GOD LOOKS AND REMEMBERS

GOD LOOKS AND REMEMBERS

"I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth" Gen. 9:13

Thus God selected one of the already existing and most beautiful of natural phenomena, and made it the abiding sign of the covenant that He had made with man. Apart from clouds and rain there can be no rainbow. But the rainbow is never seen on the clouds except when the sun is shining. In view of the instrument of the judgment through which the earth had just passed, that of the rain and the flood, this was an exquisitely fitting symbol of that covenant made with man by the God of mercy and of grace. The context shows us the use to be made of it. Necessarily when seen in the cloud it would speak to man of this covenant, and without any doubt that was within the mind of God. But that is not the purpose for its adoption as a sign which is stated in the account. It is rather that God said: "The bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant" (vv. 14, 15); and that is still further emphasized by the words, "The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it that I may remember" (vs. 16). The full value of the rainbow in the cloud, then, was not so much that when man looked at it he remembered the covenant; but rather that he remembered that GOD WAS LOOKING AND REMEMBERING. That touches a deeper note, and creates a profounder sense of peace. When next we see the rainbow, let us remind ourselves that we are looking at something at which GOD IS LOOKING, and that as He looks He REMEMBERS.