Rabbi Schneider - The Rainbow
In 1982, I had a very unusual experience that sticks with me so powerfully even to this day. It was a vision of the night. In this vision of the night, I found myself in an attic of a home. It was dark in the attic. There was a window on one side and a window on the other. And from the window on this side, streamed into this dark attic a spirit of life, a living spirit of life composed of all the colors of a rainbow. I approached the spirit of life, and I went to the window from which it had come into the room from, I stuck my head out the window, and everywhere all I saw was color. And I opened my arms, beloved ones, and I said to the spirit of color and life, "Come and live inside me". And then suddenly I heard the word "eternity" hit me in the center of my being.
Rainbows and color are very much a part of the visible manifestation of the glory of God. For example, in the book of Ezekiel, when Ezekiel saw the Lord, this is what he said in Ezekiel 1:28. "He was like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance around him. This was the appearance of the lightness," get this now, "of the glory of the Lord..." God made the rainbow, and it's a manifestation of His glory and beauty. I want to take some time on today's broadcast to talk about the rainbow. Because you might have noticed on the new open to my show I incorporate the rainbow. And you'll see later, as the camera continues to pan the set, the rainbow that we've added to the backdrop of Israel. God made the rainbow. It manifest, beloved ones, His glory, and His beauty.
Now, before we get into some of the biblical text, let's just look at the rainbow from a bit of a scientific perspective. What is a rainbow? The first thing that we should state is all the colors of the rainbow are contained in white light. What happens is, is that as the light from the sun hits the rain droplets or the water droplets, the water droplets in the rain act as a prism that divides the white light into the seven colors of a rainbow. To say it another way, rain droplets act as prisms that divide white light into the rainbow spectrum. Now, it's interesting that all colors are in white light. And when we think of the light of God's glory, we think of Him as what? Shining white light. This gives us a sense of how beautiful God is. Think about what the earth would look like without color. It would be lifeless, right?
So the rainbow and colors come from God. He's the one that made it. It's interesting also that there are seven colors in the rainbow. Most of you know what the colors of the rainbow are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Seven colors in the rainbow. And in a second we're going to talk about the fact that seven is so much of what we see in scripture in terms of God showing how holy of a number seven is. We're going to talk about the seven-day creation narrative and some of the other sevens in the Scripture, seven colors in the rainbow. And of those seven colors in the rainbow, three of them are primary colors: red, yellow, and blue.
And so think now, again, of this number three. We see in Scripture that number three, which is the Hebrew word shalosh, it also means completeness just like seven carries the idea of completeness. And we're going to, in a second, take a look at some of the threes that we see in the Bible. So just wanted to point out once again, the rainbow comes from white light, it goes through the prism of the raindrop, which divides the white light that consists of different wavelengths into different colors. The white light hits the raindrop, the raindrop then bends the wavelengths of the white light, and we get then a manifestation of the different colors of the rainbow. Seven colors, three of them are primary.
Think about this once again. Seven days in creation. Noah, as he was getting ready to board the Ark before the flood, he was instructed to bring in seven sets of every clean type of animal. In the Holy temple and the tabernacle, the Lord instructed that there was to be a menorah there that had seven candle sticks burning from it. We read in the book of Revelation that before the throne of the Lord in Revelation 1:4, there are the seven spirits of God.
Why are we saying this? Seven colors in the rainbow. In the book of Revelation, we see the number seven used over and over again. For example, there's seven churches in the book of Revelation that Yeshua addresses, seven seals, seven bowls of wrath, seven trumpets. And the Feast of Tabernacles, that great feast, which every nation in the world will participate in during the millennial period is made up of seven days. The Feast of Sukkot or tabernacles is a seven-day feast with an extra eighth day of celebration. But that eight-day is not actually part of the Feast of Tabernacles. It's an extra day added on. So we have seven. We see this through all of God's creation. We see it in Scripture. And then we have what we said are the three primary colors of the rainbow. And I want us to consider, for a second, this number three in God's word.
So, for example, we find that the temple which was patterned after the tabernacle had three different sections. It had the outer court, the holy place, and then the Holy of Holies. And then we think of the patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible. How many patriarchs are there? There are three. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And when we get immersed are baptized in the name of Yeshua or Jesus, what are we baptized into? We're baptized into what? The name of the Father, the Son, and the Ruach HaKodesh or the Holy Spirit. We're baptized into all three. Finally, Yeshua rose from the dead on the third day. So I just find it really exciting and fascinating to see the same numbers that are incorporated in Scripture into the rainbow's seven colors, with three of With three of them being primary.
With that being said, I want to go back to our primary texts for the day. It's Bereshit or Genesis chapter 9, and we're going to read there verse 13 through verse 17. Hear the Word of God. The Lord is speaking. "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 in the earth". And God said to Noah, "'This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh on the earth.'"
What I'd like to do now, beloved ones, is to consider with you some of the concepts that the Holy Spirit is communicating to us involving what the rainbow should mean to God's people. First of all, the rainbow reminds us that we can trust the promises of God. The rainbow was a sign that whenever we see it we can remember that we can trust God. That He will do what He said He's going to do. That's why it's so important for us to know God's word and to know what His promises are. Because we incorporate into our life, the fullness of Messiah, His substance by having faith in His promises. We inherit the kingdom through faith in His promises. So the rainbow reminds us, beloved, that we need to trust and say amen to every promise that God has given His people through Messiah Yeshua. Quote the word of God over your life. Speak God's promises over your life. Take a hold of them. Seize them by faith. The rainbow reminds us to do this.
