A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes just a few words can redefine a picture. While professional sports teams continue to put their players through the ritual humiliation of donning rainbow attire that espouses a pro-LGBT agenda in which many players do not believe, some athletes have turned to understated protest. This weekend, San Francisco Giants pitcher Landen Roupp added context to his team-issued Pride cap by drawing a Bible reference next to the rainbow logo.

The hat read, “Gen 9:12-16,” and circulated widely across social media. Reliever J.T. Brubaker did the same, while shortstop Nick Ahmed wrote “Genesis 9:16,” and leftie pitcher Sam Hentges refused to wear the rainbow hat altogether.

The verses refer to God’s covenant with Noah, specifically the verses that establish the rainbow as a sign that God will never flood the whole earth again.

“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth’” (Genesis 9:12-16).

The players’ actions were reportedly not coordinated, although they may have gotten the idea from Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on his rainbow cap before his team’s Pride night game against the Giants last year.

The Bible reference presents an effective protest to LGBT rainbow symbolism in that it erases the narrative of sexual license and reclaims the rainbow to its original, biblical context. “The rainbow is a symbol of God’s covenant to us,” Roupp said, “and us as believers stand firm in that.”

In effect, the Bible reference to Genesis 9:12-16 functions like a community note on “X” — and it is just as devastating. Other (Bible) readers added context you should know, it proclaims: the rainbow logo you see here originally had nothing to do with homosexuality or transgenderism. It was originally a sign of God’s promise to postpone judgment on human sinfulness.

For that is the context of the rainbow. It was a sign that God would not flood the whole earth again. Why did God flood the whole earth in the first place? Because “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Our culture provides ever-present reminders that the condition of man’s heart has not improved in five thousand years — and never more plainly than during Pride month.

“So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (Gen 6:7).

It is hard to celebrate LGBT Pride while meditating on the righteous judgment of God. One is liable to remember that “the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up — and it shall be brought low” (Isaiah 2:12).

Yet the rainbow is a symbol of grace, not judgment. God’s judgment provides the context in which grace has meaning and significance. Although we deserve God’s judgment, the rainbow remains as a symbolic reminder that God temporarily forbears with iniquity to offer mankind every opportunity for repentance. The Lord “is patient toward you,” Peter explained, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil,” writes Paul. “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” (2 Corinthians 5:10-11).

But postponed judgment will still certainly come, which means the grace of God is no license to sin. Indeed, Peter warned that some people would have that very attitude, foretelling that “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (2 Peter 3:3).

For these scoffers, Peter predicted only final destruction. For, by the same word [that flooded the earth in Noah’s day], the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:7).

In other words, the rainbow is a symbol of God’s grace. But it is also a reminder that God is not a flabby and blind deity who winks at evil. God brought judgment on the sinful world of Noah’s day, and he will bring judgment again. The only way to escape the coming judgment is to repent and believe in God’s chosen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will shelter his followers from the coming storm. But those who follow him must also leave behind their sin.

That’s quite a “community note” for an accessory designed to subtly promote an ideology explicitly designed to rebel against God’s creation ordinances.

Readers may wonder why the LGBT movement betrays such ridiculous insecurity that it always insists on special treatment and nationwide celebrations in apolitical venues like baseball fields. But if its most ubiquitous symbol can be refuted and repurposed by nothing more than a strong password (three letters, five numbers, two special symbols), then the LGBT movement has good reason to be insecure. Ultimately, it is based on a lie and stands opposed to the truth. That opposition will bring judgment, unless those who embrace the lie have their eyes opened, repent of their rebellion, and trust in the one holy Savior, Jesus Christ.