Rainbow Study Bible (CSB) "How unlucky for you guys, I've never seen fog this bad on the peninsula." The old man sighed as we walked into the old stone pub. We'd heard similar sentiments from locals the entire day as we drove around the Dingle Peninsula- a stretch of land along Ireland's Southern Atlantic coast known for it's gorgeous sea views and sweeping green Irish vistas. But on that chilly late October day, instead of expanses of emerald landscape, our view consisted of thick gray fog restricting all visibility to an exciting 10 feet in any direction. We took a seat by the stone hearth and let the roaring fire warm our faces and dry the foggy dew from our clothes. The pub was empty except for us- because with such low visibility not even the tourists wanted to explore the scenic driving loop Dingle is famous for. We had been so excited to admire the peninsula views we had heard so much about, but our spirits were low as we realized we likely wouldn't get to see them. Every site we visited had only impenetrable, thick gray fog. "You really should consider changing your travel plans to come back tomorrow when the weather may be better" the pub owner said as he brought us two bowls of warm soup. "You probably don't believe me based on what you've seen today, but the views here really are the best in all of Ireland." He was right, I didn't believe him. I tried to stay optimistic but was frustrated by the blanket of fog obstructing what I knew were incredible views. After lunch we walked across the street to the edge of a cliff. Feeling the Atlantic breeze on my cheeks, I looked out hoping for a glimpse of the sea. Nothing. Just the darn fog. The next day we did take the advice of the Irish man and changed our plans to include another go at the peninsula's driving loop. As we began driving I was feeling skeptical- still just fog. My heart sunk. The fog was relentless. That is, until we crested the mountains dividing the Western coast of the peninsula from the Eastern. Because when we did, I saw a sight that immediately lifted my spirits. All at once, as if God reached down Himself, the fog disappeared and was replaced with: a rainbow. In the Bible, the rainbow appears in Genesis 9 when Noah and his family emerge from the ark after a flood so mammoth, the entire world is submerged and humanity (except Noah's family) is destroyed. It is a promise- a sign of the covenant God made to never again destroy the world with a flood. "Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature." (Genesis 9:14-15) We continued our drive to the same stone pub we visited the day before and walked to the cliff's edge. Instead of a thick blanket of fog, we could see the emerald green countryside facing against the blue Atlantic waters. It took my breath away, and it reminded me of God's promise to never abandon me. Although the previous day's fog had hidden this sight, it didn't change the fact that it was still there in all of it's beautiful glory. It had been there all along even when I wasn't able to clearly see it. Sometimes it can seem like we can't see God (or we wonder if He's really even there). But just because we may feel like we can't see Him does not change the fact that He truly is there in all of His beautiful glory. He has promised to never leave us and never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), and He always keeps His promises This CSB Rainbow study Bible is centered around the truth of remembering God’s promises to His people. It uses a rainbow of 12 colors to color code each Bible verse to one of the twelve Biblical themes the editors discern it most closely relates to: Salvation, God, Family, Love, History, Prophecy, Evil, Sin, Commandments, Discipleship, Outreach, and Faith.
I love how easy-to-read this Bible is! The font is clear and crisp, and large enough to read without a magnifying glass (can you believe how tiny the font in some Bibles is?!). So many colors sprinkled over the pages makes this Bible inviting and intriguing to read as well. I could see the color coding being especially helpful to a new believer or somebody desiring to familiarize themselves with themes found in Scripture. The study maps and charts bring even more historical context to the text, and the having two ribbon bookmarks makes marking your place in the Old Testament and New Testament convenient! Unfortunately I found that several of the colors used to color code look so similar they can be difficult to distinguish on the page. I had trouble telling the difference between text colored purple (Salvation) and light purple (God), yellow (Evil) and light yellow (Sin), and several others…wow, you can imagine how difficult it was for my color blind husband! I was also slightly confused by the way the subject order and colors are described in the introductory section of this Bible. It says that the subjects were placed in a specific order on the page based on numerical significance: “God in the first position because there is one God,” “Evil in the sixth position because of the significance of 666 and the mark of the beast,” “Commandments in tenth position because of their relationship with the 10 commandments given to Moses” and so on. I love this idea! But it appears that God is in the second position (not the first), Evil in the seventh position (instead of the sixth), and Commandments in the ninth position (not the tenth) when I look at the actual pages. The introductory section also says that Salvation is colored blue because “it has a heavenly or eternal connotation.” Which is great! But on the pages, Salvation is colored purple. “Silver assigned to History because it signifies age or experience.” Also really great and clever! But it is listed in orange on all of the pages. This doesn’t take away from the experience of reading this Bible, however! I completely acknowledge I might be misinterpreting the positions and colors, or it could be an editorial mistake left in from a previous edition. But it is a little worrisome because this could be a somewhat careless mistake in a book whose actual text and content we hold as inerrant in its original writing. If this mistake could be made in the introduction, could there be mistakes in the text or translation process? Just thoughts...if you happen to know more about it I'd love to hear! My rating? 4/5 I think this is a great Bible for anyone looking to learn more about identifying God’s promises within His Word! I would be curious to learn more about the (possible?) discrepancy in the subject positions and colors, and for that I unfortunately feel I need to deduct a point from my rating. However I do think this is a unique, neat Bible that would make for a great resource to a Biblical scholar of any age and maturity! |
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