On Bows and Rainbows

I don't have time for a "real" post right now. I've been out of town all weekend and I'm trying to play catch-up before the start of what I expect to be a super busy week. (I'm teaching Ruth Session Two on Wednesday, so please pray for me if you think of it. And I'll try to post the audio by the end of the week.)

But I wanted to share something really interesting that I heard twice this weekend, that I think you will enjoy as well.

Several weeks ago I happened to be riding through town after a wet and rainy afternoon. It was about an hour before dusk and the sky was still filled with gray, misty clouds. Suddenly, my husband pointed out an amazing sight: two full arcs of a double rainbow brilliantly displayed in the sky. I had never seen a double rainbow before, and it was breathtaking. Not only were there two visible arcs, but you could see the full arch from one end of the horizon to the other for each individual rainbow. We pulled the car over and unloaded our family in the middle of an empty parking lot just to stare at this wonder in the sky.

If you remember your Sunday School lessons, you will remember that the rainbow is endowed with special meaning by God. In Genesis 9:13-16, we read the following:

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind of the earth."

To understand the significance of this particular covenant agreement that God made between Himself and all life on earth, you need to remember what God just finished doing. We love to tell the story of Noah and his ark to our children. But how often do we point out to them that the real point of Noah and the ark was to save them from the massive wiping out of life that God purposed and performed? God literally destroyed every person and creature on earth, expect for the inhabitants of that relatively little floating capsule we call the ark.

God did not put the rainbow in the sky as a warm fuzzy feel good to make us smile and reflect kindly on Him when we happen to see one. No, He wanted to assure mankind and all of creation that He was never going to bring such a war upon them again. At least, not in the form of a flood.

While I was at a conference this weekend, the speaker made an offhand point about the shape of the rainbow. It is very similar to the spape of a bow, as in a bow and arrow. The bow and arrow are mostly employed as a sport by archers today, with perhaps some hard-core bow hunters thrown in the mix. But in the days of ancient warfare, the bow and arrow were deadly and effective weapons.

And some have speculated that when God put that bow shaped arch in the sky, He was signifying that He had hung up His weapon of war, never to use that particular one against His creation ever again. I've also heard it speculated that not only was the weapon hung upon the wall, but its curve was pointed up, toward heaven itself, instead of down to the face of the earth.

Because, you see, God did still need to declare war. A war against sin. And we all know who ended up taking the brunt of that war upon Himself. It was God, in the human flesh of Jesus Christ. God put all of His holy wrath upon Himself in order to redeem His fallen children. And that is why the "bow" of the rainbow pointed up to the sky. It was a reminder, a promise and a foreshadowing all at the same time.

Cool, huh?

But What If...

As a Christian, have you ever had one of those moments when the thought hits you like a ton of bricks, "What if all of this is not true? What if it's just made up?"

I haven't been hit by that particular ton of bricks lately, but it has happened before. And it's likely to happen again. Fortunately, it doesn't take too much effort for me to resolve the issue. Pretty much, I just look at the nearest tree. Or, baring the availability of a tree, I glance up at the sky. And Psalm 19 immediately comes to mind.

Psalm 19: 1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world.

What the Psalmist is saying, in much prettier words than I could come up with, is that the very existance of creation makes the existance of a Creator obvious. And every single person, of every single language, in every single location in the entire world, knows it. Even those who might exist at the ends of the world, far away from the written language of Scripture or the organized nature of church, are aware that God exists. In fact, the sky, and the arch of the sky (that would be the firmament) not only speak to the existance of God, but they declare His glory. (Chill bumps!) Every single day, and every single night, creation "speaks" and "reveals" knowledge; specific knowledge: knowledge of God's existance and glory. (Chill bumps again!)

Rom 1:20

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (emphasis mine)

Here in Romans, the Bible gets even more specific. Not only does creation declare that God exists, but now we see that the "things that are made" understand what is being said.

