Genesis 9:12-17
Verse 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Having satisfied His wrath with the wiping out of the evil people, God was ready to make a new covenant with humans and creation as a whole. He wasn’t making the covenant because He doubted there would be evil again, He made it knowing there would be. It wasn’t about giving up His abundant wrath, just promising not to express it in the same manner.
God didn’t think it was ok to simply decide not to flood the entire earth again, He needed the people to understand He was being serious about it. It wasn’t merely a promise, it was a covenantal vow. While most covenants were made with a form of sacrifice, God wasn’t going to harm any more of the animals as they hadn’t yet began the repopulation of the earth. Instead, He created something new which could be a sign to multiple generations.
Notice He calls it His rainbow. This wasn’t a covenant the world was making with God, but it was solely Him making it with His creation. He also points out how this sign is not just to remind creation of His covenant, but to remind Him of the covenant. It isn’t that He was going to forget, it was more about reaffirming His decision.
A rainbow is something we can simulate and do our best to recreate but the truth is, we can’t make them like He can. He can spread them across such a vast expanse so that we can see them mile after mile while driving. He also creates them with a double feature which flips the color scheme of the original. Sometimes they are bright and sometimes they are barely noticeable. There are times when they are visible all the way to the ground and times when we only see them jumping from one cloud to the next.
No matter how He displays them, they all have one purpose, to be a reminder of His great promise. A promise that would mean nothing if He hadn’t shown His great wrath and wiped out creation due to their evil. The fact of the matter is that we are only reminded of God’s promise when things are gloomy. A rainbow doesn’t show up when the skies are full of sunshine, it is when the storm clouds are still in the sky when God says, “I promised not to wipe you out, remember?” When the storms of temptation come, and they will, we need to remember to stand with Him against evil and live in His promise.
Making It Personal
Do you think about the flood when you see a rainbow? What does God’s covenant of not flooding the entire world mean to you? Do you hold to His promise or enjoy the evil which stirs up His wrath?
Making It Personal Kids
What do you think about when you see a rainbow? Why is it important to remember why God made the rainbow? Do you keep promises as good as God does?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for such a beautiful display of Your promise. Use it to remind us to live in righteousness, forsaking evil in every part of our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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