Genesis 9:8-17 – Somewhere Over The Rainbow

What next? What else is going to happen? We hear that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. They’re telling us that more people will be laid off before things start to turn around. They’re saying that maybe the recession will end by 2009, but we don’t know that, do we? And that’s just the economic side of things. What about the other parts of life? We hear that Pakistan has signed an agreement with the Taliban. We hear that North Korea has been testing a missile. The crises and tragedies, the worries, the fears, are everywhere, on a global scale and right close to home. We’re not saying that the end of the world is right now. The destruction of our world may not seem right around the corner, but we certainly seem to be falling apart at the seams, don’t we? The problems that face this world can pile up and grow larger and overwhelm us, flooding us, flooding us with the fear of destruction.

And through this flood of worry and doubt, through this flood of threat and catastrophe shines a sign, or curved sign, a sign of brilliant colors. It’s a sign that serves as a reminder, but not a reminder to us. It’s a sign that serves as a reminder to God. But the fact that God creates for Himself a reminder, and the fact that God doesn’t really need this reminder, is where we find comfort and assurance. It’s how we know what God has in mind for His world. The sign, the rainbow, is a reminder to God, for our assurance.

From the time we were little children, we’ve learned that God put a rainbow in the sky as a promise, a promise not to destroy the world in a flood, as He did in the time of Noah. And the rainbow is to give us comfort, it’s supposed to assure us that we’re safe. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve heard this explanation of the rainbow, it strikes me as leaving a lot of loopholes for God. He’s promised to not destroy the world with a flood, but He didn’t say anything about destroying the world with an asteroid. He’s still allowed to destroy the earth with making our sun go nova. He could rip our planet apart with an earthquake. He wouldn’t have broken His promise about the flood, true, but our planet would still have been destroyed.

But the rainbow that God creates is more than just about water. The rainbow marks a new beginning. The rainbow is a sign, a reminder of a new strategy, a different tact on how God treats evil, on how He handles this broken, evil world.

Noah and his family have just survived this earth-shattering catastrophe. They’ve come through, under the powerful, protecting hand of God. And now God speaks a word to Noah, a word of assurance and comfort. Verse 9:

“I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you

Did you hear your name there in verse 9? That’s us, we are the descendents of Noah. So what God is about to say was for Noah and every other person that lived after Noah.

And, every other living thing. Verse 10:

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.

The effect of this covenant will be felt by everything and everyone. This covenant is for anything and anyone who has been effected by the curse in Genesis 3. And that means everything. This covenant gives hope and assurance for all of creation. Romans 8:22 describes the whole creation:

groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies

When Adam and Eve rebelled, everything, everyone was affected. Like a shotgun going off, sin penetrated everything, every tree, every dog, every bird, every person.

What does God do with a world that has just been flooded with sin? Well, in Genesis 6, He floods back. He destroys what He made, spraying all the sin away with 40 days of water.

But water is not enough to get rid of evil. It takes something else. It takes blood. And in verse 11, God promises that He will not destroy this evil world, He will redeem it. Instead of destruction of the world, God will bring salvation. That’s His promise. Verse 11:

I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Now, notice what’s missing in this promise. Notice what God doesn’t say. Notice what God requires from us in this covenant…Nothing. This is a guarantee, a covenant made without condition. God is going to do this no matter what we do. God is not going to destroy this world, no matter how bad it gets. No matter how much sin, no matter how rebellious people become, He is not going to destroy the world.

But He will restore it. He will redeem it. He will build it back to the way it’s supposed to be. And to prove it, God creates a marker, a sign, a symbol that will guarantee His promise. Verse 12:

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.

He creates a rainbow. We’ve seen so many rainbows in our lives, that sometimes we hardly notice them. We like to look at them. They have beautiful colors. But that’s about it.

But take another look at the rainbow. Look at a rainbow like you’re seeing it for the first time. Look at it like Noah would have looked at it. Look at it, remembering it’s about the destruction of the world. Look at the rain…bow, and see another kind of bow. See the bow, for a bow and arrow? In the Hebrew, the same word is used for both. A bow, for ancient people, was as deadly as a gun. A bow was what they used to fight their wars. A bow was for destruction.

