the Fourth Week of Advent
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Bible Dictionaries
Rainbow
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or I know not how it is, but so it is, as if by natural instinct, as often as I see that beautiful arch in the heavens called the rainbow, I call to mind what JEHOVAH once said after the deluge: "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth and it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall 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 the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the, earth." (Genesis 9:13-16) As oft therefore as I behold the rain bow, I consider the graciousness of the Lord's renewed token of this covenant; and I consider also the high privilege in looking in one and the same moment to the same object to which my God is looking. There is somewhat in this peculiarly blessed. And moreover, when I call to mind, what the beloved apostle John saw when heaven was opened to his view, "the rainbow round about the throne," (Revelation 4:3) and also that mighty, angel whom he saw with a "rainbow upon his head," (Revelation 10:1) I confess I feel great delight. For I cannot but conclude, that the bow JEHOVAH set in the cloud after the deluge, and the rainbow John saw in heaven round about the throne, and encircling or covering the head of the mighty angel, were all to the same purport, and all representing Christ. For surely Jesus is himself the covenant JEHOVAH hath made with our nature in the person of his dear Son. Notwithstanding, therefore, what some men tell us of the physical causes by which the rainbow, they say, is produced, yet still I desire to look at it as the result of higher purposes in grace, and to behold it in every renewed view as the sweet and glorious token JEHOVAH hangs out in the heavens of JEHOVAH'S covenant in Christ. Men who study nature may see God in the works of nature; and they who study providences may see God in the works of his providences; but they who study the works of grace; when taught of God, will discover Christ in the whole of those great designs, and behold the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Rainbow'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/r/rainbow.html. London. 1828.
