“The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. 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. Genesis 9:16‑17.
Years ago on a flight out of West Palm Beach, Florida, we had just become airborne over the ocean when a boy sitting next to the window grabbed my arm. "Look out there!," he spoke, "Look!" What I saw was one of the most magnificent sights of my life. Reaching down to the surface of the ocean and rising overhead as far as I could see was the full, unbroken circle of a rainbow. The ring seemed to be a mile wide. Its’ color was indescribably brilliant with the lower part appearing to rest on the surface of the water. There was not a gap in it---just the breathtaking color of God's awesome “Sign of Covenant.” Genesis 9:13. The boy and I stared at it–unmoving--until our plane turned and left it behind.
Leaning back in a state of awe, a series of revelations began flooding my mind-–like giant ripples coming inward. In that intense moment I understood more about the Glory of God than ever before. For the first time, I had seen God's Sign of Covenant in both its natural and spiritual reality. The impact was awesome. Genesis 9:13. A short time before, I had learned that the rainbow is actually a complete circle. From our earthbound view we see only a ‘bow” or half. To behold the ring’s full circumference we must be above the earth looking down.
The spiritual message is this: On earth we have only a partial view; Heaven alone has the total picture. Not until we are with God will we be able to look back and understand His total purpose in our lives. Events that now seem unfair, disappointing, painful, will then be viewed through the complete ring of His providence and grace. Only then, "We shall know as we are known." I Corinthians 13:12. Sitting there on the plane this fact seized me: All truth, whether it comes from Scripture or valid scientific discovery, points toward one ultimate reality: God is One; God is love; God is power. At best, our limited, earth-bound view reveals only fragments of His incomprehensible nature. That being true:
Presently, we grasp only a fragment of the purpose and strategy of God. Not until we are in Heaven looking back at our personal history will we be able to understand the full-scope of His plan and purpose in our lives. In spite of hazards and crisis we experienced, God made “all things work together for our good.” Romans 8:28.
When life is unfair, disappointing, painful, we need to be reminded that the view from above will be very different from the one we see below. Believers who comprehend this holy truth now, acknowledging themselves as already seated with Christ "in heavenly places," Ephesians 1:3,20. will find it releasing incredibly wonderful wisdom within them. Jesus, the One by whom the "worlds were framed," Hebrews 11:3, John 1:1, is the “fullness of the Godhead bodily”. Colossians 2:9. His Resurrection, as an explosion of that Unity, Love, Power, defeated every opposing principle of disunity, hatefulness, and weakness, in the Universe. Paul asks the most pertinent Covenant question in the world and then proceeds to answer it:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35‑39.
“This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised.” Genesis 17:10
That day on the plane the Holy Spirit showed me the relationship between the rainbow and another Biblical, Covenant-sign: Circumcision. It too, is circular. The revelation that took place there above the ocean went light-years beyond everything I had understood about circumcision before. Circumcision means "circular cutting." Some of what I write may seem too delicate to share but the message is far too valuable to allow modesty to interfere. Beginning with Abraham, every Hebrew male bore in his body this physical sign of God's Covenant. Suddenly, I realized that the miles-wide rainbow and the few inches of circumcision were identical in meaning. Each contained all the glory, beauty, majesty, of the other.
With that realization, an important question came: "Why did God place the Covenant-sign on the male genitals?" The answer which was awesome, came in one of those giant ripples: First of all: The rainbow, as the greatest visible Covenant-sign in Creation, like a "Crown of Heaven," was transferred to the body of Covenant-man. Secondly, God willed that the conception of every Hebrew child take place in the presence of his father’s Covenant-ring. Not only so, but the genes of every future, unborn, generation already present in each invisible, newly-conceived embryo, literally passed through his father's Covenant-ring. God wanted that mysterious, creative act of conception in which others, made "in His image" and "in His likeness," Genesis 1:26, to take place within the radius of the Covenant.
