Rainbow Covenant

Genesis 9:1-7

8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

A covenant is like a treaty and a promise all rolled up in one. It is more binding and contractual. That means that it is written in a contract and signed either by one or both parties, and the conditions are non-negotiable. In this case, God was the One making the covenant, asking nothing of Noah in return.

God promised that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. That was the last great flood that will ever cover the whole earth to destroy it.

This did not mean that the earth would be here forever and for eternity. God did not promise that. He only promised that the destruction would not be by flood.

This also means that we do not have to worry about the polar ice caps thawing out and flooding the whole earth again. The earth will not be here that long. And, scientists can do nothing to stop it.

Our focus should then be on being better human beings, not preventing the earth's demise. By doing so, we will help to prevent it.

God signed the covenant with a rainbow. It was a token of His promise. To this day, we are reminded of that promise every time it rains!