Rainbow

After the waters of the Flood receded, God gave Noah a sign of his promise never again to destroy the earth by flood: “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.” The everyday wonder of the rainbow was made the seal of a divine pledge.

Tellingly, the word is the same as a warrior’s bow — but here it is hung up in the sky, pointed away from the earth, a weapon laid aside. Every rainbow after rain became a visible reminder that judgment had been restrained by mercy, and that God remembers his covenant.

The rainbow reappears at the highest moments of vision. Ezekiel saw the glory of God surrounded by brightness “as the appearance of the bow… in the cloud,” and John saw a rainbow encircling the throne in heaven. From Noah’s sky to the throne of God, the rainbow signs the same truth: mercy surrounds the seat of judgment.