Title: God's Rainbow Covenant (Genesis 09:8-17)
Content You must have memories of a rainbow floating on the garden after it rained as a child. After the rain showers pass, you will not be able to forget the beautiful rainbow colors that mysteriously embroider one side of the sky. However, modern people rarely see the rainbow and live. A rainbow would not be able to appear properly in a forest of high-rise buildings filled with turbid soot.
However, the rainbow in the text we read today is used very meaningfully. After the flood judgment, a covenant was established over this rainbow between Noah, the representative of mankind, and God who brought Noah.
Covenant in the Bible is God's promise to mankind based on His character and authority. The original covenant has the character of a mutual contract. So, when both parties to the promise set up prerequisites in order to pursue common interests on an equal footing, and the conditions are satisfied, the promise, that is, the covenant, is finally established.
However, the covenant spoken of in today's Bible text is a covenant without any conditions. It can be called a 'covenant of grace and love' in that God is in control of all covenants.
This covenant is not a covenant made through consultation or compromise with humans, but a covenant that God has unilaterally and sovereignly presented and concluded without conditions. In fact, human beings do not have enough faith or will to set conditions with God on their own and to keep them. Therefore, the reality is that Angan does not have the ability to make any kind of covenant with God. Nevertheless, God was able to become a party to this blessed covenant only through His unconditional love and sovereign will.
Also, God placed a rainbow in the sky after the rain, a visual sign of the covenant, considering that he would be afraid of another flood damage due to doubts despite his sure covenant. By pouring a rainbow for people who are ignorant and prone to the disease of oblivion, we can see the love of God who wants to awaken God's covenant anew. In spite of this rainbow covenant, we can see that no covenant is meaningless to those who do not believe, seeing that the Tower of Babel was built by Noah's descendants because they were afraid of another flood because of their disbelief. In this sense, ultimately, this rainbow covenant is a sign that foreshadows the salvation of mankind through Jesus Christ.
1. The rainbow covenant is a sign of God's love.
2. The rainbow covenant is a sign of the certainty of salvation for the saints of God.
3. The rainbow covenant is a sign of God's faithfulness (verses 15-16). God has repeatedly said this covenant... I will remember it. This is a statement that shows that God is the one who always faithfully keeps his covenant. (Deuteronomy 7:9; Psalm 36:5; Hebrews 6:8) As a proof of the covenant, God has shown a rainbow from the days of Noah's flood to the present day. It is what you are showing. Even though heaven and earth change, God's Word does not change even one jot or one jot, just as it is said, the rainbow, the sign of God's covenant, is still showing up even after many years have passed. (Matthew 24:35) <Conclusion> It is full of rich promises to you. Those covenants are faithful covenants that are still valid not only at the time when they were first made, but also today.