Praise our Life-giving and Redeeming God on the Throne who Keeps His Covenant!

God is on the throne, and He looks like jasper and like sardius, and there’s a rainbow around the throne; our God is the God of life and redemption, and He is the covenanting God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant while executing His judgment upon the earth. Hallelujah for the rainbow around God’s throne!

Especially in recent years, Satan has dragged the rainbow through the mud, using all kinds of people and institutions to associate it with something detestable, despicable, abominable, and unclean. But the rainbow is God’s bow in the cloud, a sign of a covenant between Him and the earth (Gen. 9:13).

Because of man’s sinfulness and wickedness, God decided to destroy man and save some of them to have a new beginning; Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and he and his family were spared from God’s judgment.

After God judged the earth by a flood, He took the lead to assure man of never again destroying the earth by water, and He put His bow in the clouds, calling it a rainbow, as a sign of His faithfulness.

Whenever we see the rainbow, we need to realize that God is the One who establishes and keeps His covenant; according to His covenant, God will never cut off the flesh by the waters of the flood, neither will He completely destroy man.

The rainbow is a token of God’s covenant, signifying God’s faithfulness; God Himself is faithfulness, and He is faithful to us in His word. God is faithful to His word, and if we stand on His word and claim His promises, He will be faithful to us in His word to apply all the contents of His promises to us.

Our God is faithful to those who keep His covenant until the thousandth generation (Deut. 7:9).

Our God is faithful to call us into the fellowship, the joint participation, the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ, His Son; God is faithful to remove anything that stands in the way of our enjoyment of Christ (1 Cor. 1:8-9).

Our God is faithful, and no temptation will overtake us except what is common to man; furthermore, our God is faithful – He called us, and He will also do it, He will preserve us wholly! Even if we are faithless, our God is faithful. Praise our faithful God, who will do what He said He will do!

God is the Covenanting God, the Faithful God, who will Keep His Covenant while Judging the Earth

In Rev. 4:3 we see that there is a rainbow around the throne; in this chapter we are told of how God is about to judge man and the earth, and as He is doing this, there’s a rainbow around the throne.

The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with man and all the living creatures that he will not destroy them again with the flood (see Gen. 9:8-17).

God has to judge the earth and His inhabitants, but as He does it, He is always reminded of His covenant with man; He is the covenanting God, the faithful God, who will keep His covenant while executing His judgment upon the earth.

The rainbow is an indication of God’s faithfulness in His administration toward mankind; He has to judge the sinful man, but even in exercising His judgment, He is reminded of His covenant with Noah.

Our God is the judging God and at the same time He is the covenant-keeping God; He will never fully destroy mankind but will save His people and keep some of the nations of the earth for His glory (see Rev. 21:24-26).

Today the throne of God is the throne of grace toward us, His people, and we can come forward with boldness to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help.

However, this same throne is also a throne of judgment, and we as God’s people experience God’s judgement in this age – His judgment starts from His house – so that we may not experience it in the next age.

The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with man and all living creatures that He will not destroy them again with a flood (Gen. 9:8-17). This book shows that God will judge the earth with all its inhabitants. The rainbow around His throne signifies that God is the covenanting God, the faithful God, who will keep His covenant while executing His judgment upon the earth. He will not judge mankind again with a flood nor destroy all mankind, but will keep a part of mankind to be the nations on the new earth for His glory (Rev. 21:24, 26). Rev. 4:3, footnote 3, RcV Bible

In the next age, when God is on the throne and He is about to judge the nations, He will be reminded of His covenant with Noah – the rainbow will be around His throne, and this rainbow is like an emerald in appearance. An emerald is a precious stone whose grass-green color signifies the lives on earth.

The One sitting on the throne is not a hateful God – as many think – but a faithful God, a God that is executing His judgment yet remembering His covenant and sparing some lives on earth, as indicated in Genesis 9:11. The rainbow around the throne of judgment is a solid reminder of God’s covenant.

Today we need to be the covenanting people of the covenanting God, knowing God’s promises and standing on them, and praising God for His covenant and for His faithfulness. Our God is a faithful God, and even in His judgment upon the earth He will remember His covenant and spare the lives of some.

