The Rainbow and God's Covenant

"I set My rainbow in the cloud,and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the Earth.....and I will remember My covenant....the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."

Genesis Ch. 9 vv. 13, 15.

If you look closely the second rainbow is just visible above the first one in the last picture - I didn't get to my camera quite quickly enough.
The valley is Nun's Valley in Madeira.

Women of the Bible No. 5 Rachel

"Rachel came with her father's sheep...and Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept."




Genesis XXIX vv. 9,11


This needs a little more explanation. It was in fact a family reunion. The bit of the story missed out above is that Rachel's father was Laban, and Jacob's mother was Rebekah, Laban's sister. Therefore Laban is Jacob's uncle, and Jacob and Rachel are of course cousins. Jacob told Rachel of the family connection, and she ran to tell her father, and Jacob stayed with the family for a month.

The kiss was the traditional patriarchal greeting between man and woman, and Jacob's tears were almost certainly of joy at finding his family again.

The story goes on...Rachel had an older sister, Leah. But it sounds as if Rachel was the family beauty. Perhaps what happened was therefore inevitable. Jacob fell in love with Rachel, and it was agreed that he would work for Laban for seven years in return for her hand in marriage. Those seven years apparently flew by because Jacob was so in love with Rachel, but at the end of that time Laban deceived Jacob - after what must have been a wild feast, Jacob was tricked into spending the night with Leah. On tackling Laban about this afterwards, Laban explained that the first born must be matched up first, and made Jacob work another seven years for the hand of Rachel! The story continues in v. 31 et seq ... for another time!



When I was a little girl I used to cycle the lanes of Kent in the summer evenings, and particularly liked stopping at a field where a small herd of black and white speckled goat-like sheep, with horns, used to graze. They had tinkly bells round their necks - and I loved the noise those made as the sheep moved across the pasture. My mother told me they were called Jacob sheep.

It is said that these Jacob sheep were so called after the story in Genesis Chapter 30, v. 32 et seq., where Jacob takes all the speckled and spotted sheep and goats from Laban's flock as wages for work done. That again is a longer story for another day...

Women of the Bible No. 4 - Rebekah

"And Rebekah was very fair to look upon, a virgin... and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher. And the servant of Abraham ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water from thy pitcher... And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking."

Genesis XXIV vv. 16-19

Women of the Bible No. 3 - Lot's Wife

"And it came to pass that the Lord said, Escape for thy life; Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed... Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven. But Lot's wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."

Genesis XIX vv. 17, 24 and 26

Women of the Bible No. 2 Sarah

Here is another contribution from our church flower festival "Women from the Bible." Credit must go to our sacristan who masterminded the festival, chose the biblical texts and had more than a small hand in putting together many of the arrangements. Note the metal stars and the fine sand - the latter borrowed no doubt from the drip tray below our votive candles!

"Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age." Genesis XVIII v. 11

"That in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." Genesis XXII v. 17

Women of the Bible - Mrs Noah

Last weekend we had a flower festival in our church. The theme was "Women of the Bible." That gave plenty of scope for the fertile imagination and sense of humour of our many talented flower arrangers. (I certainly cannot be counted as one of them - my skill with cut flowers is limited to finding a vase and putting them all in together and hoping they look OK!)

Here we have "Mrs Noah after the flood."

"And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark...

And God spake unto Noah, saying, "Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee... "

And God spoke unto Noah, saying, "And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature, that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth...I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a token of a covenant between me and the earth."

The Holy Bible Old Testament: Genesis VII vv. 12-13, VIII vv. 15-16, IX vv. 8-13.

This incidentally is the first of five covenants God makes to mankind in the Old Testament. Here is an unconditional promise from God to all life on the earth that He will not destroy the earth by water ever again.

What are the other 4 covenants? I shall write about those another day.