow is a reminder to me of God’s promises. There’s nothing wrong with seeing a rainbow and remembering God’s steadfast love. But that’s not really what the story says. God put the rainbow in the sky as a reminder for Godself. The divine version of setting an alarm on your phone or a note on the refrigerator. God hung up God’s bow in the sky as a reminder to God of the promise that God had made. Never again would God do a reset through violence. Rather, God would demonstrate God’s love through making a people — first Noah and his descendants; then Abraham and his descendants, then Jesus and his spiritual descendants, God always working through a people to get the news to all creation that God loves humanity and all the rest of creation. God wants a relationship with the humans and all the rest of creation.
As the pandemic wears on, in a time of weariness when we just want it all to be over, these are good words and good promises to hear. God is here. God is at work. God has made promises to us that God is determined to keep. Watch for that rainbow.
We have to go back to the early chapters of Genesis to find the story of the first rainbow. (It’s in Genesis 9. Go ahead and read it; I’ll wait.) Noah and his family have just spent 40 days in a floating zoo and as they come out of the ark, God makes a covenant with Noah, and by extension all of humanity.
The Hebrew scriptures borrowed the notion of covenant from the ancient secular world. In the politics of the ancient world, a covenant was an agreement between one of greater power with one of lesser power. King Bob takes over the small country next door. King Bob promises to provide protection from mutual enemies, and in the little country promises loyalty and an annual protection payment to help finance King Bob’s army. Covenant.
When God makes a covenant with God’s people, it’s obvious that the promise is made by one who has great power. But the covenants of God are different. They always shine a bright light on God’s character. They are promises of grace and mercy and steadfast love. Here, the promise is that God will never again bring a cataclysmic, destructive event like the flood. Even further, God promises loving protection and provision, not only for the human family, but for all the living creatures on the earth.
In order to remind God of the promise God had made, God put a bow in the sky. An archer’s bow is a symbol of war and violence. In effect, God was saying, I’m hanging up my weapon. I’m hanging it up on a nail in the sky as a reminder of the promise that I am making. If you think of the rainbow as an archer’s bow hanging on a nail in the sky, you see that it’s pointing away from us.
And did you catch this marvelous detail? God put it there as a reminder to Godself. I was always taught that the rainbow is a reminder to me of God’s promises. There’s nothing wrong with seeing a rainbow and remembering God’s steadfast love. But that’s not really what the story says. God put the rainbow in the sky as a reminder for Godself. The divine version of setting an alarm on your phone or a note on the refrigerator. God hung up God’s bow in the sky as a reminder to God of the promise that God had made. Never again would God do a reset through violence. Rather, God would demonstrate God’s love through making a people — first Noah and his descendants; then Abraham and his descendants, then Jesus and his spiritual descendants, God always working through a people to get the news to all creation that God loves humanity and all the rest of creation. God wants a relationship with the humans and all the rest of creation.
As the pandemic wears on, in a time of weariness when we just want it all to be over, these are good words and good promises to hear. God is here. God is at work. God has made promises to us that God is determined to keep. Watch for that rainbow.
Jim Honig, Pastor at Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran in Ellison Bay
Comments
Post a Comment