So why do some persist in disbelieving? Paul goes on in the next verse of Romans to give us an explanation.

Rom 1:21

"because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Foolish, darkened hearts. That's the simple answer. The complicated answer involves a lot more than foolish, darkened hearts. But, I'm content to let Paul's words stand as he wrote them, because, although simple, they are vividly true.

It seems to me that I always have these flashes of doubt when I am riding around in my car, thinking. It makes me wonder where people went to do their serious thinking before cars were invented. For a walk maybe, or sitting in a rocking chair? Perhaps while staring into the leaping flames of a fire? It doesn't matter, I suppose. I do my serious thinking while driving to the grocery store. Which is probably a good thing. Because, while I am gripping the steering wheel of my car, another verse comes to mind and shuts down the argument completely.

2 Peter 3:10,11

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness," (emphasis mine)

I think that my car falls into the catagory of the "works" that are in the earth. And according to 2 Peter, my car is going to melt, or better yet, dissolve. That kind of puts things in perspective. Truth of God? Lasts forever. Steering wheel of my car? Melting like cheese on a hot burger.

And so, my friends, I can drive on with a light heart. It is real. All of it.

It's Not About How Great We Are

Ezekiel 36:22-23

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord God."


Has anyone else noticed how self focused modern Christianity seems to be? I keep hearing about how wonderful I am and how God desires me so much. Certainly God does love me, just as He loves all of His children. But its not because I'm so great. If God's love depended on me being great and desirable, I think I'd be in pretty big trouble.

Because the truth is that apart from God's sanctifying work in my life, there's nothing all that desirable about me personally. Why does this matter? Well,I think we see ourselves as much too important in the grand scheme of things. Yes, I know, nobody likes to be told that they aren't important. But that's not what I am saying at all. What I'm saying is that we find ourselves too important.

The truth is that God is the one who is important, not us. He is the one who has glory, not us. He is the one that is worth pursuing,not me. He is all-knowing, perfect, righteous, beautiful, wise and holy. Me? nope, none of the above.


And it struck home to me last week as I read the verses from Ezekiel at the top of this post. In the first part of chapter 36, God has given Ezekiel a prophecy about how He is going to bless Israel once again. Remember that Ezekiel's contemporaries are living in Babylonian exile. They are experiencing firsthand the punishment brought about by their great sins.

And after God has told Ezekiel that He will restore Israel and bless them, He goes on to tell them that they have done nothing to deserve it. In fact, wherever they have gone, they have profaned the name of God. And because they have behaved so wretchedly, they need to understand that God is not about to extend His blessing to them because they have eared it. They have done the contrary. It is for God's own sake, and for His name's sake that He will bless Israel.

I think we can say the same is true in each of our individual lives. We haven't done anything to deserve God's grace and favor. We've all gone around profaning the name of God since we were born. But He is going to bless us anyway. Not because of us, but because of Him.

At first glance this might not seem like good news. Especially to a people like us, who believe that there is worth in earning things. But if you think about it a while, I hope you will agree with me, that this is the best news we could ever get. Its not about us at all. Its about God. We might fail, but God never will. We might be unworthy, but God is going to redeem us anyway. And even though we never have and never will deserve anything good from God, we're going to get things from God that are great. Why?

Because His name is at stake. That's why.

The Big Deal

I haven't been ignoring this blog all week. I've just been sick. Still am. It's terribly annoying. I've hardly been able to string two thoughts together, which makes articulating a meaningful post rather difficult. So this is going to be brief.

I've been reading through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations and now I'm in Ezekiel. All four books deal primarily with Israel's great sin and coming destruction. But do you know what their big sin was? It is mentioned time and time again, so much so that you could easily start to skip over it when you read. You know, like you skip over the stuff you already know, in an effort to get to the interesting part of an article? Well, this great sin might not be what you think. There was plenty of sin being committed by Israel. The rich were oppressing the poor. Innocent people were being slain unjustly. Child sacrifice had become common. Foreign alliances were the norm. The Sabbath was being ignored. The list goes on and on. But the sin that God blames over and over for the judgment that He would no longer withhold was this: God's people were worshiping other gods.