Secondly, and I love this, the rainbow reminds us of new beginnings. Remember, the earth had just gotten destroyed by the flood, but the flood subsided and a rainbow appeared in the sky. And what that communicated to Noah and his family is that it was a time of new beginnings. The storm had passed. So I want you to be encouraged at the same God that put the rainbow in the sky for Noah is still putting His rainbows in the sky for you and I, His people today, to remember that when we go through hard times, those hard times will not last forever. That there's going to be a new beginning, that you're coming out into something brand new. God is always a God of new beginnings. And the rainbow that appeared after the storm should remind us all that Satan will never have the last laugh. God is sitting on His throne. He's happy and laughing. He's got a great purpose for you and I. There's always new beginnings of Him. In fact, we've become as individuals, even new creations.
The rainbow reminds us also in connection with this that something good is going to follow something bad in your life. You see our lives are cycles where the Lord brings us through challenges and trials so that we can learn to cling to Him by faith when we're going through hard times. But those trials, that challenge, beloved one, that you might be going through right now, it's going to end. And when it ends, God has something good for you that will follow the challenge that you might be going through right now. Remember something good is coming.
You see, the rainbow is a sign of hope. It's a sign that no matter what happens on the earth. Noah just saw the world destroyed by a flood, he saw all life wiped off the face of the earth, except those animals that he had in the ark. But you know what? The rainbow appeared in the sky, God spoke. He said He would never destroy the world by a flood again and He had something brand new that He was doing. Something good followed the storm. So I want you to remember and have faith that the trial that you might be going through right now or that you're going to face sometime in the future it will not last forever. Weeping might come in the night but joy comes in the morning. The rainbow reminds us that something good will always come after a hard season.
Another unique concept that I'd like you to consider with me concerning the rainbow it's just a symbol of innocence. I remember going over my little granddaughter's house about a year ago, and she was out on her driveway and she had the chalk that kids use. You know the different colored chalk that you can paint on your driveway with. And she was painting with that chalk on her driveway a rainbow. Kids, children by nature love rainbows. Rainbows connect us to innocence.
You see, the rainbow appeared in the sky in the book of Bereshit, in the book of Genesis, after God had cleansed the earth of evil. Again, why did the flood come? Because the world had become so corrupt. It was so evil, God said every thought of man's heart was continually evil, so that God grieved that He had made man. He had to cleanse the earth of all that evil. After He cleansed the earth of evil, the rainbow appeared. Rainbows, beloved, for the children of God is a sign and a symbol of innocence. And all of us should be in prayer that the Holy Spirit would cleanse us of every blemish and of all evil, that we could become as innocent as children. Because Yeshua said unless we become like children, we shall by no means enter the kingdom of God.
The Lord promised to deliver us from evil. Even as He cleansed the earth of evil and then the rainbow appeared in the sky, you and I should continue to pray that God would continuously wash us in a deeper and deeper way of every evil motive, every evil impulse, everything in our nature that's contrary to Him because He's bringing us to the place of absolute complete, perfect restoration so that we will be conformed to the image of Jesus and the rainbow should remind us of that promise and that place of innocence that the Lord is restoring to us. Most of you know that one of the key concepts biblically connected to the rainbow which God created has to do with covenant.
In fact, God said that the rainbow was the sign of the everlasting covenant. Listen to verse 16 of Genesis 9. The Lord said, "Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember that everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures". This is a powerful thing. The rainbow is connected to the concept of everlasting covenant. And the everlasting covenant that God has made with you, beloved, one that knows Yeshua as your Messiah, is eternal life. The everlasting covenant that the Lord has made with you and I is the covenant of eternal life, everlasting life-to be with Him and to know Him forever. When we see that rainbow in the sky, we should thank God that He has entered into a relationship with you and I that is so precious there is no words that I can use to describe it.
He feels everything you feel because He's become one with you through Messiah Jesus. Whatever you're feeling, He feels. Whatever you think, it touches Him, it affects Him. He's walking through life so intimately, bound together with you and I. He is in relationship and union with us in such a way that He's become one with us through Messiah in an everlasting covenant. That's why Yeshua said, "This blood that I'm shedding for you," when He lifted up that Passover wine and He said, "This is my blood shed for you," it was the blood of the covenant.
The rainbow should remind us of the covenant that God has entered into with His children. And I love the fact that when Noah looked up and he saw that rainbow on the sky after the rain had stopped, God began, listen to this, to heal the earth. Remember it had been destroyed. But when that rainbow appeared in the sky, guess what? Healing began to happen. When you see the rainbow in the sky, even a picture of it in a book, even the rainbow on my set here, beloved ones, or the rainbow in the opening of the program, I want to encourage you to believe, I mean, really believe that Yeshua is your healer. By His stripes you're healed, spirit, soul, mind, and body.
In Yeshua, in Jesus, you and I are being made and are complete. The rainbow should remind us of healing, that God's healing spirit of life is extended toward you to heal you. And ultimately you're going to stand before Him blameless, with a brand new body, perfectly complete and whole in Him. The rainbow is a sign of love, salvation, healing, and covenant. Let's never forget God. Your God and my God created the rainbow. It has everlasting significance. Even in heaven I believe we're going to see a rainbow. As Ezekiel saw the Lord surrounded by the rainbow of His glory, I believe you and I will be surrounded by that same rainbow glory forever and ever and ever.