DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Genesis 9:8-17 (4/1) 1st
After
the Flood-II ~ The Rainbow: Genesis 9:8-17, especially vss. 13: “I
set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of covenant between Me and
the earth.” In the
Genesis account, “bow” is used metaphorically for
“rainbow,” while most commonly in the Septuagint the term refers to
the archer’s weapon. Neither
Hebrew nor Greek has an exclusive word for rainbow. How ironic that a weapon became “a
sign of covenant” between God and His creation!
In
the annals of history, the bow most often has represented war, power, and
death. The longbow empowered the
English to dominate western Europe for several hundred years during the late
Middle Ages. In Old Testament
times, the reign of kings and even of dynasties often were ended by the bow
(III Kngs. 22:34-37; IV Kngs. 9:24).
How shall we understand the bow as a covenant from God that “all
flesh shall not any more die by the water of the flood” (Gen. 9:11)? Actually, today’s reading
reveals the bow as a sign having many dimensions: Divine judgment, God’s
peace, and the spiritual warfare of those Baptized into Christ’s death
and Resurrection.
God declared to Noah, “I set My bow in the cloud” (vs.
13). Notice, God has placed His war
bow above our heads to remind us, first of all, of Divine Judgment. Noah and his family had just emerged
alive from a massive, worldwide cleansing of all species in the Great
Flood. The bow was, and remains, a
poignant symbol to remind all men, even the Faithful in Christ, that God
eternally opposes human wickedness.
This may be seen throughout Holy Scripture where the bow is used to
signify God's judgment, will, and ability to defeat His enemies.
In Jeremiah, for example, the Lord says, “Summon many against
Now, in the present passage, God deliberately makes the war bow a sign
of peace with all flesh. The
Lord’s declaration that “I set up My bow in the cloud” is
God’s sign that He has stored His weapon of destruction in plain view
before all men. He has ended total
annihilation and genocide against our race. The war bow is now a peace memorial of
many colors. “I will remember
My covenant, which is between Me and you, and between every living soul in all
flesh, and there shall no longer be water for a deluge, so as to blot out all flesh”
(Gen. 9:15). We regularly receive
the blessing of peace in the Divine Liturgy as St. John Chrysostom points out:
“...the priests, when about to consecrate, first make this prayer [of
peace] for you, and so begin with the blessing [of peace]....in a word, we may
not say or do any thing without this peace.”
God has made the rainbow an antitype of Holy Baptism. Water is no longer “for a deluge,
so as to blot out all flesh” (vs. 15). Under the rainbow, water becomes a
covenant of peace between God “and all flesh, which is upon the
earth” (vs. 17). “...Do
you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death?” (Rom. 6:3).
Like the antediluvians, we died in the waters of Baptism. As we were graciously buried with the
Lord “through baptism into death...” (Rom. 6:4), so now, like Noah,
we “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). At the conclusion of Romans 6, St. Paul
uses the word for “weapons” (unfortunately translated as
“instruments”) to teach us to yield our members no longer as
weapons “of unrighteousness to sin,” but now to present ourselves to God as
alive from the dead like Noah, and our members as weapons “of
righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:13).
Being buried in Thy death, O Savior, increase Thy Life in us as a weapon
of peace.