But the Sign of the Covenant goes far beyond Noah's rainbow, Abraham's circumcision, or our struggling against the seeming unfairness of life. In a remarkable way, the Holy Spirit's miraculous gifts to the church are also revealed through their Covenant-meaning. I Corinthians 12-14. Believers who find themselves powerless and insufficient should be encouraged to know that the gifts of the Spirit are Covenant-provisions which Jesus gladly imparts to all.
CHRISTIANS WHO REJECT SPIRITUAL GIFTS DO SO BECAUSE THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM
“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant ... There are diversities of gifts, but the same (Holy) Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord (Jesus). And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God (the Father) who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” 1 Corinthians 12:1,4‑12.
My purpose in telling the experience on the plane is to share with you what the Holy Spirit taught me that day about the rainbow’s“ring”. After studying the Scriptures quoted below, you can see that all share a common truth:
"And upon its hem (the robe of the High Priest) you shall make pomegranates ... and bells of gold: a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe all around." Exodus 28:33,34.
"And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that Abraham’s servant took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for Rebekah’s hands of ten shekels weight of gold." Genesis 24:22.
Years ago when my wife was in a disastrous automobile wreck and I drove away from the hospital feeling that the world had collapsed around us, I suddenly found looking down at the scene from God’s perspective. In that moment, the Covenant-ring surrounded me and I wrote these words:
"Time will heal, God will bless,
Turn loose they fretful anxiousness;
He who knows the present wrong
Also knows tomorrow's song."
Months later, Laurie and I emerged from that tragedy singing the Lord's song. God did not cause the wreck but in the midst of its' terror He did reveal a dimension of holy truth I had never known before. Since then I have found great rest--a deep and personal one--in the truth of that little poem. And that is the point. God wants His Covenant to become personal to us. Unfortunately, with many Christians Covenant-truth remains a mere doctrine or abstraction. It was for this purpose, making the Covenant-sign intimate and personal, that God required the circumcision of all Hebrew males. The circular-cutting and scarring of their bodies was His way of permanently marking all His sons with the "Sign of the Covenant." It was identical to the ring of the rainbow. Not only was each man's relationship with God identified in circumcision but every child he bore was conceived in the presence of the father's Covenant-ring.
Thirdly, by a painful cutting-away, shedding of blood, circumcision is the "uncovering" of maleness. In Scriptural typology, it is the exposing of man to His God. If you study the covering (and uncovering) of Tabernacle items in the Old Testament, all of which came under Covenant-instruction, you will understand more of the parabolic teaching present here. Exodus 35:12, etc. In the marriage act, the groom's penetrating the bride's Temple-body, the shedding of her hymen-blood, and the opening of her Temple veil, was done precisely where his own Covenant-blood had earlier been shed. In the process of their being united into one, each met the Covenant-requirement of having given blood for the other: The man gave his blood for her; she gave her blood to him. This is the portrayal of Christ and the Church: He redeemed her with the gift of His blood. She returns her gift of blood to Him in servitude and martyrdom.
The New Testament makes the Covenant-meaning of circumcision more beautiful than that which the Old Testament revealed. The death and resurrection of Jesus transformed circumcision into an experience of the heart. It is no longer limited to the flesh. "He is a Jew who is one inwardly, for circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God." Romans 2:29. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation." Galatians 5:6, 6:15. Being far more than a physical cutting of the outer flesh, it is now man's inner being, his heart, that bears the Sign of Covenant. No longer an earthly sign, it is now a Heavenly one, revealing ultimate relationship between the Creator-Father and His child.
But there is more. Wonderfully, the sign of the Covenant is revealed in the impartation of the New Testament’s charismatic gifts of the Spirit. I Corinthians 12. This truth is seldom seen--but is absolutely magnificent once we grasp it. We can best understand the principle through a parabolic example in the Old Testament. It is this: Abraham sent his servant to get a bride for his son Isaac. The young woman chosen for this honor was Rebekah. In Scriptural typology, Abraham represents God the Father, the servant represents the Holy Spirit, Isaac represents Jesus the Son. Rebekah, whose name means “circles” or “loops of a rope” symbolizes the Church as the Bride of Christ. The imagery of the rope suggests her being "inside the circle" of God's providence and grace. This is a true concept of Covenant. And in keeping with the Covenant-tradition, as soon as the servant identified Rebekah as God's chosen one, he presented her with golden "rings." Genesis 24:22. These circles conveyed an important spiritual message which she understood. They were the rope-loops that encircled her engagement to Isaac.
