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I Like Rainbows (Genesis 9:13-15)
Genesis 9:13-15, 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. 14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, 15 and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life.
Context/History
– This is several generations after Adam and Eve, and the earth is becoming populated.
– The so called “Sons of God” have had “children who became all the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.” (“Who that is”, is debatable, but they must be the cool kids!)
– Genesis 6:5-6, The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.
– The bible says, “Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.”
– God told Noah that He was going to destroy all living creatures, and to build the ark.
– And, “So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.”
– Noah was the only one worthy, and the one God chose to save all of creation. He’s a Super Hero!
– There were already “heroes and famous warriors” in the land.
– Noah was just an old man building a boat, to survive a flood, in a land that had probably never even seen a drop of rain.
– For dozens of years, I’m sure enduring scorn and ridicule from everyone else.
– But God chose Noah! God saw the value inside him, when Noah himself probably questioned it.
– Example: My Diary: “Most of the time I feel like a fraud. Not because I’m pretending to be something I’m not, but because people see me as something different than I see myself. On paper, everything looks great. But I don’t feel like that matches up to what’s inside. I just keeping wondering when someone is going to realize it and ‘out me’. I just want to give up sometimes, but I don’t, and I wonder if people can see that in me.”
“People put me in the category of hero, and thank me for my service. And I feel guilty, like I don’t deserve it. And wonder how I even ended up here. I feel ‘out of place’.”
– I wonder if Noah felt that way? He was an ordinary man, with an extraordinary faith!
– Noah endured! Built the ark, filled it with animals and his family, and worshipped God thru it all, and God blessed Noah!
(READ) Genesis 9:12-17
- This is the 1st covenant between God and his people.
– A covenant is a binding relationship rooted in a commitment that includes promises and obligations.
– This covenant resets the natural order of things in God’s creation. (The people had corrupted it.)
– The people were living however they wanted to. Murder and violence was common.
– The bible says they took multiple wives, and disregarded the ideals of godly marriage.
– This is a fresh start for God’s creation. A new chance to live how God intended.
– This is God’s promise to all generations that he will not destroy us all, for our wickedness.
– But what promises or obligations did we, his people, agree to?
- We can’t make any promises.
– Naturally, our part of the agreement should be “We won’t sin anymore.” But we can’t do that!
– In Genesis 8:21, God says, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.”
– God says this even after the wicked were destroyed in the flood, so this includes Noah!
– It wasn’t just “those people”, it is “us people” too!
– The top 3 news stories of our generation are Murder, Violence, and the Disregard for Godly Marriage.
– Example: Our generation’s motto is, “What can I get away with?”
– Like when people cheat in a race or a game, and use an excuse like, “The rules don’t say you can’t.” or, “Well, technically….” (Why follow the rules if you can get away with cheating?)
– Stop! “Make me.” (If you can’t make them stop by force, then it’s okay that they do it.)
– Example: TV Skit, cop has criminal at gun point, criminal keeps moving away…
– Instinctively slowing way down when you see a cop on the side of the road. Not because you were speeding right then, but because you are so used to breaking that rule.
– The fear of a consequence makes you obey the rules, not your desire to do what is right.
– The lack of punishment, or the prosperity of the wicked is NOT a sign of God’s consent. Just because he hasn’t destroyed or punished us, is not a sign that he agrees with what people are doing.
– Matthew 5:45, For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
– We need his grace and mercy! (We shouldn’t use his promise to not kill us, as room to shame him.)
– Not just “those people”, but also “us people”.
– Romans 3:23, For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
- I like rainbows.
– God’s promises do not depend on what we can do! That’s why God sent us Jesus!
– Notice the word choice of what God tells Noah in this scripture:
– Gods says: The rainbow is a sign of “My covenant”. It’s “My rainbow”. “When I see the rainbow, I will remember the eternal covenant.”
– The rainbow is there to remind GOD of his promise to not destroy us all.
– The rainbow reminds us of God’s infinite grace and mercy towards us!
Romans 5:8-9, 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.
– We are saved from the wrath of God through our faith in Jesus Christ. (Promise fulfilled!)
* For me to take “the symbol” that represents God mercy, and wave it in his face as a symbol of my freedom to sin, would be just awful!
Conclusion:
– Some people like rainbows because they are colorful, or are attached to mythical ideas, or because they have been corrupted to symbolize things of this world.
– But I like rainbows because they remind me of how much mercy and grace my heavenly father shows me, even in my wickedness, his promises will endure.
– The rainbow reminds me that God has made promises to his people, and he will be faithful to complete them.
– Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promise. He is my blessed Savior!
– Rainbows remind me of my Savior!
– prayer –