Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Genesis 9. The main subject of the sermon is God’s covenant with Noah.

Why don’t you take your Bibles and open them to Genesis chapter 9. Today, we get to talk about a rainbow, isn’t that exciting? I’ve done all kinds of research on rainbows this week. I’d like to share it with you, but even more on God’s covenant faithfulness, which is the real issue of this passage. You know something? Covenants are a part of our everyday life in a major way, but even more, were they a part of the way that God has dealt with us throughout history. We are today as a people of God, depending on God’s covenant faithfulness for our very salvation. God is a God who keeps His promises.

I. God’s Covenant Faithfulness

And so as we look at these verses today, I think I want you to keep in mind that the confidence that you have as a Christian, that someday you’re going to see Jesus face to face, that someday you’re gonna be with Him forever, all of that depends on God’s ability, God’s character in keeping His covenants. God keeps His promises. I look about in our society, and I see all kinds of broken promises.  You know we make covenants, don’t we? We make agreements, and we break them. Perhaps the most consistent or a significant covenant we make in an earthly sense is that of marriage.

We stand up before God and we make a commitment to an individual that we will be faithful to that person for life; that’s a covenant, a promise that we make before God. And it’s a significant thing. When the President of the United States is sworn into office, he’s making a covenant with we, the people, that he will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That’s a covenant. It’s a promise that he makes. In the same way, when two nations make a treaty, and they promise that they’re going to act in a certain way with one another, that’s a covenant that is made. And yet we are so consistently faithless to those covenants, and so it’s hard for us to understand a God who can make a promise thousands and thousands of years ago and hold to it consistently, but that’s the kind of God that He is.

In Genesis chapter 9:1-17, we are coming to understand and to see and to absorb in our hearts God’s covenant faithfulness. Listen to these verses 1-17, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth, and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood in it. And for your lifeblood, I will surely demand an accounting.  I will demand an accounting from every animal and from each man too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds blood, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God has God made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number, multiply on the earth and increase upon it.’ 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 cut off 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. 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. 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.’ So God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.’” 

II. A New Blessing for an Old Command

In verses 1-7, we see a new blessing for an old command. God gives a blessing to Noah and his sons and their wives as they step off the ark. Now, there is a chapter division between chapters 8 and 9, but this is really a continuation from chapter 8. There’s no break at all here. Noah and his sons and their wives have just entered the new world. It’s a world that’s been cleansed by the flood, it’s purified by water. It’s ready for the outflow of God’s plan to continue. And so they’ve entered that new world. And at that moment, it says that God blessed Noah and his sons. Now, I think a blessing is an amazing thing when you stop and think about it. Remember the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount? What’s the first word that Jesus said at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount? Blessed. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” I’m not going back to that. We did all that last summer and all that. 

But God is faithful to bless his people, and the blessing of God is really a determination to take His power and move it out toward you in your life and create a good outcome in everything you do. And God says, “They will be blessed,” He talks about Israel, “They’ll be blessed when they come in and blessed when they go out. They’ll be blessed in the fruit of the womb, they’ll be blessed in the harvest. They’ll be blessed in everything they do.” The blessing of God produces abundant harvest. And so God is blessing Noah and his sons, and there is power behind that blessing. I really think, and I’ve read recently and thought about, the blessing as something that father should do for their children. I really think so. You think about Isaac and how he blessed Jacob. You remember that? When Jacob got dressed up like Esau. He wore Esau’s clothes because Isaac couldn’t see very well. What was he seeking at that point? He was seeking the blessing that came from his father. Now his father was a prophet, he was a patriarch, and so his blessing carried with it a certain power, didn’t it? It was like a prophecy almost. And so later, when it became clear what had happened, Isaac said, “I can’t revoke the blessing. God has sent His power and His words through me on to Jacob, and he will be blessed.”