But look where this bow is pointed. It’s pointing up, like every rainbow does. It’s pointing away from the earth. Like you never point a gun at someone, this bow is never pointing at earth. God is not aiming at us anymore. He’s not about to take us out. There is no arrow in the bow, the bow is not loaded. Instead of destroying, God is redeeming.

Look at the rainbow again. How are we able to see it? Scientifically, a rainbow needs certain conditions to appear, right? There needs to be rain from a rainstorm, and there needs to be sunlight shining. And the sun needs to be shining from our side of the rain. It doesn’t work when the rain is between us and the sun. The rainbow only appears when we and the sun are both facing the rain. When we and the sun are together. When the sun is on our side.

There is doctrine in everything we see, and in the sign of the rainbow, we hear Romans 8:31:

If God is for us, who can be against us?

We hear Psalm 46:

The LORD Almighty is with us;

We hear the name of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. And we know that in a storm, that God is on our side. We know that in the thunder and lightning, that God is with us. We know that after the rain, God makes something beautiful.

The rainbow reminds. The rainbow is a reminder. But notice who the rainbow is reminding. Verse 14:

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 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.

God’s word is enough, isn’t it? If God says it, it will happen. We shouldn’t really need a sign to prove God is being faithful. But the rainbow here in Genesis 9 is not for us, at least at first. The rainbow that God creates is for God. Verse 16:

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 on the earth.”

When I see it, God says, when I see the rainbow, I will remember my covenant, my guaranteed, unconditional covenant, the promise I made with the entire earth. The promise to redeem and not destroy. The promise I made to restore this world rather than tear it apart. Verse 17:

“This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

And ever since, God has been handling evil different. Before the flood, He destroyed in response to evil. After the flood, after the covenant, after this promises, He restores in response to evil. Look what happens. In just two chapters, human beings are evil again. The descendents of Noah didn’t make it very far before every human being was building a tower that would reach heaven, a tower to replace God. But what does God do in response to this evil? How does He answer it? He doesn’t destroy, He disperses, He sends the people out into the world, by mixing up their language. He uses their confused language to populate the earth more broadly, rather than having everyone congeal in one spot. And then in Acts 2, He even begins to restore the language barrier, when He sends His Holy Spirit. He didn’t destroy creation, He restores creation.

And then just a chapter later, in Genesis 12, we hear the beginning of God’s countdown to the Savior. In Genesis 12, we are introduced to Abraham, the father of Isaac, the father of Jacob, the father of Judah, the ancestor of the Lion of Judah, the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus. It would be Jesus that would restore this world. It would be Jesus death, His resurrection that would replace evil with good. Here in Genesis 9, God changes strategy, He sets out His plan, He begins His design to rebuild His world back to the way things are supposed to be.

When you look at a rainbow, what do you see? Do you see the colors, red, orange, yellow, green, and blue? Do you see the natural phenomena, a thing of nature? Or do you see a sign, a reminder, a guarantee of a promise that God has made? Do you see a sign, a reminder that God gave for Himself, to remind Himself to not destroy the world, but to restore it instead?

And when you see the rainbow, and you look around at the threats to our world, do you remember the sign, the reminder for God? Remember, God will not destroy this world. No matter how bad things get economically, or politically, no matter what crisis or tragedy hits us next, in our families, with our friends, we know that God is not destroying, He’s rebuilding. He uses these sinful, hurtful things to actually bring healing to this world. Even our worst enemy, death, becomes, for a believer, the way to life, the gate to heaven. Look at the bow, pointing the other way, away from us. Look at the bow, pointing up, aiming at our God who put Himself to death. Look at the bow that points at God, where if anyone is going to be destroyed, it would be Him. Look at the bow, and remember, God isn’t angry at you, not if you belong to His Son.

And look at the bow, the rainbow, and notice who’s standing with you. Notice where the light is coming from. Looking at the storm, God is with you. The Light of the world is standing near you, the One brighter than the sun is turning a storm in your life into a thing of beauty. You might still be getting soaked right now, but the sun is going to come out, God will step in, and the terror and burden and anger and pain will be turned to healing and wholeness and joy and comfort, a life as brilliant and beautiful as the rainbow.

When we see God, through the Bible, when we get a glimpse of who He really is, in Ezekiel and again in Revelation, we see the rainbow, circling the throne of God, radiating from His presence. We see Him healing and rebuilding and restoring, instead of destroying. We see the sign that reminds Him, that in turn reminds us, that clear skies are coming.