Gods Covenantal Faithfulness (Genesis 9)

 Gods Covenantal Faithfulness

When God told Noah He would destroy the earth, He had already promised the establishment of a covenant:


[Gen 6:18 NKJV] 18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark--you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.


It is the first time a covenant is mentioned in the Bible and in Genesis 9 this is elaborated. 

Here Noah and his family had just come out of the ark. The world was destroyed by a flood and only the animals that were on the ark were left. 

God says:


[Gen 9:9-11 KJV] 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10 And with every living creature that [is] with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.


He promised to never destroy the whole world with a flood again.
Now of course local floods have happened after, but the universal kind would never happen again.

The flood must have been somewhat of a traumatic experience. It has left its mark in every culture and the fear of water must have been quite high.

But God had promised to not do it again and He has kept it ever since.
In this way He makes a covenant: an agreement where He would do something in relation to another person or people.

In this case it was the entire world. It was comforting, assuring and made in mercy.

He made an agreement to do something Himself.

But besides this He also made a token for the covenant as extra assurance:


[Gen 9:12-17 KJV] 12 And God said, This [is] the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that [is] with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 And I will remember my covenant, which [is] between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that [is] upon the earth. 17 And God said unto Noah, This [is] the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that [is] upon the earth.


God had promised. The rainbow was put in the sky as a token that this would not happen again. And it is this rainbow we see after rain, something that helped cause the flood.

It is a token that God remembers. He always remembers what He had promised and agreed upon.
We may forget, but He does not. And He is faithful.

God is still the same.

Still He is faithful in His covenant. Still He remembers. And still He often uses visible tokens as a way to remind us of His faithfulness, just like the rainbow.

Humanity is often much strengthened spiritually by visible tokens of what God had covenanted.
Think of the Lord’s Supper in the new covenant.

In all this we see a loving faithful God who cares about assuring us.


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