The Rainbow - Sign of God's Providential Care

A complete rainbow

The Rainbow -  A sign given by God

By chance, and totally unconnected with my last post, I was asked to preach on God's Rainbow Promise two weeks ago on the last Sunday before Advent. I was blessed by my preparatory researches on Genesis 8:20-9:17 and it seems I was able to pass this on to the congregation that listened to me. While I was struck again by how God can change his mind in response to a human being it was something else that caught my listeners' imagination.

It took me a week to realise this and has taken a further week to work out how to convey the PowerPoint presentation that caught the imagination into an internet-friendly version and make the time to do so.

No Hebrew Word for Rainbow

What caught the imagination was my discovery that there is no Hebrew word for rainbow in the Old Testament, only the word "bow", usually meaning a warrior's bow, such as the one God says, in Habakkuk 3:9,  he will use to defend his people. There is no word for rainbow as such; this is inferred from the context and in only four of the 72 uses in the Old Testament does it mean a rainbow - three here in Genesis and one in Ezekiel 1:28.

So when God says that he will put his bow in the sky he may be saying that he will hang up his warrior's bow, no longer to train it on the earth beneath to target and devastate it, destroying all life.  It is a change of plan at the same time as there is no change.  Because the bow, once loaded, then  points upwards to God himself, targeting for death the "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8) Jesus, who died on the cross so that we might have forgiveness of sins and be given his righteousness through faith in him.

Have a look at the short video in the link to see what I mean:

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The Rainbow - Sign of God's Love and Grace

God's love 

I sat in my study this morning musing on how sad it is that I allow my childhood experience to influence my heart appreciation of the fact that God loves me; he really does appreciate me. Wow! Yet because I had few friends at primary school who wanted to spend time with me I allow that subconsciously to colour my judgement.   

And this despite the fact I knew that my parents loved me – even if it felt like I had to earn that love at times – and I know God loves me.

 

The Rainbow

Then while I sat musing and praying all of a sudden a brilliant rainbow appeared in the sky, a complete arc of many colours. The sun was shining and there was no rain but still the rainbow.  I felt that God was showing me that he does indeed love me and this was a sign of his covenant of love and grace towards me personally.

I often marvel that God changed the laws of physics just to create the first rainbow for Noah after the flood, Genesis 9:13:-

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.*

The rainbow was then and still is now a sign of God’s covenant of love and grace towards all the earth and of the forgiveness he offers (Genesis 9:12-17). 

After the rainbow this morning dark clouds rolled in and heavy rain poured down. You could imagine how Noah must have felt! Of course the rainbow disappeared but I had the impression that it was still there, unseen behind the clouds.  And I felt that God was saying that even in the dark times when I cannot sense his love, or feel I don't deserve it, the rainbow is still there, unchanged and unchanging.  The rainbow of his love for me is still brilliant.  And I don’t have to earn it either!

 

*New International Version - UK (NIVUK) 

Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Knowing God's favour: It's All About His Face

Friend of God - Israel Houghton

The shining face of God

“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
 the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face towards you
    and give you peace.”  Numbers 6:24-26, ESV

These are the words the LORD instructed High Priest Aaron to use to bless the people of Israel. Is it surprising that the highest blessing the LORD can bestow on His favoured people is that His face will shine upon them?

What? Just His face, nothing else? What about wishes for good health, or for them to prosper and do well? Or even those things that we expect the Almighty to wish, for obedient hearts and that His people’s faces are turned towards Him? Yes, all of those; and more. It is all about His face.

The aspect of a face is important. When my 8 month old granddaughter and I get to see one another on FaceTime her little face lights up when she realises that it me; it shines! She delights in me and shows me favour, irrespective of whether I deserve it. It makes me feel good and I am blessed. How like the Lord’s attitude! It makes me want to be the sort of grandmother that meets my granddaughter’s expectations. And the Lord’s favour makes me want to match up to the delight and trust He displays in me.

Of course, the Lord’s “eyes are too pure to look on evil; He cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (Habakkuk 1:13, ESV) so it is important that I keep an eye on myself and confess and claim forgiveness through Jesus when I have done wrong and sinned. Otherwise His eyes will be turned away from my sin and the light of His face may not shine through.

By contrast, when someone I know, someone that I know has seen me, studiously ignores me and walks past without a look, smile or even a nod, then I feel neglected and rejected, particularly if that person is a friend. So must the Lord feel when I fail to respond to His face turned in radiance towards me. 

The light of God's face brings joy and strength

It is such a good thing to walk in the light of the righteousness that Jesus provides through His death and resurrection. It is such a good thing to consciously lift up my face towards the Lord in response to the love, grace and favour shown in His face shining towards me. It brings amazing benefits. As the psalmist Ethan the Ezrahite wrote in Psalm 89 (here in The Voice translation, where the words in italics have been added to aid understanding):

¹⁵How happy are those who have learned how to praise You;
    those who journey through life by the light of Your face. ¹⁶ Every hour of the day, they rejoice at the sound of Your name.
    They are lifted up and encouraged by Your righteousness. ¹⁷ For You are the beauty of their strength.
    On account of Your favour, our strength, our horn, is increased. ¹⁸ For our shield of protection comes from the Eternal,
    and the Holy One of Israel has given us our king.

