Rainbow before the great flood

[Warrior of Jesus]

Genesis 9: 2 - 17

12 And 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:

13 "I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

14 "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,

15 "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.

16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."

17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

We all know rainbow is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets in the sky. According to the bible, rainbow was created, after the flood, as the sign of the covenant. There was light before the flood and it would have rained many times before the flood. Was the rainbow not there before the flood?

[kwikphilly]

Blessings Warrior

    In accordance to Gods Word I do not believe the 'rainbow" APPEARED before that time

Quote

13 "I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

Praise the Lord!!!                                                                  With love-in Christ,Kwik

[woundeddog]

there is no evidence that there was rain before the flood-- bible says the garden was watered by the morning dew--- the scientific cause of the rainbow was created by God-- its even possible that before the flood these scientific principles where not in effect and that the Lord caused them to work to specifically  cause the rainbow

Edited June 14, 2016 by woundeddog
bad grammar

[Guest shiloh357]

3 hours ago, Warrior of Jesus said:

Genesis 9: 2 - 17

12 And 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:

13 "I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

14 "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,

15 "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.

16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."

17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

We all know rainbow is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets in the sky. According to the bible, rainbow was created, after the flood, as the sign of the covenant. There was light before the flood and it would have rained many times before the flood. Was the rainbow not there before the flood?

It didn't rain before the flood.

[missmuffet]

Question: "What is the meaning of the rainbow?"

Answer: Biblically speaking, the rainbow is the sign of a covenant that God made with the whole earth: He will never destroy the earth again with a flood. The rainbow is literally correlated to rainfall.

God made this covenant, with the rainbow as the token, after the waters of the flood receded and Noah and his family exited the ark. God said, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. . . . This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 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 on the earth” (Genesis 9:11–15).

God made this promise, signified by the rainbow, not only to mankind but to “every living creature . . . the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark . . . every living creature on earth” (Genesis 9:9–10). The covenant is perpetual, enduring to all generations. Never again will there be a worldwide flood.

The colors of the rainbow are sometimes used as a symbol of “gay pride.” This began in the 1978 when an artist named Gilbert Baker designed and made a flag for the homosexual community in San Francisco. Baker’s original design had eight colors, and he assigned a meaning to each one: hot pink (sexuality), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (the sun), green (nature), turquoise (art), indigo (harmony), and violet (spirit). Subsequent designs sported seven and then six colors. Rainbow flags and banners, as used by the LGBTI community, represent diversity, hope, and social action.

There are other rainbow flags and banners that have nothing to do with the homosexual culture. For example, the Hawaii Ko Aloha Flag has nine colored stripes representing the islands that were inhabited before Western civilization arrived. Another example is the flag of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, a Masonic organization whose banner represents seven different virtues.

The rainbow is God’s creation. We naturally delight in it. There is something awe-inspiring in the appearance of a rainbow after a storm. It is good and right that we rejoice in the rainbow as a God-ordained symbol of God’s faithfulness and mercy. The attempt of some to coopt the colors for their own purposes does not diminish the beauty and wonder of what God has made.

http://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-of-the-rainbow.html

[kwikphilly]

3 hours ago, woundeddog said:

- there is no evidence that there was rain before the flood-- bible says the garden was watered by the morning dew--- the scientific cause of the rainbow was created by God-- its even possible that before the flood these scientific principles where not in effect and that the Lord caused them to work to specifically  cause the rainbow

Very good,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,God is Good,Halleluyah!                             With love-in Christ,Kwik

[Kan]

The rainbow has always been there. "I set my bow" said God.

The colored bow surrounds God. 

It is also a part of the effects of natural light, always has been. The bow was seen in the dew drops, in water falls, in crystals, around the moon on misty nights and so forth. 

After the flood, heavy clouds would form - a threatening reminder of the flood, but "the bow would be seen in the cloud," a promise that a global flood will never happen again. It may be a torrential storm, but not the end of the world.

 

[Guest Robert]

I wonder if the water that rained to earth during the flood was a canopy of ice and water surrounding the earth previously. If that were the case, it would not have allowed direct sunlight in. After the flood, that would have been gone.

