Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“God said, “This is the token 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 will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud, I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may 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 token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.””
(Genesis 9:12-17)

God made a covenant with us and then gave us a sign so that we would not have to be fearful about it having been broken. He gave us a sign in order to encourage our hearts. He gave us a sign to prove His faithfulness. It is a reflection of the glory that surrounds His throne. While it frequently appears to resemble an arc, it is actually a complete circle – no ending and no beginning.

People like to discredit the rainbow as a physical phenomenon. Something that has always been and always will be. Light refracting through water. But we don’t know what the system worked like BEFORE the Flood. Science is the observation of the world around us. The world may have worked quite differently AFTER the Flood than before it. The rainbow is part and parcel of our world, appearing every time water and light mix, but that is how God reminds us and Himself of Covenant. Whether we are dealing with a garden hose amount, a rainstorm amount, or a tsunami amount of water; His promises are His promises and He shows us His bow to remind us of that. He will NOT break His word.

No conditions are on this covenant. Humanity does not need to perform. The animal kingdom does not need to perform. No matter what happens on this planet and what actions we choose to do, God will NOT violate His covenant. As long as we can see rainbows, this is in effect and we can rest easy that the whole world will NOT perish by a flood of water. Ever.

Because God shared something of Himself with us, the devil and his allies are constantly trying to discredit it and smear it. In any way they can. We find it in entertainment, we find it in pop culture, and we find it in many movements of what humans have decided is good. Anything to make it less than what it is: a holy example of the glory of Yahweh God Almighty.

The sage Rashi writes: ‘לדרת עולם FOR GENERATIONS FOR EVER — The word לדרת “for generations” is written defective (without Vav) (implying that the sign will be necessary only for such generations as are “defective’’ in faith) because there will be some generations which will require no sign since they were completely righteous, such as the generation of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and the generation of R. Simeon ben Yochai (Genesis Rabbah 35:2).’