Thursday
Thursday
God’s Eternal Covenant of Mercy
Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures.
Genesis 9:16
In due course the flood waters receded, and all the passengers in the ark—human and animal—emerged. Next, Noah built an altar and sacrificed burnt offerings on it, symbolizing the dedication of his new life to God. Even before the flood, looking to the future beyond it, God had said to Noah, “I will establish my covenant with you” (6:18). Now after the flood he confirmed it (9:8–11).
Covenant is a key biblical word. It denotes a solemn promise of God in which he takes an initiative in undeserved mercy. So what was God’s covenant promise following the flood? It had both a negative and a positive aspect. Negatively, five times in succession, God said to himself, “Never again” (8:21; 9:11, 15).
To this negative promise God now added a positive blessing, in which he repeated his fourfold original command to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, and to subdue it (9:1, 7). He thus renewed his commitment to his creation. In addition, he promised that, as long as the earth lasted, the yearly cycle of the seasons (seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter) and the daily sequence of day and night would never cease. All life depends to some extent on the regularity of these rhythms, and did so long before it was known that they were caused by the earth’s revolutions on its own axis and around the sun. The Royal Navy had sufficient confidence in this that it once posted the following directive: “The Fleet will sail at sunrise, and the sun will rise at 5.52 a.m.”
God has remained faithful to his covenant, which he signed and sealed by the rainbow (vv. 12, 17). Against the dark background of a threatening sky, the light and beauty of this phenomenon appears, uniting heaven and earth. Similarly, the apostle John saw God’s throne encircled with a rainbow, for he rules the world in mercy (Rev. 4:3).
For further reading: Genesis 8:20–22; 9:1, 7–17