A Promise of God - the Rainbow

I was on my way into town this morning when I saw this rainbow in the sky. I began to think about it being God's promise to us that He will never flood the world again.

Gen 9: 12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will 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 never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Now that got me thinking about why God would do that. Why would He, right after inundating the entire Earth, then turn around and establish a covenant with Noah and all who came after him? I mean, didn't God just wipe out nearly all of mankind? And now He says, "I promise I'll, never do that again!" Was He being sheepish? Contrite? Was it an accident that He didn't mean to do? Did He lose His temper and get out of control? Of course not!

Here's what I think this is all about. The promise comes not out of pity for man but out of God's immense grief and pain at our sin. He's God. His creation was overtly rebelling against Him. Regardless of how much He loves each one of the people He creates, there are consequences for the sins they commit. Those consequences, just like the sins that cause them, grieve and pain Him more than we can imagine. Yet, they are necessary because His absolute perfection and holiness demand payment for our sin and rebellion.

So, God, in His flawless and perfect purity grieves over our lack of it. He grieves over our choice to turn away from Him and indulge ourselves the same way (only much more intensely) we do when our kids turn away from us and try to take things into their own hands. He grieves over not just the sins but the inevitable, unavoidable price that must be paid for committing them.

Then, God, just like any good parent would do, sheds His own tears over our necessary punishment. And here on earth, to us, that looks.....like a rainbow.

You see? the rainbow isn't a promise that death will never come again to mankind. It's a promise that men will not have to die for their sins. It's a sign of salvation and deliverance. It is a symbol of God's grief and pain, willingly entered into, so that we could be with Him forever.