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.
When my dog, Scout, was just a pup she experienced a traumatic event that has marked her life to this day. We were outside, she was on a leash, and I needed to run to my car (on the street). I looked for something to tie her leash to—and saw that our barbeque (it was cold) was close by. I looped the leash to the handle of the lid and started for the car. I wasn’t more than a few yards away when—CRASH!—Scout had pulled the lid off of the barbeque as she tried to follow me. She was unhurt, but the sound alone terrified her to the degree that to this day, and ever since that day, she comes unglued at the sound of sudden, metallic-type crashes and bangs. The mere sound reminds her of a devastating crisis in her little doggy life.
Humanity experienced a universal-scope of trauma in the form of a flood that destroyed every living thing except a man named Noah, his family, and a sample of every animal type on the earth. These escaped the flood in a large ship that Noah had built. The Flood was result of the release of subterranean water stores and copious amounts of water falling from the heavens. In other words, it rained—a lot. The Bible teaches that it had never rained on earth before that day. (See Gen. 2:5) Rain was a whole new thing.
After the floodwaters receded, the surviving people and animals doubtlessly carried with them some very dramatic, indelible memories of the day the earth was flooded. I imagine that every time a drop of rain fell onto man and beast a somber memory surfaced, and panic may have arisen—“Is it going to happen again!? Will this rain bring destruction!? Is God judging the earth again!?” But God, knowing such a probability made a covenant, an agreement with His creation. It was an agreement that only God could keep: Never again would He destroy the earth by flood. And as a reminder of that promise, He put the rainbow in the sky; something that both man and beast can observe in its beauty, formed by the interplay of both water and light. Never again need we, or even the animals and birds, fear a universal destruction by flood—not because of our own ingenuity or righteousness, but simply because a loving God made a promise that it will never happen again. God is in complete control of the environment—it is His, not ours. We are to care for it, manage it, and treasure it as a precious gift from a loving God, but we are not to live in fear it of it, for the earth itself and all its atmospheric relationships, remain in the perfect control of God. God will certainly still judge sin, in His time, in His way—but never again will the waters be His agent of judgment. In fact, to the Christian, the waters of judgment are no more, and we live according to the wonderful covenant of forgiveness and new life symbolized by the waters of our baptism into the life of Christ!
Father, You are Lord of all Your creation, and dictate its every move and process. Your will is obeyed by every created thing, and only in the human heart is it routinely disregarded and scorned. Make me a man today who lives in trust of You and Your continued goodness, and seeks to live in obedience to Your will for my life. Amen
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