March 20, 2023
Reading: Genesis 9:1-17
Focus: Genesis 9:15-16 – I will remember My covenant between Me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind of the earth.
Father God, thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your promises. Open our hearts to Your Word. Help us to see You today. Remind us always that You are always there for us in the best and the worst of times. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Have you ever looked for a rainbow after a rainstorm? I have. I find single ones, double ones, a circular one and once a triple rainbow. I know the science behind rainbows, but I still marvel at them anyway and I remember what a rainbow means. God created the rainbow. Not just for decoration but for a very definite reason. He made a covenant with the human race and the rainbow is the reminder of that covenant.
Just to remind you, the first thing Noah did, after leaving the ark, was to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to God in thanksgiving for the deliverance from the flood. Noah and his family were finally out of the ark and the animals had been released to go where God wanted them to be. Now the real work began. They had to start over. Not just a home, but planting and harvesting, and planning for the future. God told them have lots of babies and repopulate the earth. Well, not in those exact words, but you get the meaning. He also changed some things. As in the Garden of Eden, man was given all green things for food. This time He added that all creatures would also be food for mankind. But He also gave some limitations. We are not supposed to eat meat that still has blood in it. He also specifically said that He will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. I take that to mean not only are men not to kill one another but that each of us must account for our actions, good, bad and ugly. Works for me.
This had to be a very stressful time for Noah and his family. Where would they settle? How would they live? How would they build their homes and of what materials. They had only what they had taken into the ark to use to start this new life. But Noah trusted God.
Then God made a covenant with Mankind and all living things. What is a covenant? I know that covenant is a rather old-fashioned word. It is an agreement between two parties. We don’t often use the word covenant much anymore. We use words like contract or treaty. Back in those days, when God is part of a covenant with man, there is a sacrifice where the animals a cut into two pieces and set on two sides of a pathway. Both God and the person with whom the covenant was made, would pass between the pieces indicating they were both in agreement. It was a very serious thing. Both parties were bonded together by the covenant. It was not to be broken. As in the case of Noah, representing Mankind, God made the covenant with him.
When I think of a covenant, I think of my marriage vows. They were covenant between my husband and myself. We promised to love, cherish and remain faithful to each other until death. Now I know some marriages do end in divorce but people are still making that same promise when they marry. Forty-six years ago, I made a covenant with my husband. I have kept those promises. There are days I don’t like him, but I will always love him. Our wedding rings are the symbol of those promises.
God promised that He would never again bring a flood on the earth to destroy all living things. In this case, the covenant was between God and Mankind as well as all living creatures on the earth. It’s a promise that is so much more than a promise. A covenant is a promise that won’t be broken. God promised that the world would never again be destroyed by a flood, and He gave a sign that would remind us, and Him, of that covenant. The rainbow.
I find it so fitting that the sign to affirm this covenant is a rainbow. Because what is a rainbow but sunlight shining through raindrops which split the light into all of its colors. God used the very thing He had used to destroy the earth to remind us of His promise. He said that when He saw it, He would remember this first covenant with mankind. What comes to mind when you see a rainbow in the sky? Do you marvel at how light can be split into colors? Do you wonder if a pot of gold sits at the end of the rainbow? I love to see a rainbow in the sky, no matter how faint it is, because whenever I see it, I am reminded of that promise. And I am also reminded of other covenants God made down through the history of the Bible. I am reminded that God loves us with an everlasting love.
Throughout history, God made covenants with His people. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The entire nation of Israel. Both parties had responsibilities to the other. God would guide and direct His people and His people would worship and follow Him. They would abide by His commandments. He in return would bless His people. Israel broke the covenants often but God always led them back to Him. God looked on the covenants as a marriage. In Jeremiah 3:14, God says to Israel: “I am married to you.”
God has always been faithful to his people. He didn’t give up on them, even when they abandoned their worship of Him to worship pagan gods. He always found a way to bring them back to Himself. This happened over and over again throughout the history of Israel. He is still trying to draw His people back to Himself. We, as Gentiles (non-Jewish people), are being drawn to Him also. When He ascended into heaven, Jesus told His disciples to witness to all nations.
Jesus kept the old covenants. He followed the tenets of His Jewish heritage. He went to Jerusalem to keep the Passover. He went for Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, and kept the festivals throughout the Jewish calendar. I don’t think He could have done anything less. He was a man with the blood of God running through His veins. And He was a Jew first. The word Christian had not even been coined yet.
He celebrated His last Passover in Jerusalem with his disciples. He followed everything that was required for the Passover supper. But at the end of the meal, Jesus did something very different that changed Passover forever.
Passover is a very solemn time for the Jews. It is a reminder of the days when God led the Hebrews out of captivity in Egypt. That night every household was instructed to take a spotless lamb and sacrifice it. The blood was to be collected and painted on the door posts and lintel of the door of the home. The lamb was to be roasted and eaten while the families were dressed and ready to leave Egypt. As they waited, the angel of death passed over Egypt. When he saw the blood on the door post, he would pass by that house but those without the blood, death visited and took the firstborn person and the firstborn of all the animals of that house. This first Passover was a foreshadow of Jesus.
At this last Passover before his death, Jesus made a new Covenant with Mankind. He broke bread, blessed it and gave it to them to eat of the broken bread. The broken bread was the symbol of His body that would be broken for us. He blessed the cup and had them all drink from it. He said the cup is the new covenant of His blood, which would be poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins. These are the symbols of this New Covenant. Jesus said to do this in remembrance of Him. Then He went to the cross as the pure Lamb of God, whose blood takes away the sin of the world.
When, at the end of time, we stand before the Judgement, God will look for the blood of Jesus on us. If we have believed and accepted the blood of Jesus as payment for our debt of sin, God will welcome us home. Those who have never accepted it or rejected it, will be sent out into an eternity without God. Hell. There is no middle ground. If you don’t make a decision either way, you have decided against it.
Today, when we take Communion, we are affirming, once again, our part of the covenant. We are the recipients of the covenant. Jesus shed His Blood and we are the recipients of God’s forgiveness of our sins. Communion, or as some call it, the Lord’s Supper, is a solemn reminder of the suffering of the Lamb of God, whose body was broken and whose blood was shed. He willingly took on Himself the sins of the past, the present and the future of all who accept and believe that He died for us. Communion should be a reminder to us of what it took for Jesus to make that new Covenant with Mankind.
Do you believe the promise?
Father God, I am amazed when I see a rainbow. I remember Your promise to us. I remember that down through time You promised salvation. I am thankful that, through Jesus, I am part of the covenant with You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Food for Thought
- What is your first thought when you see a rainbow?
- Do you believe that God keeps the covenant He has made with us? Why?
- What do you think of when you take Communion?
- Does God always keep His promises? Why or why not?
- What has God promised you?
