As a quilter, I note the rainbow colors as they move from deep purple to bright yellow. This is like the color wheel upon which artists, designers and quilters base their combinations. All this is from God, but when He created the rainbow, it had an even greater purpose than signaling the end of a storm or inspiring artists.
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 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. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis 9:12–17)Today’s devotional reading focuses on the parts of this passage that declare it is not up to me to look at the rainbow and remember God’s covenant and promise. Instead, it is God who looks and remembers the promises He has made. While He does not need a reminder for that, we need to know that a rainbow was created as a sign or reminder for us — so we know that He is watching and remembering. With even something as ordinary as rainfall, He is thinking about His covenant and His promise.
There are other promises like this one. When the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt and God sent plagues to convince Pharaoh to let them go, the last one was the most terrible. An angel of death would pass over the land, but if anyone (including the Egyptians) killed a flawless lamb and put the blood of the lamb all around the door of their homes, the firstborn in that home would be spared. Notice the wording:
The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)God did not tell the people to look at the blood and be saved. He said that they would be saved when He looked at the blood.
Of course this prefigures the salvation that is in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His blood was shed for my sin, and while looking at Jesus gives me great joy and comfort, my salvation is about God looking at Jesus and seeing that blood that covers all my transgressions.
God cannot judge sin when He looks at His Son because that sin has already been punished in Him. Nor does He make that incredible salvation dependent upon me and my looking. Faith is required to enter into His saving grace, but salvation was and is secured by God alone.
I need to remember this covenant of grace and am able to do so because of His grace to me, but my safety and security as His child who has escaped the angel of death is because God looks at the blood of His Son and passes over me. I am not and will not be destroyed, not because of what I do, but because of what God sees.
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Father, sometimes Your Spirit fills me with such a deep sense of my sinfulness that I wonder how You could possibly continue to love me and keep Your promises to take me to glory. Selfish ideas and motives seem to be stronger with each day, yet today You say again, “Salvation is not about you.” I am saved because of what Jesus has done. My life is hid in His so that when You look my direction, You see Him and His blood shed for me. Thank You for the image of the lamb and the blood on the doorposts. Thank You also for the more visible image in the sky after a rain. The next time I see a rainbow, I will think of Your covenant with Noah and that You will not judge the earth with water as You did then, but please remind me that as I gaze at this beautiful bow in the sky, You are looking at it also — and remembering.
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