 

Yeah, just speculation on my part. Alternatively, God was keeping all the skittles for Himself until after the flood.

[post]

the Bible does not say that there had never been a rainbow before. 
it actually doesn't say that it had never rained at all before Noah -- it says before the creation of Adam & Eve, that it did not rain then - 

the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 
but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
(Genesis 2:5-6) 

but it does not say when He first started sending rain. ((i quoted the NIV here -- that word translated "streams" could mean "mists" -- maybe both. but in any translation, it clearly says before He formed man, there was no rain. the creation of man is in the next verse after what i quoted, verse 7)). there is no clear indication that the flood was the first time it ever rained - Noah isn't recorded as being confused when God tells him it will rain - that's just speculation. all we literally know for sure from the Bible is that for a time before man was created, there was no rain. God may have caused it to rain at any point after Genesis 2:6, and just not told us about it. 

beside this -- you don't need rain in order to have a rainbow. rainbows are physically formed by refracted light through a mist of water droplets, if the observer is in the right place and the water vapor is of the right size. since before man, Genesis says only a mist or streams of water rose up out of the earth 7 watered it -- there may very well have been rainbows before there was rain, owing to the mist of water in the air. 

so, it's quite possible and even probable that the physical phenomena of rainbows pre-dates the promise made to Noah. really the only way this could not be the case is if the laws of optics that God created the universe with radically changed after the flood, which i don't think is likely -- He's a God of order, and He set the earth 'firmly on it's course' -- i take language like that to mean that the laws He defined when He ordered His creation have been there ever since He made them. that's arguable, of course -- but only arguable because no one knows: so you can speculate all day long, and it doesn't really get you anywhere. nothing to be dogmatic about ((but we know how humans are lol -- someone is bound to make a huge deal out of this am sure, but they'd also be speaking without knowledge)).

but think about it -- haven't you seen a rainbow in a fountain or a waterfall, of the sun hit it right and you looked from the right angle? that doesn't take rain to happen: it's already there. no reason this shouldn't already have been there. 

now -- this doesn't contradict the sign He gave Noah at all, if rainbows already existed. God has used things that already exist many times to be a sign of a promise or a covenant. 
circumcision was not "new" when He gave it Abraham. 
baptism was not "new" when John/Elijah started baptizing, much less when the apostles did. 
the Lord's supper was patterned at first after the passover meal ((this is what they were eating when He ordained it)) - a meal that already existed and had a significance to the Jews -- and this fulfilled prophecy that the remembrance of leaving Egypt would be replaced! 
also, the patriarchs named places according to how God had met and dealt with them there -- but these places already existed; some of them already had their own names. things like the pile of stones in the middle of the Reed Sea or the Ebeneezer stone were used as signs of a covenant or promise too, though the stones themselves had been there who knows how many thousands of years already ((possibly only 2,000, or possibly hundreds of thousands lol)). 
if you believe that Genesis 1 should be read as 24hr literal days, marked by the rotation of the earth relative to the sun, then the sun and earth and their relationship pre-existed the sun being set in the sky to mark days and seasons and years, too. 



the point overall i wish to make is that the Bible doesn't say there was no such thing as a rainbow before Genesis 9, or no such thing as rain before the flood. 
both of those assumptions are just speculation - they may be true; they may not be. there is nothing in the Bible that we can make a definitive statement one way or the other about either of those things. 
and there being a rainbow before God used it to be a sign between Him and all the living things of the earth, would not contradict the scripture: it is not outside of history or His character to use something that already exists as a sign, giving it new meaning. 

[walkonwater]

The bow was given after the flood of Noah, as a promise of God to never flood the earth again.  This is the first covenant of our Heavenly Father, given to us.(Gen 9:9)  So you see, something had changed after the flood of Noah, a beautiful rainbow for all to see as a reminder of Gods precious promise.  Yes, God signified His promise with a rainbow, I will trust what Gods word does say, they are always truth.   We have such a wonderful maker & keeper of our all, now & eternally.