Ethan knew that walking in the light of the Lord’s face brings joy, encouragement, increasing strength and the Lord’s protection. Wow - all this! It is indeed all about His face.

And that was before the cross of Jesus. I think I fail to appreciate just what a tremendous privilege I have as a Christian, the privilege of gazing on the face of the Lord without encumbrance and in doing so actually be changed to be like Him:  

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.  2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

Friendship with God!

And not only gaze but relate as friends.  In the Old Testament it was said of Moses that “the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face.” (Exodus 33:11, ESV), the privilege now accorded to Jesus’ disciples whom he calls friends (John 15:15). I am a friend of God! I can speak to Him face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. What an honour!

It is all about His face, His favour, His friendship. May I walk in the light of that daily, with my eyes turned to His eyes.

Bible passages taken from English Standard Version (ESV)  The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. 

Link: Friend of God - Israel Houghton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI0cgUKMqRs

God's love: The love of a parent

I love my granddaughter so much!

I had the privilege of becoming a grandparent just over two weeks ago and it's great!  Our granddaughter is adorable and very special.  But it has set me musing on why I love her so much.  Yes, she's adorable; yes, she is my son's child but there is something more.  And it's not because of anything she does.

She doesn't know me although she may recognise me as someone familiar.  She doesn't reach out and cuddle me, talk to me or even look at me with any degree of focus or recognition.  Other than the warmth of cuddling her I get nothing out of the relationship, at least, not at the moment.  So why do I love her so much?

I have decided that the reason I love her so much is just because she is. I love her simply because she is here and not because of anything that she does. In a way she is a part of me but I don't think that is the reason why I love her.  It is certainly not for any activity or behaviour on her part; she is too young for that.  Nor is it because I love me so much!  I struggle with loving me.  But I have participated in my granddaughter's creation and here she is, a gift to the family, and we love her simply because she has arrived among us, just because she is.

Our Heavenly Father's love 

This set me thinking about another parent, our Heavenly Father.  If I, my son and my daughter-in-law love this new arrival so much just because she is, could our Heavenly Father love us any less?  Or make his love conditional and expect us to act in a particular way before he loves?  Of course not; it's inconceivable.  God loves us just because we are.  He created us in order to love us.  Yet somehow we often think deep down that we are not lovable enough for God to love us.  We try and act in ways that will make us more lovable, more acceptable to God - and we fail.  We slip up somewhere because we are human, because we are unable to be perfect all the time.

But we don't have to be.  It is enough that we have been created.  Sometimes it is said that God cannot love us any more or any less that he does now.  Nothing that we do and nothing that we fail to do will change how much he loves us.  Our Heavenly Father's love is perfect.  He loves us just as much as he loves Jesus, John 17:23.

I will be in them, and you will be in me. So they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.

He loves us at least as much as any mother loves her own baby, and even more than some, Isaiah 49:15:

But the Lord says,
“Can a woman forget her baby?
    Can she forget the child who came from her body?
Even if she can forget her children,
    I cannot forget you.

As my granddaughter grows older I expect that there will be times when she will act in ways I do not like; she will not always please me.  But I cannot believe that I shall love her any the less as a result.  And so I trust that she will be a constant reminder that God loves me just as much whether I please or displease him.

And as my granddaughter grows older I hope she will grow to love me too, just because I am her grandmother.  And as we both grow older I hope that we shall both grow to love God more, just because he is our Heavenly Father who loves us so much.

Bible passages taken from English Standard Version (ESV)  The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Fishermen through grace

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:18-20

Just like Simon Peter and Andrew we followers of Jesus are to be fishers of men (or "people", the word translated "men" is not gender-specific) too.  Fishing for people means finding others who want to follow Jesus too as we read at the end of Matthew's gospel in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Peter and Andrew, and the other disciples, learnt to people-fish by spending time with Jesus and watching how he did it.  And they saw that what Jesus did was proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom of God, Matthew 4:23:

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

What is the kingdom of God? It is the grace of God impacting on us.  It is the proactive, loving, forgiving, reconciling, recreating power of God breaking through into the darkness of our world in a tangible way, overpowering the forces of darkness through the victory over them accomplished by Jesus through his death and resurrection (Colossians 2:13-15)  It is expressed through the healings and deliverances that Jesus did (Matthew 4:24).  The kingdom of God is the light of his grace shining in the darkness.  

The net with which we fish is the grace of God.  We fish by God's grace, through God's grace and with God's grace.  It is by the grace of God that we have been brought into his kingdom and made partners with him in bringing his kingdom on earth; it is through the grace of God that we have the talents, gifts and abilities we need in order to fish and it is the grace of the gospel that we demonstrate that will draw people to God.

James Ryle describes God's grace like this: "Grace is the empowering presence of God enabling you to be who God created you to be, and to do what God has called you to do – right where you are."  http://www.truthworks.org/grace-gods-unspeakable-gift/


We are able to make disciples - people fish - through the empowering presence of God because the empowering presence of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, is with us always (Matthew 28:19-20).

 
Bible passages taken from English Standard Version (ESV)  The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.