God's promise

Genesis 9: 12-16 "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I'm putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth."


In Genesis chapters 4-10 the story begins with Adam and Eve and their children and many many generations leading up to Noah and the story of the flood. The message included in these passages is very simple. Man when left to his own devices could not please God.

In fact, over the course of the many generations leading up to Noah man continually embraced evil and moved further and further away from their Creator. Their thoughts and actions were so totally abhorent to God that He decided to "make a clean sweep" and rid the earth of his creation.

The story of the ark is well known, as is that of the dove that went out when the floods started to subside. My favorite part of this whole story is that of the rainbow and God's promise to never destroy the earth again.

Genesis 8, 20-22 recounts what happened after they got off the ark:

Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, "I'll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I'll never again kill off everything living as I've just done. For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, day and night will never stop."

God's promise to us is one that we can count on. He will never destroy everything on earth again. Note that He didn't promise that we wouldn't attempt to self-destruct or to destroy the earth by our mis-use of His gifts to us.

I am thankful for God's faithfulness to me and to my family and our business. I hold on to the rainbow as a sign of His love and His faith in His creation.

While we are not expected to build altars and sacrifice burnt offerings to Him, in every circumstance we need to be grateful and thank him for his promise. Hold on to the promise of the rainbow today.


Chicke Fitzgerald