“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter1:3-4).

This year we are focusing on God’s Promises. As stated in the Chaplain’s Corner last week, there are two types of promises, or covenants: Conditional and Unconditional. Another way of stating these two types is Works-Based and Grace-Based. A conditional–or works-based covenant–requires both parties (God and Man) to perform. An unconditional–or grace-based covenant–requires only one party (God) to perform). All of the covenants that come after the works-based conditional covenant with Adam are grace-based. In today’s Chaplain’s Corner we will focus on the first of several grace-based covenants – the covenant with Noah.

In last week’s devotional we learned that because of Adam’s disobedience, the works-based covenant that God had made with him in the Garden of Eden was broken, and Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden.  By Genesis 6, just nine generations after Adam, we find that outside the Garden, the earth filled with corruption “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence” (Genesis 6:11). So, God determined to “…put an end to all the people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth” (Genesis 6:13).

However,God had observed in Genesis 6:9 that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” God gave Noah instructions for building an ark, and then said to him, “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you” (Genesis 6:18). God also instructed him to take representative animals along with food for all. “And Noah did everything just as God commanded him” Genesis 6:22). Note that even here, God is establishing the covenant by his grace, not on the condition that Noah had been and would be obedient, even though Noah did obey.

The rain came, and it was a catastrophic flood. “And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds…. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. (Genesis 7:12-17).

It was truly a global catastrophe: “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:22-24).

One year after Noah and his family entered the ark, they were finally able to come out of the ark onto dry land. “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even thoughevery inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease’” (Genesis 8:20-21).

“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.’” (Genesis 9:8-13).

I know this is a lot of Scripture, but the words of God are so significant. Noah was a righteous man and he obeyed God in the building of the ark. However, never did God say, “if you will be righteous, then I will make this covenant with you.” Rather, God said “I will now establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you” to never destroy the earth with a flood.

He also promised the stability of day and night and the regularity of the seasons. Think about it, we can count on the fact that the sun will come up in every morning, and spring/seedtime will always follow winter just as autumn/harvest will follow summer, without fail, because God has promised this. God will preserve the world as he works toward keeping his promise to rescue humanity and creation.

Furthermore, every time you see a rainbow, it represents this “covenant between me and the earth.” This covenant is between God and each of us, because we are all descendants of Noah, and it is based on the righteousness of God Himself. The rainbow is the sign of this Noahic covenant with us.

Bottom Line: As we said before, all of God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. According to Got Questions, the lesson to us is that when we see a rainbow we should always be reminded of God’s faithfulness and His amazing grace. We should also be reminded that our God is a holy and righteous God who has a holy hatred for sin and who will not allow sin to go unpunished forever. Also, just as God provided a way for Noah and his family to be saved in the ark, He also has provided a way for us to be saved through Jesus Christ. Noah and his family were saved from the wrath of God that came in the flood, just as those who are in Christ are saved from the “wrath to come.”

This is one in a series on the Promises of God which started on January 4, 2023. In subsequent Chaplain’s Corners, we will continue to look at these promises and with them, the nature of our awesome God.

“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10 KJV).

In Christ,

Judy