Covenant of the Rainbow: God’s Expectations of Man

By Xiaoshuang

When I was in elementary school, I learned a story named The Sun Shines Again After the Rain. It contains these words: “The wind became still, and the rain ceased. Then the sun came out, and a rainbow arched the sky. Cicadas began to sing, and spiders spun webs again.” This story was still fresh in my memory. I looked forward to the day when the beautiful scene in the story would occur: A rainbow appears in the sky when the sun shines after it rains. Once, after it rained I went outside to catch cicadas. A beautiful picture came into my sight: A rainbow arched the western sky, like an arch bridge in the colors of red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, and violet. It looked particularly beautiful in the golden evening light. Not long after that, the sky was aglow with the setting sun. Seeing all of this, I couldn’t help but release a sigh: So beautiful! It’s far beyond what the story says. From that point on, in the summers, when the rain stopped and the sky cleared up, I would often look up at the sky to see if there was a rainbow. At the same time, an intense confusion arose in my heart: Why does the rainbow always appear after it rains?

One day, I accepted the work of God in the last days. I saw the following passage of words in Selections of the Records of the Three Stages of God’s Work: “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look on it, that I may 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 token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” It was not until I saw these words that I knew the reason why the rainbow always appears after it rains. As it turns out, several thousand years ago in the age of Noah, mankind stopped worshiping God after being corrupted by Satan. They became increasingly degenerated and evil. They ate and drank, married and gave in marriage, and became licentious in their nature. They were depraved to the extent that God couldn’t bear to witness it. God despised that mankind, so He sent down a great flood to destroy the evil world. However, only Noah listened to God’s words. He built the ark in accordance with God’s instructions, and kept all kinds of living creatures. As a result, only Noah’s family of eight survived. After that, God established a covenant with Noah that He would never do it again. God placed a rainbow in the sky as the sign of this covenant. Whenever the rainbow appears after the rain, it serves as a reminder to man that God will never again destroy this world with a flood.

One afternoon in 2014, not long after it stopped raining, I heard a shout outside, “Rainbow! A rainbow appears. Quickly, come out to see the rainbow.” On hearing it, I hurriedly ran out. I found people were taking photos of the rainbow with their phones in great pleasure. I saw the rainbow showed an arc from the east to the southeast. Set against the blue sky, it hung in the sky purely and freshly, like a multi-colored arch bridge. While I was excited for that, I remembered that God said, “What will you think of now when you see a rainbow again? At least you will remember how God was once in sorrow over destroying the world by flood. You will remember how, even though God hated this world and despised this humanity, when He destroyed the human beings He created with His own hands, His heart was hurting, struggling to let go, feeling reluctant, and finding it hard to bear. His only comfort was in Noah’s family of eight. It was Noah’s cooperation that made His painstaking efforts of creating all things not be in vain. At a time when God was suffering, this was the only thing that could make up for His pain. From that point, God placed all of His expectations of humanity on Noah’s family, hoping they could live under His blessings and not His curse, hoping that they would never see God destroy the world with a flood again, and also hoping that they would not be destroyed” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, I realized: It is through the appearance of the rainbow that God reminds mankind one more time—He will never again send a flood to destroy this world. At that moment, His heart was hurting for the mankind that He created with His own hands. Back then, only Noah’s family listened to God’s words, and so they were allowed to survive, which made God’s painstaking price of creating everything worthwhile, and healed His broken heart. God placed a rainbow in the sky to make a covenant with man. Moreover, He gave mankind a warning, that He hopes man can listen to His words and live under His blessings, rather than be destroyed again due to their wicked deeds. At this time, when looking up at the rainbow once again, I didn’t merely see a colorful rainbow, but I got to know God’s sorrow and pain behind the rainbow.

After coming back inside, I saw God’s words, “Originally, God created a humanity that in His eyes was very good and close to Him, but they were destroyed by flood after rebelling against Him. Did it hurt God that such a humanity just instantly vanished like that? Of course it hurt! So what was His expression of this pain? How was it recorded in the Bible? It was recorded in the Bible in these words: ‘And I will establish My covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.’ This simple sentence reveals God’s thoughts. This destruction of the world pained Him very much. In man’s words, He was very sad. … In this covenant we see God’s heart—we see that God’s heart was in pain when He destroyed this humanity. In the language of man, when God destroyed mankind and saw mankind disappearing, His heart was weeping and bleeding” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From these words of God, I understood: When this humanity created by God Himself was destroyed, God’s heart was in pain. However, no one could think of or care about His pain, and moreover, no one could understand or feel His mood at that time. Several thousand years later, God now pours out His thoughts and feelings sealed for several thousand years to us through His words. God hated that evil humanity and destroyed them by flood—He had no choice but to do so because of His righteous disposition and holy essence, but His heart was unbearably painful and reluctant to let go. His heart had always been concerned with this mankind. When God was in pain, He still did not forget to establish a rainbow as a covenant with man and as a reminder that He would never again destroy the world with a flood, and that He is unwilling to see the pitiful sight of mankind being destroyed again. God hopes that mankind can listen to His words and continue to live. Also, He hopes man will neither do evil things, nor live in evil and licentiousness, but instead come before Him and live by His words, so that they will finally escape from the corruption and harm of Satan, and live within God’s promises. But people of today have already forgotten God and cast His teachings and warnings aside. Men all follow the trend of the world, advocate wickedness, are bored of the truth, and do not worship the true God. When God’s work arrives upon men in the last days, they pay no mind to God’s coming, or to how God saves man. Rather, they still live in sin and enjoy the pleasure of sin without repentance, and continue doing things that in the eyes of God are evil. And they become licentious in their nature. Having a mistress has become common practice. Even the minors are drawn into this evil worldly trend. People today are incomparably worse than those in Noah’s day. Nowadays, the corruption of the whole human race has again developed to the extent that God can hardly witness. However, even so, God still gives His great mercy and salvation to mankind in this final age. He is waiting for man’s repentance, and expects those who listen to His words and obey Him as Noah did, to come before Him and accept His salvation, so that He can lead them into the next age. Just like it says in God’s words: “However, I must tell you that in the time of Noah, men had been eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage to such an extent that it was unbearable for God to witness, so He sent down a great flood to destroy mankind, sparing only Noah’s family of eight and all kinds of birds and beasts. In the last days, however, those spared by God are all those who have been loyal to Him until the end. Though both ages were times of great corruption unbearable for God to witness, and mankind in both ages became so corrupt as to deny that God was their Lord, God destroyed only the people in the time of Noah. Mankind in both ages caused God great distress, yet God has remained patient with the men of the last days until now. Why is this? Have you never wondered why? If you truly do not know, then let Me tell you. The reason that God is able to accord grace to people in the last days is not that they are less corrupt than people in the time of Noah, or that they have shown repentance to God, much less is it that technology in the last days is so advanced that God cannot bring Himself to destroy them. Rather, it is that God has work to do in a group of people in the last days, and that God wishes to do this work Himself in His incarnation. Furthermore, God wishes to choose a part of this group to become the objects of His salvation and the fruit of His management plan, and bring these people into the next age” (“Did You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Behind God’s destruction of mankind, God’s heart was bleeding and weeping, and was in pain. However, man knows nothing about this. For many years, God has never forgotten to keep His covenant with man. Several thousand years later, even though mankind has been corrupted to such a point that God cannot bear to look, God still hasn’t abandoned His salvation of mankind. Today, God has personally become flesh amongst man and expressed words to save man. He allows us humans deeply corrupted by Satan to receive the supply and guidance of His words, cast away our corrupt satanic disposition and step on the path toward salvation, so that we can be taken into a new age by God.