In this day of grace, there is always a bow in the cloud. We may be, and sometimes are, so occupied with what is most manifest (the cloud) that we do not discern its heavenly accompaniment, but it is there. Bright and lovely, it stretches from heaven to earth. “All things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)). Yes, all things; this is the bow in the cloud. What a wide expanse this “all things” opens up to us! Even pain is God’s servant for good to a believer, and so is an earthquake in the world, or even a moral convulsion or heresy in the church (1 Cor. 11:1919For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. (1 Corinthians 11:19)).
A great and strong wind may “rend the mountains” and “break in pieces the rocks before the Lord” (1 Kings 19:1111And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: (1 Kings 19:11)). This may be followed by an earthquake, and the earthquake by a fire, but though they are “the visible cloud,” so to speak, we must not be wholly occupied with these. The question for us is, What has the Lord to say to us in them? The object to Him is His people, and we must listen for the “still small voice.” This is the bow in the cloud. If God has swept away man once in the judgment of the flood, the cloud, whatever form it may take, is afresh declaring His estimate of the first man. If mercy has declared itself and we are spared, still we must never forget that His estimate of what we are stands recorded, and that very cloud witnesses to it afresh. However, the bow in the cloud declares His faithfulness to His promise, for “His mercy endureth forever” (Psa. 106:11Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. (Psalm 106:1)).
The Ground of Mercy
We are on the ground of mercy, and if we forget it, He does not. “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy” (Rom. 9:1616So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. (Romans 9:16)). We look at the cloud; God looks at the bow. What grace is here! He says, “The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it.” The bow tells of God’s unchangeable faithfulness and mercy when all is over with man. This is the ground we are on with God.
“|iI| bring a cloud ... I do set My bow.” We may not sever these two, nor look at one apart from the other. If it is good for us to be reminded that man (himself and his works) is only fit for judgment, it is good also to be reminded of what God is, or the soul must be overwhelmed with despair. Let us, then, “cease ... from man, whose breath is in his nostrils” (Isa. 2:2222Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? (Isaiah 2:22)) and look at what God sees. “I will look upon it.”
This is the way to get God’s thoughts. We see that in spite of the cloud, God is “for us.” Only when we think such high thoughts — God’s thoughts—we must be reminded of what we are, not to drive us to despair, but to keep us low and to lean always and only upon Him who has taken us up in grace.
The Bow in the Cloud
In all the exercises of the Christian pathway, God would have us see the bow in the cloud. Think of this in your present trial (all permitted of Him), in that which distresses you most of all, and the existence of which no fellow-Christian perhaps knows. These words are written for you. Is it trial in the church, trial in the business, trial in the home, or individually in yourself? “It shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.” Make an effort to see it. It will put you right with God, and so cheer your pilgrim way. The cloud may be dark and gloomy, but there is a beauty in it painted by His own hand, and it tells you, in spite of all, what He is to you. And, remember, whether you see it or not, it is there.
The “Needs Be”
God sees a “needs be” (1 Peter 1:66Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: (1 Peter 1:6)) for the trials He allows in the church. We must be with Him to learn it. The whole experience of the wilderness is for us to learn what we are and what God is. The inclination of the natural heart is always to grow proud and independent. God, who knows the heart, sees this. As to the heart of man, “who can know it? I the Lord search the heart” (Jer. 17:9-109The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9‑10)). He knows it, exposes us to ourselves, corrects us, and all for good — “for our profit.” May we each be so with Him, that we learn His mind in any trial, for good comes from God, even when it is in the shape of trial. If the heart departs from the Lord (and it does when we trust in man), we shall be “like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh” (Jer. 17:5-65Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. 6For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. (Jeremiah 17:5‑6)). We shall look upon a trial and speak of it as “only another cloud.” Because of it we shall not see the good in the hand which surely is working through it for us, nor that it is “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth” (Heb. 12:66For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6)). The word to us is, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (James 4:1010Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. (James 4:10)). All is from Him, “that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end” (Deut. 8:1616Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; (Deuteronomy 8:16)). Let us remember His word: “The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it.” “We change; He changes not.”
H. C. Anstey (adapted)