The Truth About Rainbows

(2 Minute Read)

Last week I saw the biggest full rainbow I have ever seen. It was huge and bright, but it soon faded as I tried to get a picture while walking Kepler. It was actually a full double bow, but the higher bow faded away before my picture.

Partial bows are common, but I rarely get to see a full bow. The rainbow was too big to get a picture of the entire bow, but this is what I got as it faded.

I saw this bow early in the evening in the east as the sun set in the west shortly after a rain.

How Do Rainbows Form?

When sunlight hits raindrops in the atmosphere, refraction and reflection of the light produces a rainbow. The light is refracted (bent) as it enters the raindrop. Some is reflected off the back surface of the drop and refracted again as it exits the drop.

Light of different wavelengths (colors) is refracted different degrees. Each raindrop acts as a prism as it separates sunlight into the colors of a rainbow.

Rainbow Truths

Different cultures and groups of people have given the rainbow a variety of meanings, most of which are wrong. To learn the true significance of the rainbow, it’s proper to go back to the time it was first established as a reminder of God’s promise to Noah after the Great Flood. Whenever I see a rainbow, it reminds me of these four basic truths:

1. Sin is real and evil is real. Adam’s sin mushroomed throughout the succeeding generations until the earth was filled with wickedness and violence some 1500 years later in Noah’s day (Genesis 6:5-13).

2. God judges sin. Noah’s Flood was God’s judgment on a sin-soaked world.

3. God is gracious and merciful. He provided a way of salvation for Noah and his family. The ark that God told Noah to build was plenty big enough for many more people. The ark stood open for seven days after Noah entered before God closed the door (Genesis 7:1-16). The Apostle Peter refers to Noah as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), so Noah undoubtedly implored other people to repent and join him on the ark. But no one did besides his own family.

4. The rainbow is the sign Yahweh appointed for His promise to Noah to never again destroy the earth with a flood. (Genesis 9:8-17)

Noah Sacrificing after the Deluge
by Benjamin West (1738-1820)

The next time you see a rainbow, review these truths in your mind to counteract the false rainbow views so prevalent in America and around the world.

Questions to Ponder

1. Which numbered point above will you zero in on when you next see a rainbow?
2. When Noah saw the first rainbow, how would his scene have differed from my photo?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

For Christ and His Kingdom. Soli Deo Gloria.

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday September 4, 2019 A.D.

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.. (Genesis 9:12-15)

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