And that was the greatest offense of all. More vile than sexual promiscuity, murder, child sacrifice or any kind of ritual impurity. God was getting cheated of His due. He deserved all of the glory and honor and worship from His chosen people. And they were throwing it away on images made of stone and wood. And that, dear reader, is why He brought down massive judgment on them.

I wanted to point it out because I think that we tend to focus too much on the things we "do" that are wrong: stealing, lying, cheating, gossiping, bad attitudes, sexual sins. But you can refrain from every single one of those and be committing sin every day of your life, simply by worshiping things other than God. Or to put it in common language, to place anything in your life above God.

I'm betting that you don't have a secret closet full of wooden idols that you bow down and pray to. But I'm also betting that you do have a life full of distractions and ambitions that don't involve giving God His due: all your heart, mind, soul and strength. This requirement, of utmost importance, is found in the Old Testament and the New.

Deuteronomy 6:4

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Matthew 22:37-38

"Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment."

Israel was failing miserably. I know that I have as well.

Jeremiah 2:32

"Can a virgin forget her ornaments
Or a bride her attire?
Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number."

There is hope, though, there always is. God didn't make a total end of His people. He preserved a remnant to bring back and reestablish. He makes a very similar offer to us, even if we have been chasing after other gods.

Jeremiah 3:1

"They say, 'If a man divorces his wife,
And she goes from him
And becomes another man's,
May he return to her again?'
Would not the land be greatly polluted?
But you have played the harlot with many lovers;
Yet return to Me, says the LORD."

God says, "Yet return to Me" no matter how thin we have spread our charms, no matter how many lovers we have chased apart from Him. A man cannot return to a wife he has divorced, but God will allow us to return to Him. No matter what.

Be Still and Know

Psalm 46:10

"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"

If you are anything like me, you have heard this verse many times. And you have probably heard it used to convey the idea that when we are still and quiet, we can "hear from God." Or maybe it was used to encourage you to go to a quiet, still place to pray.

Would you be shocked if I told you that the verse has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with getting still, peaceful and quiet so you could hear from God?

The first time I read Psalm 46 in its entirety, I suspected that somehow verse 10 tended to be misapplied. You see, Psalm 46 is about God's strength and His glory and His power. It is a picture of His ability to totally vanquish His enemies. It also illustrates His sovereignty over the outcome of situations that are frightening to us.

We should see this from the way the Psalm starts out in verse 1:

"God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in time of trouble."

The focus is on God and His strength, His ability to provide refuge for us in times of trouble. In verses 2 and 3, great turmoil is described, with images of mountains falling into the sea, the earth being moved and the oceans roaring and troubled. And even in all of that, we are not to fear.

In verse 6, entire nations are raging, and kingdoms are rising and falling, and against all of this, God simply utters His voice. That small act of uttering the voice is so powerful that the earth melts in response. Whoa. All of the fury and power of the kingdoms of earth cannot even begin to withstand the power of God when He only opens His mouth and utters.

In verse 7 we are reminded that this same God, whose utterance of voice can melt the earth, is with us. He is our refuge. So what on earth should we be afraid of? If such a holy, consuming fire is on our side, what can possibly bring us harm?

Verses 8 and 9 again display God's mighty power. He makes desolations in the earth. He causes wars to cease. He is the one who thwarts all the weapons that man can create-bows and spears and chariots. They are all completely useless against God!

So why, then, does it make any sense at all, that suddenly in verse 10, we should associate the words "Be still and know that I am God," with quietness and meditation? That would be taking the verse totally out of the context of the rest of the Psalm.

Even the rest of the verse, "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth," is all about God's awesome power and glory. Not at all about us. And certainly not at all about us praying and "hearing from God."

