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				The Significance of Colors As They Appear In The Holy Scriptures M. Stewart

As we journey Zionward, God has provided us with many lessons in His natural creation. One of these miracles of revelation is the formation of colors from which comes the storm, then the nourishing rain and finally the rainbow.

Our Lord in his ministry made the statement "and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). In this statement the future call of the Gentiles was incorporated. No longer would the gospel message be limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but now it would go to every nation, kindred, people and tongue (Rev. 7:9), i.e. worldwide.

Closely allied with these two thoughts let us direct our attention to Malachi 4:2, where our Lord is spoken of as the sun of righteousness, and in this verse of course we have the thrilling picture of the saviour destroying the blackness of sin in exactly the same way that the natural sun obliterates every trace of night's darkness.

In the natural a cloud is formed by the sun shining on lakes, rivers, seas, and lifting tiny droplets of water heavenward. As they ascend there is a purifying process and that which was individual becomes one in a cloud of white. When we place this phenomenon under the spiritual spotlight a glowing counterpart is revealed. John in the Isle of Patmos hears the question in Rev. 7:13, "What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?" The answer: "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. "

Just as we have clouds that bring storms and others that produce life-giving rain, so it will be in the spiritual. We read in Isa. 19:1, "Behold Yahweh rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt." In connection with this, Psa. 68:17 speaks of "the chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of angels" (20 million). By placing these two quotations in their proper sequence we have a picture of the future cherubim of God spoken of in Isaiah as a cloud and in Psalm 68 as a chariot. In both cases Yahweh is the driver and it is a picture of a storm cloud going forth to cleanse the world of all impurity in preparation for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.

Once the earth is subdued and all resistance is crushed, the storm cloud changes to one bringing a gentle rain of nourishment and so we read in Psa. 72:6, "he shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth." This descending rain will form the prism through which (figuratively speaking) the sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2) will shine through. The result will be the formation of the rainbow that arches over the restored throne of David (Ezek. 1:26-28). The meaning will be the same as after the flood in the days of Noah. The operative principle (sin) that brought the original trouble into the world will have been destroyed by flesh (red) being purified by trial (yellow) being immortalised (green, by the power of God (blue) and at last obtaining priesthood (purple) and thus fulfilling the intercessory prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:21).

Thus through the miracle of color the gospel plan of salvation is revealed and even though God's original purpose was temporarily delayed (Gen. 1:26), yet the message of the rainbow assures us that all is well and on schedule and that soon "the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9).