Genesis 9:14

Genesis 9:14

How often after that terrible flood must Noah and his sons have felt anxious when a time of heavy rain set in, and the rivers Euphrates and Tigris rose over their banks and submerged the low level land! But if for a while their hearts misgave them, they had a cheering sign to reassure them, for in the heaviest purple storm-cloud stood the rainbow, recalling to their minds the promise of God.

I. If it be true that God's rainbow stands as a pledge to the earth that it shall never again be overwhelmed, is it not also true that He has set His bow in every cloud that rises and troubles man's mental sky? Beautiful prismatic colours in the rainbow that shines in every cloud in the cloud of sorrow, in the cloud of spiritual famine, in the cloud of wrong-doing.

II. We are too apt in troubles to settle down into sullen despair, to look to the worst, instead of waiting for the bow. There are many strange-shaped clouds that rise above man's horizon and make his heavens black with wind and rain. But each has its bow shining on it. Only wait, endure God's time, and the sun will look out on the rolling masses of vapour, on the rain, and paint thereon its token of God's love.

S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year,vol. ii., p. 28.

References: Genesis 9:14. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 227.Genesis 9:15. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 228. 9:15-11:26. J. Monro Gibson, The Ages before Moses,p. 138. Genesis 9:16. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ix., p. 517; Christian World Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 132.Genesis 9:17. J. A. Sellar, Church Doctrine and Practice,p. 297; H. Thompson, ConcionaliaSermons for Parochial Use,vol. i., p. 85.Genesis 9:18. R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis,vol. i., p. 157. Genesis 9:24. J. Cumming, Church before the Flood,p. 412.