Rainbows and the Covenant of God (Genesis 9:8-17)
Rainbows and the Covenant of God
Genesis 9:8-17
The rainbow is a sign that God will never again judge (curse) the earth (creation) as he promised Noah. Whenever the rainbow appears, God remembers his promise to you. But Noah cursed his own son, making God's rainbow meaningless. Human memory is fleeting, but God's memory is eternal.
God Makes a Covenant with Noah
Noah comes out of the ark and meets God. God tells Noah to make a covenant with Him when he steps on the land. The text contains the scope, content, effectiveness, and decisive evidence of the covenant that God spoke to Noah.
God promises Noah that He will never again curse the land with a flood. This is the content of the covenant. Sometimes we misunderstand this passage. God said He would no longer judge with water, and the Bible mentions judgment by fire, so we think that God will judge with fire in the end. However, the idea of whether the tool of judgment is water or fire is our foolish thinking. Why is this foolish thinking?
God talks about the scope of the covenant along with its main content. God declares that the covenant not only applies to humans represented by Noah but also includes nature. God's promise applies to all creatures (creations) represented by Noah, not just humans. All creatures can be expressed in other words as the land. How fleeting is the land (dirt) that appears at the beginning of Genesis? Especially since the land is where Adam and Eve committed sin, and even if we work hard, we will produce thorns and thistles. Moreover, the Bible says that the land is the place where people must return after they die.
However, when God made a covenant with Noah, He promised that He would never curse the land that had been swept away by the flood and had reached the peak of desolation. In fact, God had to mention the land when making the covenant with Noah to make sense of the story. It's only then that a kingdom could be created where even a child could put their hand in a lion's den without harm. Through His promise not to judge the land, God speaks of a heavenly kingdom where we can live in reconciliation, love, and peace, which has been His plan since the time of Noah.
The Context of the Rainbow Memory
The background of Noah's rainbow includes a kind of "historical setting" that reflects the Babylonian captivity period after the southern kingdom of Judah was destroyed by Babylon, or after they returned from there to reflect on the reasons for their downfall with a repentant heart. The following words of God in Isaiah chapter 54 shows great mercy towards his people.
"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the Lord your Redeemer. "To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:7-10)
God, through the prophet Isaiah, says "I will have mercy on you with everlasting kindness." Even if the mountains depart and the hills are removed, and the heavens and earth are shaken, God promises that the covenant of peace between Himself and Israel will not be shaken. Here we see Israel remembering the promise God made with their ancestor Noah as they move up the stream of history from their captivity in Babylon back to Jerusalem. In fact, the memory of Noah's rainbow is realized as Israel returns from Babylonian exile. Ultimately, God's eternal promise is fulfilled through Jesus' death and resurrection for all creation. This is a faithful and awe-inspiring example of God remembering His promise.