Thank You Lord for Your faithfulness: even in Your judgement upon the earth, You are reminded of Your covenant with man to never fully destroy man but spare some for Your glory. We praise You, our covenant-keeping God who is faithful to keep His covenant while executing His judgment upon the earth! We stand on Your faithfulness, we feed on Your faithfulness, and we enjoy all the riches and promises bequeathed to us in Your covenant! Glory and praise be to our covenant-keeping God who is faithful to His word!

Praise our Life-giving and Redeeming God on the Throne who Keeps His Covenant!

The One sitting on the throne has the appearance of jasper, like sardius in appearance; God is the God of life (indicated by jasper) and redemption (indicated by sardius) – see Rev. 4:2-3. Jasper is a most precious stone, clear as crystal (Rev. 21:11), having a dark green color; it signifies God’s communicable glory in His rich life (John 17:22, 2).

Jasper is the appearance of God, which will also be the appearance of the holy city, New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:11). Jasper is the material of which the city wall was made, and also the first foundation of the New Jerusalem.

Our God, the God on the throne, is a God of life. He is the source of life, the giver of life, and He is life itself. Without God, there’s no life, and because He is, we all have life.

The first thing that we see when we come to God is life: He is a living God, and through His incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection, He became a life-giving God, making it possible for us to become living creatures, living people of God, who are becoming His expression as the God of life.

God on the throne also has the appearance of a sardius stone, which is red in color, signifying redemption. Our God is a God of redemption.

On the one hand, He is a God of life, and He wants to communicate, transmit, give, and infuse His life into us; on the other hand, He is a redeeming God, making it possible for us to come near to God through the blood of His Son.

The One on the throne is the life-giving and redeeming God (later in Revelation we see that He is the Lamb-God). Even though the man made in His image fell, God came in Jesus Christ to redeem him through His blood, and on the throne there’s a constant reminder that He is our redeeming God. Hallelujah!

In Rev. 10:1-11 we also see Christ as a strong Angel (like the One in Rev. 7:2, 8:3, and 18:1), and He has a rainbow upon His head. Christ as another strong Angel comes to take possession of the earth by judging it, and as He does this, He is reminded of His covenant with Noah concerning the earth in Gen. 9:8-17.

The rainbow indicates also that Christ will execute judgment according to the God who sits on the throne with the rainbow around it, the faithful and covenant-keeping God.

Wow, our God is so much to us and for us: He is faithful, He keeps His covenant with man, He is life-giving, and He is redeeming us.

When we see our God, the One on the throne, we are filled with praise and gratitude, for He will come to judge, but He never forgets His covenant with man to spare man.

The rainbow is a sign of God’s faithfulness, and it is there in the heaven from us – from the beginning of the Bible in Genesis with Noah, to Ezekiel 1 as the rainbow around the throne, and to the end of the Bible in Revelation, when God will judge all people and things: our God is a life-giving, redeeming, covenant-keeping, faithful God!

Lord, we thank and praise You with gratitude, for You are coming to judge man and the earth, yet You always remember Your covenant with man to spare man and fully save man. Praise our life-giving and redeeming God on the throne who always keeps His covenant with man! Hallelujah for our God who is faithful, who came to redeem us so that He may impart His life into us and make us His expression as the God of life and the God of redemption. Lord, we look at the rainbow and we praise You and thank You, being filled with gratitude and praise in our heart!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Revelation, msg. 17 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 9 (week 9), The Rainbow — the Consummation of the Experience of the Christian Life and the Church Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The appearance of that rainbow, / Brightly in its splendor’s shown / ’Round the Lamb-God of redemption, / Seated there upon the throne; / With His righteousness and glory / And His holiness He shines! / Colors blue and red and yellow / Show forth heaven’s hues divine! (Song on the rainbow)
  # As Thou art faithful to perform / Thy promise and Thy call; / So, feeding on Thy faithfulness, / I take Thyself withal…. / The rainbow round about Thy throne / Thy faithfulness declares; / This attribute forevermore / The holy city bears. (Hymns #18)
  # With the Man, with the Man is a rainbow fair; / Glorious bow, ’round the throne, faithfulness declares: / We deserved to be served with God’s judgment sore, / But we have been spared to praise Him more and more. (Hymns #1189)