In the
run-up to his country’s dramatic transition to democracy, Bishop Tutu
popularized the notion of South Africa as a ‘rainbow nation’. This notion was
captured in President Mandela’s inaugural address, and influenced the design of
the country’s new flag. But does this make South Africa the real ‘rainbow
nation’?
Historically,
closeted gay people used bright colors to signal their homosexuality to each
other and to the world at large. This culminated in use of the rainbow in the
1970s to reference the worldwide gay community, and the advent/adoption of a rainbow
flag in the late 1970s, perhaps to signify and represent a ‘gay nation’. But
does this make gays across the world the real ‘rainbow nation’??
What is
a rainbow physically, and what might it signify spiritually?
From our
perspective on Earth, a rainbow is Light refracted or bent into a multicolored
arch that perfectly segregates pure white Light into its component colors, each
with its own frequency (or speed of travel) as it passes through an atmosphere.
Like a prism, raindrops can refract and disperse light, and when conditions are
just right, the refraction forms a rainbow, with visible colors of the light
spectrum.
Insight:
God is represented by spiritual and physical ‘Light’. Spiritually,
this signifies pure holiness and wisdom. Physically, this signifies the purest,
whitest Light that we humans are incapable of even imagining – whiter, purer
and hotter than that light created by a nuclear explosion. He intends His spiritual
Light to be caught and refracted in and through us. As this happens, His
spiritual attributes, as it were, are revealed in and through us to a needy world
in waiting - Love, Joy, Peace, Forgiveness, Compassion, Mercy, Grace,
Abundance, Long-suffering, etc., all that is spiritually GOOD.
But
how does this relate to the rainbow? Glad
you asked!
The
concept of ‘rainbow’ is introduced to the world in Genesis 9:13 – 17, where God
told Noah:
‘I
set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between
Me and the Earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the Earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and
I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living
creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy
all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember
the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh
that is on the Earth.’ And God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant
which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the Earth.’
Physically,
the rainbow is a symbol of this covenant. Rainbows ‘will be seen, God will
look, God will remember’. They serve as a ‘bridge to remembrance’ between
all flesh (all living things) and God, that He will never destroy all flesh on Earth
by floods of water. They act as a bridge between man and God, with both sides
beholding, symbolically, the promise of the covenant.
Spiritually,
however, the plot thickens considerably. Hang on, in our search for the true
rainbow nation!
There
are three other insightful references to ‘rainbow’ in God’s Word, The Bible:
1. Ezekiel 1:28: Like the appearance of a
rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all
around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So
when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.
2. Revelation 4:3: And He who sat there was
like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around
the throne, in appearance like an emerald.
3. Revelation 10:1: I saw still another mighty
angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his
head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.
From these
verses, we see the rainbow represents the glory of God that fully encircles His
Holy Throne, and actually travels with Him on His portable Throne, so to speak. In my mind, I imagine a rainbow as
God’s personal, most intimate necklace that reflects His glory. Could this be
why God told Noah, ‘…My rainbow’, e.g., something
representative of His person, or of Him personally? Selah, worth pondering.
With
this insight, is it any wonder why and how God’s enemy, satan and his crew,
would do their level best to degenerate the very symbol of God’s glory? In his
pride to overthrow God, satan wanted that necklace for himself! Since he cannot
get his hands on it, he sets his mind on insulting and smearing this symbol
with anything and everything that is opposite to glorifying God. The height of
his insults is to directly associate God’s symbol of His personal glory to
something God calls an abomination (defined as something abominable, greatly
disliked, abhorred, vile, shameful, detestable), namely, homosexuality. Mind
you, such an association is far worse than burning a country’s flag, throwing a
shoe at a president, or any other gross insults we humans are famous for. This
is ‘up close, and very personal!’
I wonder whether the worldwide gay community realizes just how they have
‘been played’ in this matter, and what the eventual, resulting
consequences may be.
God has
resolutely established the real ‘rainbow
nation-of-nations’ on planet Earth – a nation that is created and designed to receive, refract and reflect the Light of His glory in the Earth. Through this nation,
He has established, and is rapidly expanding His Kingdom of Good on Earth. This
nation is the true worldwide Church - the true, collective body of baptized,
orally-professing believers, dead and alive, from every from every tribe and
tongue and people and nation. (Revelation 5:9) Moreover, in these last
days of this current phase/age of human life on Earth, God is standing up his
army nation as the battle of Good versus evil approaches its predicted climax.
The Head
of this ‘rainbow nations-of-nations is Jesus Christ who, Himself, receives, refracts and reflects the rainbow-like glory of God
for/to mankind. He, in pre-incarnate form, is vividly described in visions of
Daniel, Ezekiel and John, each of whom spoke of seeing a Man, parts of whose
body resembled burnished or polished bronze or brass. If you have ever
inspected polished bronze, you will recall the rainbow-like (prism bronze)
effect good light has on it. Spiritually, bronze signifies the place where our
sacrifices meet and are consumed by the fire of God’s judgment against sin.
Jesus
is this place. At
the end of this age, this same polished bronze-like figure, enveloped in the
fiery Light of God’s glory, will
manifest Himself in the sight of the whole, tribulation-surviving world –
possibly sporting the biggest, widest, brightest, emerald rainbow imaginable
surrounding His Throne! I wonder who then
will dare disparage and spit on God’s glorious necklace?!
Don’t be deceived. Take
heed
…when referring to
God’s rainbow necklace!
