Op-Ed: God Made the Rainbow for His Glory - It's Time We Take It Back
For millennia, the rainbow has served as a reminder of a powerful promise. It has signified divine completeness. And ultimately, it has represented God’s beauty and glory.
But in less than 50 years, the rainbow has been co-opted by the LGBT movement to represent something else entirely.
Yet God made the rainbow. He created it with purpose. And just as the rainbow is formed by the bending of pure light into different wavelengths through the prism of raindrops, so too it manifests different emanations and dimensions of God himself.
It represents a reminder.
In the book of Genesis, we read of God splashing the rainbow across the sky, imbuing its brilliance with an eternal promise to never again destroy the world through a flood. And to this day, it reminds us that we can trust His promises.
It represents hope.
It speaks of new days after the storm has passed. It points to a new morning after the darkest night. It says that when bad things happen, good things are still to come.
It represents completeness.
There are seven colors in the rainbow. The Bible contains more than 700 references to the number seven. We read of the seven days of creation. Seven petitions in the Lord’s Prayer. Seven metaphors used by Jesus to describe His role in salvation. In the book of Revelation, we find the number mentioned again and again, including seven seals, seven spirits and seven trumpets. It is clear that God has ascribed a sacred nature to this number.
It represents His manifest glory and beauty.
Rainbows are very much a part of the visible manifestation of the glory of God. When Ezekiel saw the Lord, he saw the radiance emanating from God as a rainbow. John reiterates this imagery in Revelation as he describes a rainbow encircling the throne of God. In short, the prism of the rainbow represents beautiful facets of His very nature.
God made the rainbow for His purposes and for His glory. And today I offer this challenge to followers of Jesus everywhere: We need to have the courage to take it back.
The rainbow doesn’t belong to the LGBT community. It doesn’t symbolize any movement. It doesn’t serve any agenda. It belongs to God. It’s a sign of His grandeur and must be reclaimed to that end.
Yet too often we hide from our calling to serve as light in a dark culture.
Maybe we’re afraid to speak up when opposing voices seem so loud. This is understandable, as we live in a world that is increasingly hostile to the things of God, including His ways and His people.
Or maybe we allow compassion to overwhelm our sense of what’s right. Perhaps our desire to love, accept and affirm people’s value, no matter their struggle, supersedes the value we place on God’s Word.
Or maybe we consider the entire issue a matter of minor importance.
Yet I would argue that our collective view of sexuality is the most pressing social issue of our time, the outcome of which will impact people for generations to come.
We are watching norms that have been accepted for thousands of years unravel in real time. We are seeing a biological, binary view of male and female shatter into a thousand pieces. We are witnessing an assault on the most ancient of institutions, the family.
It’s a movement that is nothing less than existential, an agenda that attacks the very core of our being — our God-given identities.
When we choose to stay silent, we place ourselves in opposition to the revelation of Scripture on the matter. We deny people the truth that can bring hope, healing and freedom.
God’s people must collectively respond by reclaiming the rainbow and what it represents. It was never intended to reflect the LGBT movement. It represents a wonderous manifestation of God’s glory, beauty and truth.
Jesus called His people to be the light of the world, to shine through the darkness around us and offer redemption to a world in need. The gospel that we His people are called to share is meant to touch and impact every aspect of life and culture. Let’s not shrink back because we feel afraid. Let’s be bold.
God created the rainbow. It’s a sign of love, healing and covenant. It has everlasting significance, in this world and the next. Let’s reclaim it for His glory.
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