Genesis 9:8-17 recounts the covenant God made through Noah, which simply guarantees the continuation of earthly orders. When we read of the covenant with Abraham, we will find a personal approach. In this covenant, God wills to preserve the world God has made.[1] Some covenants are conditional: God graciously offers to do something, upon the condition of God’s leader or people acting in a certain way that keeps their end of the stipulations of the covenant. Other covenants are unconditional: God promises to do such and such, without any stipulations for humans to meet. The covenant here is unconditional: The Creator makes a promise to the creation. God already told Noah that after destruction through the flood, God would make a covenant with Noah and the rest of creation (Genesis 6:17-19). God promises to establish a covenant with Noah, his family, and their descendants, along with every living creature. God has judged the earth, but now promises never again to destroy the earth by means of a flood (Genesis 8:21-22).
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “As for me, I am establishing my covenant (berit a formalized relationship/agreement between two parties) with you and your descendants after you. This emphasizes the holiness of human life and personal responsibility for the punishment of the crime. The covenant does not stop with humanity, for it includes a covenant 10 with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. This covenant is distinctive in several ways from future ones. First, the covenant is between God and all of creation and all of humanity. Other passages in the New Testament build upon this theme. In Romans 8, the apostle Paul grandly asserts that the deliverance of all creation is associated with God’s anticipated final redemption of the children of God in Jesus Christ. All of creation has such a close link that all together can and will praise God. Every creature in heaven and earth will sing praise to God and the Lamb (Revelation 4:11, 5:13). That gives a reverse meaning to the service of “the blessing of the animals.” Reginald Heber’s hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” puts it this way: “All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky and sea.” 11 I establish my covenant (berit) with you, that never again (also verse 15) shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Relative to living creatures, the will of the Creator is that the creation should endure.[2] Yet, unresolved theological questions remain, especially in connection with the long biblical litany of post-flood disobedience and rebellion by the creation against the Creator, resulting in further punishing actions by God, followed by renewed deliverance and promise. Indeed, there has been no more global flooding. Yet, by some understandings God will one day destroy the earth fire (II Peter 3:6-7). In spite of all of that, the biblical promise is that ultimately God will deliver the creation God has made (Romans 8). There will be new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; II Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). Even within and beyond judgment, God promises to be with us.[3] 12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant (berit) that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations. Thus, a second distinctive feature of this covenant is that God makes this covenant with all future generations, along with Gentiles. 13 I have set my bow (qéshet, used both for the bow of a warrior and for the rainbow) in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant (berit) between me and the earth. The covenant with Noah, the sign of which is the rainbow, involves the whole creation. The covenant with Abraham had the sign of circumcision and was with Abraham's descendants, and the covenant through Moses was the Law and its obligations and was with the nation of Israel. The rainbow imagery is the most memorable part of our passage in the minds and hearts of most readers/listeners. It affects us both in our physical senses and in our emotional/spiritual makeup. God gave the rainbow as a sign of the covenant. The rainbow becomes a reminder that no matter how transient the individual, the race shall endure. The bow is an invitation to basic trust, for the world, as the creation of God, is an utterly safe place. This is not necessarily the world as God intended it to be, but rather the world as God continues to work with the reality of human violence and sin. In solemn language, God makes a covenant and gives the rainbow as a sign, a seal of the new covenant that God has made with all humanity. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant (berit) that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again (also verse 11) become a flood to destroy all flesh. A third distinctive feature of this covenant is that the only speaker is God. The other party has no response to make. Thus, God gives this covenant freely and graciously on behalf of a world that did not have to ask for it or earn it, or even respond to it. "Never again" defines the content of this covenant. One can count on the stability of nature. The repeated promise of God is never again to respond to human sin with such devastating judgment. Hosea 11:8-9 has a passage similar in tone, but one in which God addresses more particular recipients. The connection is that both passages use the same Hebrew verb for destroy. In Hosea, Admah and Zeboiim are cities of the plain destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23). In our passage, the earth will never again face this threat from God. Nature, the great killer through the flood, becomes stable, predictable, and benign because God has promised. The story has to do with the response of God to the human condition. It takes for granted the sinful nature of the human creature. The response from God is to take the initiative, to make a covenant, and to provide the stable conditions for all life on the earth. The alternative to chaos is the covenant God has made with creation. Thus, the story of the flood does not end in our terrible sin and the terrible judgment of God. The waters recede, the clouds fade, the sun comes out, and a rainbow arches over the entire muddy mess. The last word will not be our sin, but the Creator’s awesome love. Humanity receives forgiveness, the human saga begins again, and God offers a rainbow as a sign of God’s promise that the flood will be “never again.” The story ends in good news because God is determined to have the last word in our story. Our sin, our chaotic wickedness that made such a mess of the good world, this is not the last word. God continues the conversation, resumes the journey with us, all under the rainbow. The rainbow guarantees the future as it guarantees our redemption. Just one rainbow will do. We do not need more. When we learn to love what we have, we have boarded the ark. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant (berit) between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” The sign will cause human and other earthly observers and God to remember the everlasting covenant. 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant (berit) that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
The rainbow image is thus much stronger than simply that of a beautiful heavenly phenomenon. Elsewhere in Scripture God fires punishingly devastating arrows (in the form of thunderbolts) against the enemies of God (Lamentations 2:4; 3:12-13; Habakkuk 3:9-11, and the Wisdom of Solomon 5:17-23). God is putting up for good the divine war-bow that God had used in the stormy period of the punishing deluge. The bow of God now stays resting in the clouds. The resting bow means that God is not against us, in spite of sin and judgment. Some have said that it means something like this: “God isn’t mad at you anymore.” It means, worded positively, that God is for us, in promise and hope. We now have a renewed relationship with God. The rainbow can be part of a theophany of the glory/presence of God (Ezekiel 1:28 and Revelation 4:2-3; 10:1).
It is fascinating how so many religious and other groups across the spectrum (!) use the rainbow as part of their name or as a symbol of the hope which they wish to impart. We need to notice some popular songs. One obvious one is “[Somewhere] Over the Rainbow” — lyrics by Yip Harburg. We should note the hymn by George Matheson (1882), “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”: “O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be.” According to cyberhymnal.org, this was the favorite hymn of President Calvin Coolidge, which he had sung at his funeral. In addition, see some resonances of meaning (without the rainbow imagery) in Natalie Sleeth’s “Hymn of Promise.”
One thinks of the value of simple things in the eyes of God. Beauty is all round us, if only we could see. “My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; so it is now …” So wrote Wordsworth. God gave the rainbow as a sign of the unfailing presence and love of God who assures that the darkness shall never overcome us. Most of us have known the exhilaration of a sudden burst of sunlight through prevailing darkness, a splendid display of color across the sky, and the promise again fulfilled that beyond all darkness is light and beauty. Never will the forces of destruction overcome those who lay hold upon the promise of faith. Therefore, the rainbow breaks forth, sometimes in the sky above, sometimes through the darkness of a grieving, fearful heart. Noah represented the rest of us as recipients of the marvelous promise of God. Divine love embraces even the small creatures of this world. If God loves the simple creatures that much, how much more God loves human beings as those made in the image of God. We often lose this message in the passage of the years. So Wordsworth wrote:
There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
to me did seem appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
The years go by. We immerse ourselves in the competitive demands of chosen vocations, of schools, of downsizing corporations, of demanding professions, of sweat-stained labor, until the time comes when we no longer see the beauty of the simple world:
It is not now, as it hath been of yore;
Turn whereso-er I may,
By night or day,
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