“God is faithful to bless his people, and the blessing of God is really a determination to take His power and move it out toward you in your life and create a good outcome in everything you do. “

And I think that fathers ought to take their hands and put them on their children and say, “I bless you. I pray God’s blessing on you. I pray that God would bless you in your life, bless you as you grow, bless you in your obedience, bless you in your future marriage, that God would bless you.” I think you ought to do it.  But here, in this case, it’s a significant issue when God blesses us because, for us, we are praying, we are seeking God’s blessing, but when God says, “I bless you,” there’s power behind that, power for success. And so He blesses Noah and his sons and their wives. And then He renews an old command. Now, how is it old? It was given many generations before that to Adam and to Eve, that they would fill the earth, that they would subdue it, that they would rule over it and have dominion over it. And so this old command comes back again. You know, sin does not change God’s plans and purposes, not one bit. Sin may change God’s methods in dealing with us, but it does not change his purpose. And so God’s purpose is reestablished here. And remember what that purpose was? Habakkuk 2:14 says better than any verse I found in all of scripture. “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” That’s what God wanted. 

And he says, again, “Fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it. Fill the earth with my glory. Fill the earth with the knowledge of my glory.” That is God’s purpose. And so He reestablishes that original command. He’s brought us into new measures at this point, new relationships, but it’s an old command that He does this. And at this point, he reestablishes human supremacy over creation. He says in verse 2, “The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves.” And I thought, how does that fit in here? What’s going on with that? What is the fear of man, of the human race on the part of the animal kingdom have to do with anything? Well, understand just how tenuous was the string of human existence at that point. You’re talking about eight people, and that’s it. Can you imagine if the animals all turned at that point and became vicious and attacked? Could they have withstood? Absolutely not. And actually, there’s always somewhat, perhaps, a fear of animals on our part, isn’t there? Actually, Hitchcock picked up on that. You remember the movie, The Birds? What would happen if birds just suddenly lost their fear of human beings? Do you realize how different your life would be? It would be terrifying. Hitchcock picked up on that.If the birds were just constantly attacking us, coming after us, and how much more animals with more power, more strength.

Suppose cows were crashing down fences or horses were jumping over them and coming after us, it would be a terrifying world to live in, wouldn’t it? And so God protects us at this point. And He protects us by putting a certain fear of man in creatures so that they will not come after us. “They are given into your hands,” God says in verse 2. It’s a protection for us. And also there’s new food patterns here as well, I believe they’re new. He says, “As I gave you green vegetation to eat, now I give you every living thing to eat.” Now, remember earlier in Genesis 6, there was a distinction between clean and unclean animals, but I think that this verse gives us indication that that was not a matter of eating; that was a matter of sacrifice. That was a matter of sacrifice. Later on in the Mosaic covenant, there would be clear regulations as to what you could and could not eat under that covenant. But at this point, He’s saying that I now give you the ability to eat meat, and many scholars believe that they did not eat meat before this point. But there was a limitation to it, and it was simply this, that they would not eat blood. They were not permitted to eat the blood, and he calls it the lifeblood. So there’s a connection at this point between blood and life. A connection between blood and life. 

In Leviticus, this connection is stated straight out, “Blood is the life,” He says in the Book of Leviticus. And the purpose there in Leviticus is for the offering of atonement. The blood is to be offered as a sacrifice, is an atonement. Leviticus 17, verse 10 and following, it says, “Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and I will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” That is so significant. And so at this early stage in Genesis 9, He says, “You may not eat blood, it’s reserved for something else.” In Leviticus, we understand more clearly that it’s to be a substitute for us. The life of the sacrifice, for the life of the sinner. That’s what the sacrificial system taught us, it’s an exchange. We deserve the wrath of God. We deserve the punishment of God, but it’s a sacrifice that pays the price. And so when the blood of the sacrifice is poured out, the exchange has occurred. His life for my life. Sacrifice is dead, but I’m alive. Ultimately, you know that would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. When Jesus came, and when He died on the cross, He poured out His blood, poured out His life, so that we might have life.

