Page 83 - Through New Eyes

76 THROUGH NEW EYES

hold it up. Notice the fire within? Each of these stones is a tiny
image of God’s glory, His fire. The High Priest, whose chest was
covered with such fiery stones, thus had his own personal glory-
cloud, an image of God’s.
It is because gemstones so pointedly reflect God’s glory that
we regard them as beautiful. It is written on the heart of man to
appreciate glory, and it takes a great act of the will to pervert this
attraction, We delight in a beautiful sunset, in the sound of rush-
ing water, and in gemstones, because each of these images the
very glory of God Himself. Fallen man may not want God, but
he does want God’s glory.
Not only can we see gemstones as frozen pieces of glory, but
we can also see them as frozen pieces of the rainbow. The rain-
bow is, of course, a manifestation of glory, being made of light
and all colors. It appears in the heavens, like the glory of God,
and the Bible shows it encircling God’s throne.
The rainbow first appears in the familiar passage Genesis
9:12-16, where God put His warbow in the sky, and said, “When
the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the
everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of
all flesh that is on the eart~ (Genesis 9:16). It is nice for us to
look at rainbows and be reminded that God will never again de-
stroy the earth with a Flood, but it is far more important for God
to be “reminded” when He sees it. Of course, God does not need
to be reminded of anything, but He has chosen to do things this
way for our comfort.
But does God only see this rainbow when it rains? No, be-
cause God is always surrounded by His glory-cloud, and thus
He always sees the rainbow. When Ezekiel saw God’s glory-
chariot, he wrote that “as the appearance of the rainbow in the
clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding
radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of
God” (Ezekiel 1:28). Similarly, when John stood before God’s
throne, he saw that “there was a rainbow around the throne, like
an emerald in appearance” (Revelation 4:3). John compared the
rainbow to a gemstone. Finally, in Revelation 10:1, John had a
vision of the exalted Christ, and described him as “another
strong Angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud;
and the rainbow was upon His head, and His face was like the