In looking at the various descriptions of God as protector,shepherd, husband etc, we are confronted with more questions that we are given answers. Not every question of man has an answer. As I have written before…… God simply doesn’t owe us any answers. The Jewish mind is willing to accept that. Since God is so much wiser than we are, why should we question?
However, when I get to heaven I would like to know why God created man in His image and then hundreds of years later simply wiped him out and then start the process all over again. The flood really didn’t accomplish what seemed to be the question of evil! Although Noah and his small family survived, the rest of mankind was annihilated. These survivors were not sinless and within a few generations the evil started again……remember the tower of Babel?
But then again, God has always given man choices. Most often we make the wrong choice.
When Noah and family were finally able to leave their little houseboat, God made a new beginning with man. It is marked by a relationship to God known as covenant.
God establishes a covenant not only with Noah and all his descendants but also all other creatures. Never again will a flood destroy all life on earth. God has neither abandoned nor forgotten his creation. “God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were in the ark and God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided”. (Gen.8:1)
The sign of this covenant with Noah and all creation is the rainbow. A rainbow, is a natural phenomenon that has shape of a weapon (the bow of a bow and arrow). It becomes a sign that God has put away this form of punishment for mankind. He will never again allow the waters of chaos to destroy the whole earth. The bow in the sky becomes both a pledge and a reminder that He is bound to all mortal creatures. God continues healing the wounds of sin that are still with us.
Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
“While the earth remains,
Seed time and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:21-22)
God continues to renew that covenant with mankind. Notice, however, the first line of verse 22…. “As long as the earth remains.” Does this mean that at some point our earth as we know it, will no longer exist? Will this also destroy the covenant that God had made with mankind?
The book of Revelation (chapter 21:1) tells us that there will be a ”new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
Therefore, I believe, He also will establish a new covenant or will renew the covenant for those who have accepted and put their faith in God’s Messiah …first to Israel and then to those of us who have also chosen that very Messiah for ourselves.
God has bonded himself with all of creation. His rainbow is a sign of that bond.
Look for a rainbow in your own life……….it’s there!
AbideLines 