And so in John 6, He, in effect, says, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” And that shocking teaching is saying, “You have to be totally absorbed in what I accomplished on the cross.” There’s an exchange that happened there. Paul says it in Galatians 2:20, he says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself in exchange for me.” And so the lifeblood was to be given for sacrifice. There’s an exchange there. And it’s fulfilled when Jesus Christ died on the cross for you.

And also, at this point in Genesis 9, God establishes a pattern of final accountability. Accountability. He said there’s gonna be an accountability for our own life, accountability from the animals. I’m not really sure what that means. I looked at commentators and they didn’t tell me either. So I won’t say, “I know what it means.” I don’t know how animals are gonna give an accounting to God. But the principle of accountability is clear. The accountability before God is clear, and we are to be accountable also for the lives of others. Accountable for the lives of others. Doesn’t that strike right at the heart of what Cain said? In regard to Abel, he said, “Am I my brother’s… ” What? “Keeper.” “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 

“No, I’m not my brother’s keeper.” He said, “You have to give an account for the lifeblood of your brother. And so at that point, He would call Cain to account for the death of his brother, but I think as Christians, we go beyond that; we’re accountable for the life of our brother and sister as well, and be reaching out and to care. And at this point, He establishes, very plainly establishes capital punishment. He says in verse 6, “Whoever sheds blood, sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” It’s very plain. And so at this point, He’s bringing in effect government in here for the purpose of stopping that viral spread of sin that would happen before the flood. You remember it was violence, as well as other transgressions that brought the flood on, to begin with. The spread of murder, the spread of violence must be slowed down, must be retarded. And so God is exerting a certain control in here for the protection of the human race. Now, there’s lots of studies done by various social agencies that talk about capital punishment not being a deterrent. Not being a deterrent. But actually, the Word of God is against those who think this. In the book of Deuteronomy, where capital punishment is established not just for murder, but for a number of other things as well. There is a very plain connection between capital punishment and the deterrent of future crimes.

Listen to these verses, it says in Deuteronomy 13:5, it says, “You must purge the evil from among you.” In other words, we must get the evil out. A little leaven is the whole lump, so we’ve got to have a pure lump and we’ve got to get the evil out. Okay, that’s the first motivation, but then the second motivation, Deuteronomy 13:11, it says this, “Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.”

Doesn’t that sound like deterrent? I think it has deterrent, that’s the language, it deterrent. He says the same thing in 17:13 and 19:20, 21:21 in Deuteronomy. Five times, He says, “Then all Israel will hear and be afraid and no one will do such a thing among you again.” And so here in Genesis 9, God is establishing this governmental rule, and I use that language, governmental rule, it’s not gonna be anybody willynilly, or whatever. Cain said, “Whoever finds me will kill me.” “Not so,” says God, “There’s gonna be an organization to it, but it’s still going to be executed by human beings.” Remember what God said to Cain, he would be under sevenfold retribution. Sevenfold is divine retribution. Here He’s handing the job over to human beings, and then it says, “For in the image of God has God made man.”

Now, that little word “for” is kind of significant, it shows the reason why the first half is going to occur. Now, some people believe the reason is that we as human beings are created in the image of God, and therefore to kill us is to attack the image of God. Is that true? Yes, it is, of course, it is. But I don’t think that’s what the word “for” means here. I think instead, it’s not so much thinking of the victim at this point, but thinking of the governmental agency of execution at that point. “For in the image of God has God made man.” There’s direct connection in Genesis chapter 1:26, between the image of God and authority. It says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule.” You see, and so because in the image of God, we have the authority of God, we are to execute judgment. This is plainly stated in Romans 13, in which God says, or in which Paul says that governmental authorities are established by God to execute his judgment, and so we are to be afraid. We are to fear governmental authorities and not do evil.

