Correspondence

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
12. A Friend, Ireland. As to the rainbow before the days of Noah, or before the flood, we have no evidence in the word of God that it existed before the flood; at the same time there is no statement that it appeared then for the first time. We do not know the conditions of the atmosphere that existed from the time that sin came in—the fall of man—until God smelled the sweet savor of Noah’s offering. Indeed, before the fall we read, “For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth.... But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” (Gen. 2:5, 65And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. (Genesis 2:5‑6).) Now, however thick and heavy the mist, if the whole face of the ground was covered, there would be no rainbow. If no sunshine, then no rainbow. Man can only show his ignorance and conceit by intruding into what is not revealed. If for the first time when Noah stepped into the new world, the sun shone out as the rain descended, and the covenant bow appeared—as the offering ascended—it would be a most striking figure of the gloom that settled on this earth through sin, and the future glory of God shining on man through the one offering of Christ.
As to scripture, it is silent about circumcision being practiced before Abraham. He and his family were the first household separated to God from the nations of the world, when all had been lured into idolatry, and the worship of demons. Why need we intrude where scripture is silent? They had the seal of circumcision, believers now are sealed by the Holy Ghost.