This is the important point: Rebekah’s bracelets and rings were not wedding gifts. They were "engagement" gifts. Even today, brides frequently receive two rings, one before the wedding and the other at the wedding. So it was with Rebekah. First came the engagement gifts from the groom she had never seen; these were later followed with his wedding gifts.
In a similar way, Jesus sends "engagement" gifts to His Bride, the Church, in advance of her receiving the wedding gifts. The Church's wedding gifts, which are beyond human comprehension, will not be given us until the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19:9. But, please hear me carefully about gifts which come in advance of the Wedding: The charismatic gifts which the Church is now receiving, Acts 1:5,8, and by which she "tastes the powers of the age to come," Hebrews 6:5 are engagement gifts, 2 Corinthians 12,13,14. These include nine spiritual gifts, divided into three categories, each containing three different charismas. Significantly, each category is identified with the Trinity: the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus, and God the Father. Verses 4,5,6. Through the impartation of these gifts the Groom is showing the Bride the "glories of His Father's house." The parallel of Rebekah and the Church is exact. While Rebekah's gifts spoke of Isaac's love, they also revealed Abraham's great wealth. In the same way Rebekah had never met the man to whom she was engaged, so the Church has yet to meet her Royal Bridegroom.
The Covenant gifts Jesus is now sending through the Holy Spirit correspond to the rings and bracelets given Rebekah by Abraham's servant.
Recently I spoke at a Church where many members were still opposed to spiritual gifts. They did not understand the miraculous operations of God and drew back from them. I explained that Christians who reject the gifts of the Spirit, I Corinthians 12:1-11, are actually telling the Heavenly Servant, "I don't like that bracelet. Put it back in your box! I won't wear it." Rebekah's acting in such ugliness is unthinkable. Not so with modern, self-centered Christians. Many become irate, incensed, at the mere suggestion of their experiencing the Holy Spirit's miraculous gifts. The gift of tongues is the primary offender because it is the only one of the grace-gifts that is deliberately designed to attack man's ego and pride. Many in that congregation later saw the ugliness in their rejecting spiritual gifts and came forward, repentant, saying, "I don't fully understand the Holy Spirit's gifting--but I want whatever bracelet God has for me! Pray that I will receive it!"
Briefly, let me comment on the Covenant-meaning of the golden bells and pomegranates decorating the hem of the High Priests garment. Jesus is the High Priest portrayed in Israel's Tabernacle worship. Hebrews 3:1. The pomegranates and bells on his garment symbolize the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22, Ephesians 5:9, and the gifts of the Spirit. I Corinthians 12:4-11. As Jesus bears both fruit and gifts, so those who would be like Him must bear the same. Christians who reject any of the gifts are ripping them off the garment of Jesus. Don't do it.
When viewed from the bottom, the bell is a perfectly round ring. It is through that circular opening (the gift in operation) that the music of the Spirit is heard. When Scripture says, "Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound," Psalm 89:15, it speaks of those (as in ancient Israel who were close enough to hear the High Priest) who have experienced the circle of God's Covenant and rejoiced in the sound coming from it’s bells. That ring is as wide as the rainbow or as small as the scar on a man's body.
One of the great hymn writers said, "All nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres." God is singing His Amazing Song of Love over each one of us! May we let His music ring in our hearts and transform our lives! And may we be conduits of His Love to others!
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Looking back over a continuous ministry of 75 Years, I am overwhelmed with gratitude to all of you who shared my Vision and helped me fulfill it. It all began in 1947 when I was 17 years old, and this past December 25th, I celebrated my 75th Anniversary in Ministry! That was a long time ago! While I will never quit ministering the Kingdom message and benefits, Heaven daily becomes more real. Thanks for your wonderful support!