Government also exists to commend those who do right. And so all this is established at this early stage. Now understand what’s going on here, as I sum up all of what we’ve covered so far in the first six verses, see the protections that God is bringing in for the human race. He protects them from the animal kingdom, puts the fear of man in animals so that they won’t attack. Remember, we’re hanging by a thread here. We’ve got only eight people, there are only eight people came out of that ark. Human race hanging by a thread and so He protects them from the animals, he enlarges their food supply, perhaps there was less vegetation after the flood, so there’d be more need for food. And then He talks about this whole thing in terms of accountability. There’s gonna be accountability. So watch how you act, watch how you live. And then capital punishment and they’re to stop the viral spread of murder and evil. He’s protecting the human race.

And then he gives that command again in verse 7, “As for you be fruitful and increase in number, multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” God’s purpose is clear. He wants the earth filled with the knowledge of His glory. And so He institutes these things to protect them. Now, the blessing of God at this point is going to kick in, we’re gonna talk about it next time, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, how many children did they have with them as they came up the ark? We talked about this last time. None. Praise the Lord. I wouldn’t wanna grow up and spend my first year on the ark, would you? They had plenty of work to do as it was, those eight souls, there’s plenty of work, but now it’s time to be fruitful, now it’s time to multiply and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, they obey the commands. God bless the womb of their wives.

And so very soon, Shem would have five sons, Ham would have four sons, Japheth would have seven sons. We’ll talk about that next week. I’m not skipping the genealogy, we’re not going over the Tower of Babel, we’ll talk about it, but it’ll be exciting. God has blessed and He bless Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and very soon Noah would have 16 grandsons. Now, how many of your grandfathers have 16 grandsons? None. Okay, well, my guess is that they also had a corresponding number of granddaughters, that is a huge brood, isn’t it? And so God poured out His blessing on Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and they were fruitful. And very soon after that, the nations came.

III. God’s Covenant With Noah and Creation

And then in verses 8-11, God makes His covenant with Noah in creation. He set the stage now and the time has come for God to make that covenant, and so now we come to consider what a covenant is. Now, perhaps it’s been a long time since you’ve used the word covenant in a sentence. I talked a few… Actually, last week, I think about our covenant fellowship here as we are members together of one body, we make a covenant together, don’t we? And that we’re going to act in a certain way. We have a covenant, and I read it to you. But a covenant is an important way that people deal with one another. It’s even more significant in how God deals with us in our sinfulness. A covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties, which binds them to certain actions and commitments to benefit each party. That’s what it is.

Theologically, I think it’s God’s gracious way of dealing with us in our sin. We are insecure because of our sin, aren’t we? We don’t know what the future holds. We don’t even know if we’ll be alive tomorrow. We don’t know if the person we’re dealing with is a liar or somebody who is false. Covenants are binding serious arrangements that give us a sense of security in a sinful world. And so, God uses this tool of covenant to give us assurance in terms of what he intends to do to us.

Now, in the ancient near east, covenants were a big part of everyday life. You had political covenants and you had personal covenants. For example, a political covenant would be the kind that would be made between, let’s say two small nations that they would protect one another, that there would be trade between each other. Or perhaps it would be like the covenant of a great king like Nebuchadnezzar, that he would make with a smaller kingdom like Israel or Judah. In other words, “I have now whipped you on the battlefield, but I don’t wanna keep my troops here all the time, so I’m going to remove myself, and what you’re going to do is you’re gonna send me so much gold, so much silver, so much wood, and so much wheat. And if you do that, I will keep my troops away from you. But furthermore, going beyond that, if you are in danger, if some other nation comes, I desire to protect you. So you send an emissary and I’ll be there with my army to protect you.” And so there’s a relationship, a covenant relationship between the great king and the lesser king. 

Also, there were personal covenants, like for example, the covenant that Jonathan and David made to be in effect blood brothers, good friends; that they would bless one another and that they would benefit one another. Personal covenants, in addition to the marriage covenant as well.

