The Covenant With All Living Things

Genesis 9:8-17

Frustrated with the corruption of everything he had made by sin God had decided to start over with just the basics of what he had made. Having built a great many things over the years, I know how frustrating it can be when they don’t turn out just as I desired. Unfortunately, when things I make malfunction, it is a result of a mistake on my part. In the case of the world, it was a deliberate choice by man not to do what he was designed to do. The problem was not God’s fault, but man’s choice. When Noah tried to do what he should, it pleased God immensely. He made a commitment to himself not
Completely start over the same way again.

“And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:21-22)

When he was instructing Noah as to what he was to do, God declared that commitment as a covenant with all living things. There were no conditions on the covenant, it was something God committed himself to. He had too much emotionally invested in what he had made to simply throw it all away. He would not again destroy it as long as there was any possibility of salvaging it.

“And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 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. 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.” (Genesis 9:8-11)

God’s covenant was with every living creature, that as long as the world remained, that never again would all life be destroyed from the earth by a flood. As long as the earth remained things would remain close enough to the original condition to sustain life. The seasons would not change and crops would still be capable of being grown.

“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: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 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. 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. 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.” (Genesis 9:12-17)

It is common to see a rainbow in the spray from a lawn sprinkler when the sun shines on it. It results from diffraction of light by the water droplets. The diffraction of light by a prism requires that it be projected onto another surface for the eye to see it. Since clouds are composed of small water droplets they always diffract the light, but frequently it doesn‘t strike another surface strongly enough for us to see it. God promised that any time there was a cloud in the sky a rainbow would form to remind him of his promise or covenant to us.

When we see the rainbow it should serve as a reminder that not only will there never be another flood that covers the entire earth, but that as long as the earth remains, we don’t have to worry about an the sun fading or climate change destroying our ability to produce food. While we will always have problems on the earth, they will not be insurmountable.