Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Lenten Fast
Venerable Theodora of Thessalonika
6th Hour: Isaiah 25:1-9 1st Vespers: Genesis 9:8-17 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 12:8-22
Genesis 9:8-17 LXX, especially vss. 13,16: "I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be
for a sign of covenant between Me and the earth." In the Genesis account, "bow" is used metaphorically for "rainbow,"
while most commonly in the Septuagint the term refers to the archer's weapon. Neither Hebrew nor Greek has an exclusive
word for rainbow. How ironic that a weapon became "a sign of covenant" between God and His creation! In the annals of
history, the bow most often has represented war, power, and death. The longbow empowered the English to dominate
western Europe for several hundred years during the late Middle Ages. In Old Testament times, the reign of kings and even
of dynasties often were ended by the bow (1 Kngs 22:34-37; 2 Kngs 9:24). How shall we understand the bow as a covenant
from God that "all flesh shall not any more die by the water of the flood" (Gen. 9:11)? Actually, today's reading reveals
the bow as a sign having many dimensions: Divine judgment, God's peace, and the spiritual warfare of those Baptized into
Christ's death and Resurrection.
God declared to Noah, "I set My bow in the cloud" (vs. 13). Notice, God has placed His war bow above our heads to
remind us, first of all, of Divine Judgment. Noah and his family had just emerged alive from a massive, worldwide
cleansing of all species in the Great Flood. The bow was, and remains, a poignant symbol to remind all men, even the
Faithful in Christ, that God eternally opposes human wickedness. This may be seen throughout Holy Scripture where the
bow is used to signify God's judgment, will, and ability to defeat His enemies.
In Jeremiah, for example, the Lord says, "Summon many against Babylon, even every one that bends the bow: camp against
her round about; let no one of her people escape: render to her according to her works" (Jer. 27:29, LXX; see Jer. 50:29
NKJ). May the Faithful praise God for making wars "...to cease unto the ends of the earth. He will crush the bow and will
shatter the weapon, and shields will He utterly burn with fire" (Ps. 45:8,9 LXX).
Now, in today's passage, God deliberately makes the war bow a sign of peace with all flesh. The Lord's declaration that "I
set up My bow in the cloud" is God's sign that He has stored His weapon of destruction in plain view before all men. He
has ended total annihilation and genocide against our race. The war bow is now a peace memorial of many colors. "I will
remember My covenant, which is between Me and you, and between every living soul in all flesh, and there shall no longer
be water for a deluge, so as to blot out all flesh" (Gen. 9:15). We regularly receive the blessing of peace in the Divine
Liturgy as St. John Chrysostom points out: "...the priests, when about to consecrate, first make this prayer [of peace] for
you, and so begin with the blessing [of peace]....in a word, we may not say or do any thing without this peace."
God has made the rainbow an antitype of Holy Baptism. Water is no longer "for a deluge, so as to blot out all flesh" (vs.
15). Under the rainbow, water becomes a covenant of peace between God "and all flesh, which is upon the earth" (vs. 17).
"...Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" (Rom. 6:3).
Like the antediluvians, we died in the waters of Baptism. As we were graciously buried with the Lord "through baptism
into death..." (Rom. 6:4), so now, like Noah, we "walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). At the conclusion of Romans 6, St.
Paul uses the word for "weapons" (unfortunately translated as "instruments") to teach us to yield our members no longer as
weapons "of unrighteousness to sin," but now to present ourselves to God as alive from the dead like Noah, and our
members as weapons "of righteousness to God" (Rom. 6:13).
Being buried in Thy death, O Savior, increase Thy Life in us as a weapon of peace.