Now, in the Bible, the Hebrew word for covenant, beriyth, comes from the root word which means to bind. There’s a binding together of two parties, and so they’re gonna be bound together in a covenant relationship. There are two major types of covenants in the Bible, there is the conditional covenant and then there’s the unconditional covenant. Now, a conditional covenant, the keyword is the word if. Keyword is the word if. Let me give you an example of a conditional covenant. Exodus 19:4 and 5, “Say this to the house of Jacob,” this is God speaking to Moses, “and all the people of Israel, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be my treasured possession.” Do you see that keyword, if? “If you obey me, if you keep the covenant stipulations, you will be my people and I will be your God.” Did they obey God and keep his covenant? No, they did not. And so the covenant with God was broken, but it was a conditional covenant from the start. The word if covered everything: If you do this, if you obey, if you submit, you’ll be blessed. But if not, you’ll be cursed. Remember the blessings and the curses? That is a conditional covenant.

But then there are unconditional covenants as well, and you know what’s so beautiful about our salvation? Is at the core of our salvation are a series of unconditional covenants that God makes. This covenant with Noah is the first one. He also makes an unconditional covenant with Abraham and also with David, there’s no conditions, there’s no word if, it’s just I’m going to do this for you.

As you read through here in Genesis 9, do you see any if or condition here in this covenant? None whatsoever. It’s a unidirectional covenant. He’s just gonna… Genesis 15, he does the same with Abraham. He takes him out and he says, “Look up, look up to the sky and see all the stars, and count them if you can, so shall your offspring be.” And Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. At that moment, all his sin was forgiven because he believed the promise of God.

And then he said, “I’m going to give you this land to take possession of it.” And Abraham said, “How will I know that you’re gonna give me this land?” And you know what happened next? Genesis 15, a covenant; they had a sacrifice, they separated the pieces of the sacrifice, God came down in the form of a smoldering pot and moved through it. It was covenant treaty, a solemn covenant between God and Abraham. That God would give him the land and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. A unidirectional covenant, no conditions. You read through that in Genesis 15, you won’t find any if, it’s just something that God wanted to do for Abraham. And then David, King David, David wanted to build a beautiful temple for God, and Nathan the prophet said, “No, you’re not going to be the one to build it, you’re not gonna be the one to build a house for me, but I, I will build a house for you.” Isn’t that beautiful? That’s the kind of God we serve. “You wanna do this for me? I accepted his worship, but I’m not gonna let you do it. Rather, I’m going to build a house for you spiritually, I’m gonna raise up out of your own body a descendant and then a line of kings right on down. And ultimately I will raise someone up who will sit on your throne forever and ever, and his kingdom will not end.”

And who was that? That was Jesus Christ, the Son of David. There was an unconditional covenant that God had made with David, and so David says in 2 Samuel 23:5, “Has the Lord not made with me an everlasting covenant?” Isn’t that beautiful? God made a covenant with me and it’s never gonna be broken, and it was a unidirectional covenant. Incredible promises. A future king whose kingdom would never end, but no if to that. And then, best of all, for those of you who have come here, you’re not Abraham, you’re not David. Well, who are you? Well, if you’re a child of God, you’ve come in under something called the new covenant. There’s a new covenant, which would come. The old covenant was conditional. You remember that? The if, if you obey, if you keep my commandments, you’ll be my people. The new covenant was a new covenant in which God would transform us from within.

Jeremiah 31:31, “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Incredible promise number one, he will transform us from within. He’ll give us a new heart to obey his commands, transformation from inside. Incredible promise number two, to be our God and we would be his people. Incredible promise number three, all of our sins wiped out through the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Now, there was a condition, it was a conditional covenant, but we’re not the ones that met the condition. Who met the condition of the new covenant? It was Jesus Christ who met the condition. If he, as the sacrifice, would lay down his life, if his blood would be poured out, all of these benefits would be bought for his people. Isn’t that beautiful? The condition has been met, and therefore for us, it’s secure.

