God's Covenant: Noahic

 

"I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, and with all the animals that were on the boat with you - birds, livestock, and wild animal - every living creature on earth.  Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you.  Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.  Then God said I am giving you a sign of my covenant you and all living creatures, for all generations to come.  I have placed my rainbow in the clouds.  It is a sign of my covenant with you and will all the earth.  When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.  Then God said to Noah, Yes this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth."  NLT

    The Noahic Covenant is an unconditional and universal covenant of life.  It is unconditional because God vowed that He would not wipe out the world through a flood again.  He never promised that there would not be flood only that one flood would not cover the earth again.  It is unconditional because God does not lie and will not change the covenant.  It is also an unilateral covenant that God made and we do not have to do anything in return.

    God knew He never would, but I think he made the covenant with Noah because he and his family were traumatized by what had happened.  God's power is beautiful and it can bring forth life, but it can also be scary and hard to watch as a human.  The world had never experienced rain until the flood.  God knew He would give the world rain going forward and wanted Noah to find peace in rain and water of all kinds.  It is a promise to you so you will not be afraid, but seek to understand Him and His power.

    It was a covenant made to man and animal.  Animals understand fear and other emotions.  Unlike people who can process, work through, and deal with what happens animals have to experience and survive. God supernaturally gave them comfort.  I think He helped them understand the covenant in the way they could.

    This is God's first covenant that came with immediate proof: a rainbow.  It is something that no one can fake.  Something that no on can imitate in the grand scale that God does it.  It is something that can't be taken away from God as a miraculous beauty for all people.  It is like a kiss on the cheek with God saying He loves you.  Enjoy and remember who God is and what He can do.

Genesis 9:8-17