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Rainbows and Hope

Rainbows are symbols of promise. This last week we were privileged to have a somewhat rare phenomenon over our city, a morning rainbow. On Wednesday morning the sun broke over the horizon in the east while storm clouds and precipitation hung in the west. The result was the most beautiful morning sky I can ever remember. Arching over the city was a double rainbow, vivid in color, and complete in the arch. It was breathtaking. I stared at it as I drove to work, my mind preoccupied with the upcoming storms of the workday. Suddenly, as though I was awakened, the word hope sprang into my mind, and I felt joy. That rainbow was a reminder to have hope. God has given me promises and I am not to forget them. In spite of the burdens I, and those I love, are bearing at the present time, there is hope. God will always keep His promises to the faithful—always, even when the odds are impossible. May I illustrate?

“Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed … for there be more with us than with him:” (2 Chronicles 32:7) So spoke Hezekiah, king of ancient Judah, in the day that the Assyrian army entered his land and began conquering the outlying towns and villages. Hezekiah worked desperately to prepare his people against the most powerful army on the face of the earth. But, what could he do?

Hezekiah was one of Judah’s most righteous kings. He not only kept the commandments of God more faithfully than any king before or after him, but he persuaded his people to do the same. To an apostate Jewish nation he brought faith, joy, and prosperity once more. But now everything was threatened by Assyria, the world power of its day.

Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, even sent messengers to Jerusalem, who stood upon the wall before the people and said to them, “Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his [my] hand: Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord…” (2 Kings 18:29-30) “Hearken not to Hezekiah.” (2 Kings 18:31)

The Assyrian army then moved up, and almost 200,000 men surrounded Jerusalem.

Now even though Isaiah, the great prophet, had assured Hezekiah that the city would not fall, still, consider this situation. The odds are incalculable – Hezekiah’s pitiful band of farmers, women, and children armed with darts and shields against the mightiest army on earth surrounding them on every side. Hezekiah has on one hand the simple promise of deliverance by God’s prophet stacked against 200,000 men, and the open and avowed hostility of the mightiest nation on earth. Do you see the test of hope?

What God has promised looks absolutely impossible in the face of the opposition. Is it any wonder that Hezekiah humbles himself, bows before the Lord, and enters the temple to pray saying, “…O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the Earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.” (Isaiah 37:20)

In response to this humble and sweet prayer, the Lord sends Isaiah, the prophet, with this assurance, “…[Sennacherib] shall not come into this city, nor [even] shoot an arrow there…By the way that he came, by the same shall he return…saith the Lord.” (2 Kings 19:32-33)

That night, as Judah prayed and Assyria slept, the angel of the Lord entered the Assyrian camp, and the next morning 185,000 Assyrian soldiers lay dead upon the ground around Jerusalem. Those still alive ran for home. The Lord’s promises were fulfilled in every detail.

My friends, the faithful will always be tested. Storms will always come. How else can you lay down in deeds done the intents of your heart? How can you ever know your strength or the Lord’s strength unless the stress of storms lead you to discover both? But, and most of all, there is hope. There is always hope in Christ. Just as rainbows are made of light and seven colors, and reach down from the heavens, so too is Christ light and perfection reaching down from heaven to lift our hearts and give us joy.

The Lord will not come this year. Enoch and His city will not return either, but eventually they will. We have the promise and we have seen the reminder. God is in His heaven. Be at peace!