And so it says in Matthew 26:27-28, Last Supper, “Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This cup is the blood of the new covenant, which is given for many for the forgiveness of sins.” The new covenant. And because of that covenant, we have salvation.

Now, in Genesis 9:8-11, God makes this covenant with Noah, an unconditional covenant, it’s a unidirectional covenant, there’s no requirements. In verse 8 and 9, God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you.” And then again in verse 11 says the same thing. It’s just simple, “I’m going to do this for you and for your descendants.”, “I now establish my covenant with you.” Now, what is the scope of this covenant? It covers all time, doesn’t it? To the end of the world, this covenant is made and nothing can break it. It covers all creation as well, anything that lives on the earth is under the benefit of this covenant. He said, “I will not destroy all life again by a flood.” Verse 10, “With every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, all the wild animals, all those that come out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth.” And what is the promise? Verse 11, “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, to me, this is proof positive that the flood of Noah was a universal flood. Have there been local floods, since then? Yes, there have. Have people perished in the local floods? Yes, they have. Have they lost property in the local flood? Quite recently. Has God broken his promise? No. That was a universal flood that covered the whole earth and all life except what was on the ark perished in that flood, and he said, “That’s what I’m not going to do again.” And he has kept his promise.

Now, there would be localized judgments, and sometimes God would use a flood to do it. Sodom and Gomorrah was a localized day of the Lord that came down on those cities and brought destruction and judgment, but the whole world continued in its history, and so it will be until the end. In verses 12-17, God gives a covenant sign, the permanent symbol of God’s faithfulness. Now, I think there are two symbols of the flood, aren’t there? We’ve been looking at the flood now for four weeks. Alright, what would you say are the two symbols of the flood? One of them is this boat which has two drafts sticking up through the roof, okay? Have you seen it? And all the children. The ark always looks too small, the ark was huge. But that ark is one symbol, it’s a symbol of God’s protection, God’s care through the judgment. Okay, what’s the second symbol? It’s the rainbow. And I’ve never seen a child story of Noah’s Ark, which didn’t end with that beautiful rainbow, it’s a marvelous sign of God’s covenant faithfulness. 

IV. The Covenant Sign: Permanent Symbol of God’s Faithfulness

Now what is a rainbow? What is it? Well, it’s a natural prism, isn’t it? It’s a result of a natural prism. Have you ever seen a prism before? It’s a triangle of glass of a certain length, and if it’s made right, it takes white light and it breaks it out into a spectrum. To some degree, it’s an optical illusion; you’re seeing colors in your mind as a result of the effect of light going through this triangle of glass. Well, that’s exactly the same thing that happens naturally with a rainbow. The light comes down through the atmosphere, it moves through droplets of water in the air and so it breaks out the white light into the spectrum. And isn’t it beautiful that God uses light? The very first thing he created, and then water, little drops of water, water, the very thing he just used for judgment. To establish his covenant sign that he would never again bring a flood on the earth. Isn’t that just like God?

Some commentators have said that the bow, and by the way, it’s the exact same word in Hebrew for that which you use to shoot an arrow, the bow represents the end of hostilities between God and the human race, all the arrows have been fired. It’s now established a peaceful relationship between God and the human race. Beauty of colors. Do you know what they are? Do you remember from science? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue? What’s the next one? Indigo, I always get that one. And violet, those beautiful colors. Do you know which one’s on the outside on a rainbow. I forgot, it’s red. Red’s on the outside, and then it goes down to the violet. The beauty and the immensity and the power of God. And you tend to see them at the end of the storm, don’t you? At the end of all of that, you see and that you’re reminded of God’s covenant faithfulness.

