Day 839: Rainbow of remembrance - Genesis 9 vs 8 - 17
8-10 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12-16 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.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” Genesis 9:8-17 English Standard Version
Earlier in Genesis we're told that God saw how the world had become totally corrupt and filled with violence, and said to Noah: “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Look, I will destroy them with the earth. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.” Genesis 6:11-19)
In today's reading we see God establishing this 'covenant' He said He would make with Noah, and indeed, with all flesh. It's thought the Hebrew word for covenant came from a word that meant a fetter. In other words, a picture of someone binding themselves to do a certain thing, or to keep a promise. So what was the promise God committed Himself to in the case of Noah, and all creatures great and small. (vs 11)
He would never again send a flood to destroy the whole world! The fact that over the course of history there have been many devastating local floods doesn't mean that God broke His promise. On the contrary, it’s evidence that the flood of Noah's day was a worldwide flood that completely covered our planet as it then was. Then, on top of the promise He'd made, God went a big step further. Verses 12-16 describe how He would bring about the rainbow that so delights us today to be a reminder of His promise to never send a worldwide flood again.
We may not realize what a tremendous comfort that would've been to Noah and the immediate generations that came after the flood. Some theologians suggest that the rain in Noah's day may have been the first time people had seen such a thing. When God first created everything we're told that “a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.” (Genesis 2:6) But from Noah's day on, even when a torrential downpour hit the land people knew it did not mean the end of the world. But does God need reminding, as vs 12-16 suggest?
I think the rainbow was more for our comfort than for God's memory. Think of God's encouraging words to His people in Isaiah 49:15-16 where He says: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” It's sad that the rainbow has been hijacked by many people as a symbol for a lifestyle that has forgotten God's judgment of sin. But whenever Christians see a rainbow it should remind them that God is someone who keeps all His promises. And the apostle Paul tells us that “all the promises of God find their Yes in Christ Jesus.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)