When did the rainbow come into being?

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all fut

ure generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Genesis 9:12-16

Growing up I was taught (or at least believed) that the rainbow did not exist until after the flood. Following the flood God created the rainbow as a sign of his covenant with Noah and the rest of humanity that God would never again destroy the earth by flood.

For those trying to find errors in the Bible, this interpretation provided an opportunity. Critics will say, “What, did God change the very physical laws and properties? A rainbow is just the refraction of light through water, presenting a spectrum of color. Did these properties of water and light not exist before the flood?” The very idea is put forth as ludicrous.

To the skeptic I would say that God can do with his creation what he will. If he decided tomorrow to invert the behavior of gravity so that anything not tied down would go flying into the heavens I would be sure to invest in rope.

That said, I do not think Genesis 9:13 teaches that God spontaneously created rainbows following the flood. What he did was take something he had already made and fill it with meaning. Notice the wording: I have set my bow in the cloud, a divine declaration that God is the one who created the rainbow. Then: and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. God created the rainbow – meaning God created water and light to interact in such a way during a storm that a rainbow would form. He could have done this after the flood but the text makes no such claim, it just recognizes God as the creator of the rainbow. What does happen after the flood is God assigns new meaning to the rainbow. Or rather, God reveals why he originally created the rainbow.

There is something amazing in this. Here we see the planning of God in creation. From the beginning he knew he would need a covenant-sign following the great deluge. When God said “let there be” to the rainbow he put it in place so that one day he could say to Noah, “This is a sign of my covenant.”

Looking at the rainbow itself, we can be further amazed at how much meaning is packed into one symbol. Here are some of the things signified by the rainbow:

1. As revealed in the text, the rainbow is a symbol of God’s mercy to man. God promised that he would never again destroy the world by flood. The promise was not dependent on man’s behavior, it was fixed on God’s character. Regardless of what man would do, God would not destroy the earth by flood. The rainbow would serve as a source of comfort to man and an unending reminder to God. So long as the earth remains we have this assurance of God’s mercy and faithfulness, his guarantee that he will not destroy the earth by flood. Even when heaven and earth are remade rainbows will continue to cross the skies. For the rest of eternity we will have this reminder of God’s grace.
2. It is quite possible that God had in mind a symbol of laying down a weapon of war. At the end of the flood his judgment had been completed and his weapons were put up. Genesis does not mention a rainbow, per se, it mentions a bow, the same word used of a bow and arrow. God has hung (set) his bow in the clouds, putting aside that weapon of war.
3. Another possible symbol of the bow is its bridging of Heaven and Earth. Reaching from Heaven and stretching down to Earth, it symbolizes God’s stooping, bending down to bring both justice and mercy to the earth.
4. The expanse of the rainbow showed the expanse of God’s love. Allen Ross says, “The covenant is cosmic and universal, as seen from the great sign, the rainbow. As it arched over the horizon after the rains, it formed an all-embracing sign of God’s faithfulness to his word of grace.” (Ross, Creation and Blessing, p206)