Well, the rainbow has a present significance. As you look at that, you are supposed to be mindful of the fact that God keeps his covenants, that God keeps his promises. It’s a sign of God’s faithfulness first to Noah and his family. He said, “Don’t be afraid. This isn’t coming back. You’re done with the ark now, we’re done with the judgement, it’s over. Don’t feel insecure. I am here.” And there’s nothing we can do about a rainbow, is there? We can’t get up there and change it, it’s just there, it’s just something God does. It’s just there as long as he wants it, and then it’s gone. We have no power over it, and so there’s total security in that covenant sign.

“The rainbow has a present significance. As you look at that, you are supposed to be mindful of the fact that God keeps his covenants, that God keeps his promises.”

Jeremiah 33 talks about that, he talks about the new covenant, and he says, “If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their point in time, then my covenant with David my servant can be broken, and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.” Can you break God’s covenant so that there won’t be day and then night? Do you have power to do that? Of course, you don’t. And therefore, you can’t stop David from having a descendant to reign on his throne. It’s too late now, Jesus has already come and he’s established on that throne, and no power in heaven and earth or under the earth can take him off that throne. That is the faithfulness of God. And so it is also with the sign of the covenant, namely the rainbow.

Also as a demonstration of God’s sovereign power, God totally controls the weather. He says in verse 14, “When I bring clouds on the earth and a rainbow appears in the clouds.” Etcetera. God is the one who brings the storm, God is the one who takes the storm away. That is just God’s way of dealing with us. And so God restrains himself. God brings power and then he removes it. God has power to destroy the earth right now if he wanted to, but he’s restraining his power. His power is under total control. “Whenever I bring the clouds, then after they’re done, I’ll bring the rainbow,” that’s God’s power under control.

“God is the one who brings the storm, God is the one who takes the storm away. That is just God’s way of dealing with us. And so God restrains himself. God brings power and then he removes it. God has power to destroy the earth right now if he wanted to, but he’s restraining his power. His power is under total control.” 

So God restrains himself, but God also reminds himself. Isn’t that interesting? It’s actually in the Scripture, it doesn’t say when we look at the rainbow, we’ll remember. What does it say? When he looks at the rainbow. When he looks at the rainbow, he’ll remember. Not that he needs to be reminded, he never forgets. But he’s saying, “Whenever I see the rainbow, then I will remember the covenant.” We may forget, but God never will.

Now, there are signs of the new covenant, aren’t there? Baptism is a sign. It’s a sign of faithfulness, God’s faithfulness to cleanse any who will trust in Jesus Christ. Any who will trust in him through faith in him, baptism is a sign of your salvation. Is there another sign of the new covenant? Yes, the Lord’s supper as well. Whenever we eat the bread and drink the wine, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. It’s a sign of his covenant. But the rainbow is also a symbol or a sign, a picture of the glory and the majesty of God.

In Ezekiel chapter 1, you had to read that, it’s one of the most extraordinary chapters in the entire Old Testament. It says there that the rainbow surrounded God’s throne, surrounded his throne and revealed his glory. Ezekiel 1:28, it said this, “I saw like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around the throne. And at that moment, I saw the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, and when I saw it, I fell face down.” A rainbow surrounding the throne. Isn’t that amazing? The beauty and the majesty of the throne of God. But I found one more thing, and this is something probably that’s none of you have ever seen before, ’cause I had never seen it before. It’s also there in the new heaven and the new earth, and it shouldn’t surprise us either, it shouldn’t surprise us. Because God has made for Noah a new world, hasn’t he? The judgment comes, all of the sin is cleansed away, and then there’s a new world.

So it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. “I’m going to remove the old earth, I’m gonna remove the old heavens, and I’m gonna establish a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” We’re gonna come into it, and then there’s a glorious display of majesty, like a rainbow. You say, “Where is it?” I’m glad you asked. It’s in Revelation chapter 21. Turn over there in Revelation 21.

Revelation 21, the last book of the Bible, second to last chapter. This is how it all ends, this is the end of the story in verse 18.  Revelation 21:18 and following. “The wall of the city, the New Jerusalem was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold as pure as glass, the foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, carnelian; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, jacinth; and the twelfth, amethyst.”

