Spiritual Meaning of

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Gen 8:13-9:17

In the Divine allegory we are considering, the ark is said to have rested on the mountain; and when the waters were fully abated, Noah is said to have uncovered the ark. Then God is said to have commanded Noah and his sons to leave the ark, bringing with them the living creatures they had taken into it. It is then said that Noah built an altar unto the Lord and offered unto the Lord an offering of every clean beast and of every clean fowl. After this offering, the Lord is described as establishing a covenant with Noah and every living creature of all flesh. The token of that covenant was a bow in the cloud. "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth."

Noah and his family were not so many individuals. They stand for the great spiritual church which was forming in the world. This church had passed through trying ordeals; it had suffered bitter trials and temptations; but now rest had come, the waters of turmoil and strife had abated, and the church was in a state of peace. Coming out of these great temptations, the minds of the Noetic people were clearer on all spiritual subjects. Things that had been in a state of obscurity to them, were now openly seen. This is what is meant by Noah uncovering the ark. Out of this brighter and better state, that had come as the result of their trial faithfully borne, there arose in their hearts a sense of deep thankfulness to the Lord for His Divine protection in the time of their danger and a desire to express that holy sentiment in the genuine worship of the Lord. In the allegory, this is portrayed in these simple words: And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

The things mentioned, such as the altar, clean beasts and birds and the burnt offering stand in the allegory for the affections in the hearts and for the thoughts in the understandings of the people of the Noetic Church; for at the period of the Ancient Church that is here described, the people were not external enough to call for the actual killing of animals in sacrifice. That practice arose later when worship among them became sensualized. The clean beasts and birds that Noah is said to have taken into the ark were not natural animals; they were the clean affections, the clean thoughts of the people who were being formed into a new church; and they were called beasts and birds because beasts and birds fitly represented them.

Uncovering the ark and coming out of it, the altar that was built unto the Lord was the high state of love that was formed in their hearts. The altar was within them - the altar of a pure and consecrated heart. So of the beasts and birds - they were the good affections and thoughts of their regenerated wills and understandings. In other words, their internal worship is described by external acts and objects that represent it.

It was after this state of freedom in worship was formed in the members of the Ancient Church, that we read of the bow that was set in the cloud as the token of the Lord's covenant with them. Perhaps some of us remember when we thought of this bow in the cloud as the creation and first appearance of the rainbow. We know better now; for the bow in the cloud is a natural phenomenon and is always caused by the shining of the sun through the drops of descending rain. It was not a new creation in the day of Noah. For such a phenomenon has always appeared whenever the proper physical conditions were furnished.

And then, the word set does not imply to create or make for the first time. It rather conveys the idea of appointment or establishment. What had been a well-known and beautiful appearance - a thing so frequently seen - was now appealed to, set apart and dedicated as a token and symbol of the establishment of a covenant between the Lord and man.

A covenant is a conjunction or union of two parties; so that a covenant between God and man means a coming together - a living, vital and personal relationship between the Divine Creator and His human and responsible creatures; and the natural object used as the symbol of that personal relationship must perfectly represent it. The rainbow does this in the most perfect way.

From the earliest times, the typical character of the bow in the cloud has been recognized. The early Rabbinical writings traced the resemblance of the bow to the Hebrew letter caph and supposed it to be a token of certain remarkable events in the civil history of the Jewish people. It was regarded as a sign among the ancient Greeks and was called Iris. In the Greek mythology the office assigned to Iris was to cut the thread which was supposed to hold the soul in the body of those who were dying. Here we see a little hint of the covenant of which Iris was supposed to be the token. She removed out of the way the thing that prevented the soul's union with God. This, like many other ideas in the Greek mythology, was derived from the correspondences of natural things to spiritual - a knowledge which had come down from the time of the Ancient Church.

The early Christian Fathers, especially Origen and Tertullian, regarded the bow in the cloud as the symbol of the covenant of grace which came with the incarnation of the Logos. In relation to the Noetic Church, the bow had a twofold meaning. (1) It represented the spiritual sense of the Divine Word which was revealed to the Ancient Church. For we must remember that the Ancient Word, by which that church was instituted and established in the world, had its cloud or letter. The literal sense of the Ancient Word was formed from the carefully preserved correspondences, through the ministry of the Enochites, of the Most Ancient Church. These correspondences were more remote than the correspondences of the literal sense of the Hebrew Scriptures. They formed a letter of a revelation which treated only of spiritual things. This letter of the Ancient Word was the cloud and the spiritual sense within that letter, which treated of the Lord and the regeneration of man, was the beautiful bow set in that cloud. Thus to the Ancient Church, the bow set in the cloud, was the token of the covenant which God made with that church by means of the outward revelation of truth in a Divinely given book of Scripture. Thus the rainbow, which is distinguished by a series of harmonious colors, was the symbol of spiritual truths within the letter of the Ancient Word. These spiritual truths in all their variegations were the real token of the covenant which God made with the Ancient Church.

(2) The bow, as it respects the man of the Ancient Church, or those who by the work of regeneration were having the principles of the church implanted in their minds, represented the perception of the spiritual sense of their Scripture. As the Word has its cloud, or letter, in which the spiritual sense appears as a bow, so the regenerating man has his cloud - a natural mind, with its obscure perceptions of spiritual truth. The best of men have dark and cloudy states; but in this cloud God sets His bow of promise and covenant. For in our darkest hours there is present some perception of spiritual things that spans the cloud. So of the people among whom the Lord formed the Ancient Church. They had their dark background, their heredity from the long ago, their obscure states; but because of the separation of will and understanding in them, they had perceptions of spiritual truth. These were their bow of promise. These perceptions of spiritual things kept them in touch with the Lord. A new will of obedience could be formed in their separated and elevated understandings and thus a covenant be established between God and themselves. They could learn His will and do it. They could be conjoined to Him. This faculty would preserve them from the dreadful evils and falsities which inundated and destroyed the Most Ancient Church.

And so it is also with us. Our Bible has its cloud, its letter, and it also has its bow or spiritual sense, and is therefore God's covenant with us. And the man of the New Church has his cloud of naturalism, his dark side; but going on to know the Lord, he also has his beautiful bow of spiritual perceptions. This bow spans his mind. One end of it rests on his natural mind and arching his being, the other end rests on his spiritual mind. What a beautiful bow! Yes, and it is the promise that in the end the two minds in him will be harmonized and act as one.