I thought we should understand it to mean something more along the lines of: I am all-powerful! I am all-glorious! I will make myself known and exalted! Therefore, you small person without power and without glory, you be still and see ME in all of my power and all of my glory. THEN, remember that I am for you and against your enemies, and have NO fear. I can defeat them with only the power of my voice.

That's what I thought anyway. But then I read some commentary. And almost every single commentary I read said that we should understand the words, be still, as addressed to God's enemies, not God's people. Huh. That makes even my initial interpretation way off the mark.

It makes the sense of the verse more like this: All of you enemies of Me and My people, just be still, stop resisting. The outcome is certain. I will be victorious, I will be the one exalted. You will be defeated, and My children will be safe.

Who knew? I guess that is the trouble we can get ourselves into when we hear verses over and over again out of their context and start assigning meaning to them based on what they seem to be saying. It makes a strong case for opening up our Bibles and reading passages in the context in which they were meant to be understood. I've always known that, but even I was surprised at how off base the common understanding of this verse was.

Or maybe it was just me? Did all of you already know this?

By the way, this Psalm is the inspiration for the hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." It's one of my favorites.

Purchase Power

I have pretty much been crying on and off all day now. I'm going to get a headache in a little while that will probably ruin the rest of the afternoon. I'm not too excited about the headache, but the crying, well, its been the good kind, the kind that wells up inside you and refuses to be ignored. The crying that happens when you realize something so wonderful that it overwhelms you; and the only thing you can think to do in response is cry like an idiot.

It all started this morning when I read Isaiah 49.

Isaiah 49: 5-6

"'And now the LORD says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD,
And My God shall be my strength),
Indeed He says,
'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

Notice all of the capital letters in those verses. The Servant, the I, the Me, the one speaking here is Jesus.

I saw something in verse 6 that I'd never thought about before. The purchase price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross was too valuable to only redeem the nation of Israel. This would have been a revolutionary idea in Isaiah's day. The Jews understood that they were God's special and chosen people, set apart, marked off from the rest of humanity. They were right to think that way. God had declared it to them numerous times, and had given them specific laws to live by as a way of demonstrating their separateness to the rest of the world. But here, we see the LORD telling Jesus (part of Himself) that only redeeming Israel is too little to get in return for what He would do. So the Gentiles must be brought to the light as well.

Now, we know that God does not change His plan halfway through the game. Everything that has ever happened and will ever happen has been planned from the beginning. So it's not like God changed His mind and decided to throw the Gentiles in the deal at the last minute. It was part of His plan to include us all along. But I've just never seen it in this light before.

Which serves to illustrate an important point that seems to get overlooked a lot. This idea does an interesting thing. You see, this equation was never about our value, it was about God's value. It turns our perspective from ourselves back to God, which is where it should be anyway. So much of what we are exposed to encourages us to appreciate how much God loves us personally. That is important, don't get me wrong here, it is certainly part of the whole. But the part that gets overlooked, I'm afraid, is that God is about more than just loving us, He is always after His own glory. In everything.

This may be a subtle point, but I think its valid. Christ's worth is so infinitely valuable that we cannot even comprehend it. But one way God has tried to point us toward understanding it is by showing how much needed to be bought in order for the sacrifice of His son to be made. The Jews just weren't enough to make the trade worthwhile. Christ was too valuable. More had to be acquired for such a precious price to be given.

AND, not only does this high cost help us to understand Christ's worth, it brings Him glory as well. When we understand who God is and what He is, we glorify Him. Bringing glory to God simply means that we reflect His worth back to Him. The better we understand God, the more we can glorify God.

Boy I hope I expressed that in a way that makes sense. If I sound like I'm talking in circles, just let me know. I'll try to clarify.

There is so much more I want to share with you about Isaiah 49. These two verses aren't even the ones that made me cry. I'll try to get up another post this weekend. Maybe tomorrow I'll have settled down enough to express my thoughts clearly.