Promises are very important to us. We all want our friends and loved ones to keep the promises they made to us, and if we are people of integrity, we want to keep the promises we have made to others. Sometimes, though, promises end up being broken. Many of us might know someone who makes promises, but never bothers to keep his word. His promises, his word, means nothing. Sometimes things come up and a promise can’t be kept. Or a promise is made that is so unreasonable that it could never be kept. Broken promises mean a lot of disappointment. There is One, though, who has never broken a promise He has made, and that is the Lord God. In our Scripture passage today from the Book of Genesis, we read of a promise He made many millennia ago, and has still kept to this day.
As our passage opens, Noah and his family, along with all of the animals, have just disembarked from the ark. God had instructed Noah and his sons to build the ark in order to save themselves and a pair of each of the animals because God was going to destroy the world. Over the years, from the time of Adam and Eve, on down to Noah’s day, mankind had become exceedingly sinful. It had gotten to the point that all mankind had become so wicked, and no one obeyed or worshipped God, no one that is, except Noah and his family. For this reason God destroyed the world with a flood, and spared Noah and his family. When the floods were over, and the waters dried up, the eight people, along with the animals, came off the ark into a clean and new earth.
The memories of the flood, the fear that they felt seeing and hearing the rain come pouring down out of the sky, was still fresh in their minds. How could they forget the terrified and hopeless cries of those people outside the ark, those who had refused to heed the preaching of Noah, those who had blatantly scorned and blasphemed God? Would this happen again? It would be understandable that they might be thinking these thoughts. Thus God called Noah and his family together, and made a covenant with them (vs. 8-9).
A covenant is a pledge, a promise, a contract made between two parties, in this case between God and man. There are two types of covenants. One is a conditional covenant where both parties need to fulfill their side of the promise for it to be valid. For example, God will bless the people, and keep them in the Promised Land if they obey His laws and worship only Him. Since the people did not keep their side of the covenant, God permitted invading nations to carry them off into captivity. The other type of covenant is an unconditional one, such as this one that God makes with Noah and his descendants here in Genesis.
In this covenant that God made, there are three parts. The first was that there would never be another flood to destroy the whole earth (vs. 11). The second part was that as long as the earth remains, there will always be the different seasons (Genesis 8:22). And the last part was the rainbow. A rainbow will be visible when it rains, as a sign that God will keep His promises (vs. 12-17).
Rainbows are a very special symbol. Some people do not realize that the Bible tells us that the rainbow is a sign, the symbol of the permanent covenant God made with man after the destruction of the world from the Flood. When God makes a promise, He does not want us to forget it. He often gives us some sign or pledge to memorialize His promise (vs 12). Whenever God sees the rainbow in the sky, He will remember the covenant He made with all living on earth (vs. 16). God promised never to destroy the whole earth by water again. He will destroy the earth again in the end times, but that time it will be by fire (II Peter 3:10-11).
God will remember His covenant promises. He remembers us. We may forget, we may fail to keep our promises, but God never will. He will always keep every single promise He has ever made (Joshua 23:14). God will never forget us, either. He will never forget the names of those of His children who are engraved upon His palms (Isaiah 49:16). We can always depend upon His promises!
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