And then it says, “The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.” Do you get the image of transparency here? Something that light can permeate? Well, where’s the light going to come from? Look down at verse 22, “I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or moon to shine upon it for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp.” So we have the shining, the radiance of God. But what about all those 12 types of gem stones? They’re hard to pronounce, and it’s hard sometimes to know exactly what they are, so I did some research. Do you know that all of the colors of the rainbow are represented there? The red stone is the sapphire, the orange is chrysolite, the yellow is topaz, the green, of course, is what? Emerald. Emerald. The blue is beryl, indigo is jacinth, and then the amethyst is violet, a deep purple, just like the flower amethyst. They’re all there. 

The rainbow, a symbol of God’s faithfulness throughout all time, and also of his glory. And what of the fact that the light through these stones refracted into your eyes is really the glory of God, isn’t that the truth? There is no other light in that city, so it’s God’s glory coming through in different ways. I don’t really know what it symbolizes, I don’t even know what it means, I can barely understand it, but I know this, that the glory of God is coming into me in all of its different ways, maybe his mercy, his goodness, his judgment, his compassion, his wrath, his power just coming in all these different ways, that’s the glory of the new Jerusalem. And Jesus Christ is its lamp. 

V. Application: Our Unchanging God

As we look at the story in Genesis 9, and as we look back over four weeks of considering the flood, we see some key applications, don’t we? But I think I wanna center on one major application. Our God is an unchanging God, and therefore he holds to his covenants, he doesn’t break his promises. And from that comes our security, doesn’t it? Our security comes from God’s covenant faithfulness. God keeps all of his promises, and any of us, any of you who have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have security, you have eternal salvation, no one can take it from you. And any of you who have not yet put your faith in Christ, there’s only one place for security when the flood comes, and that’s Jesus Christ.

Secondly, our unchanging God has given us an unchanging mission. God’s consistent plan. Habakkuk 2:14, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” That’s the Old Testament version of The Great Commission, isn’t it? We are to fill the world with the gospel. We are to make converts? No. Disciples of Jesus Christ, mature disciples who know the glory of God and who worship and honor at his throne. 

Our unchanging God also teaches us of a coming judgment. Yes, there will be no more flood, but that doesn’t mean there will be no more judgment. Actually, the next judgment will be more terrifying, more dramatic, more final than the flood was in the time of Noah, and Jesus says, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” And it says in 2 Peter 3, it says, “By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.” When I was working as an engineer, I had up in my little cubicle a number of Bible verses. I chose Bible verses that would make people think. So when they came in to do some work, they’d see some, they couldn’t help it. You know, your eye just kinda goes and there’s a new sign, you read it and it’s too late now, the word of God is in you and you’re gonna be bothered by the rest of… It just happens.

One of them was Psalm 96 when it says, “Let those who love the Lord hate evil.” Isn’t that interesting verse? Love and hate in one place. “Let those who love the Lord hate evil.” But there’s a little poem there that I heard from a preacher and I never forgot it, and I put that one up there too. And this is what it says, “God gave Noah a rainbow sign, no more water, fire next time.” And when people read that, they know the story, they know the rainbow, they know all that, and yet there’s some biblical truth in there, isn’t there? 2 Peter 3, “God gave Noah a rainbow sign, no more water, fire next time.” And so God, our God is an unchanging God, he’s a Holy God, and he’s not going to tolerate sin, and yet he has provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ. 

And the final application is our promise to future glory. That rainbow, that was a temporary sign, that rainbow is just small compared to the beauty, the majesty of the new Jerusalem. Are you going there? Are you sure today, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re going to be in that new Jerusalem? Are you sure that you’re gonna survive that judgment that’s going to come? Are you on the ark, so to speak? Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? If not, can I invite you to come to faith in Christ today? I’ve explained to you already in the sermon how to do it. You just put your trust in Jesus Christ who shed his blood for sinners just like you.