Last 5 Days
A Rainbow of Hope
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
After almost one full year, Noah witnessed how everything was destroyed. The entire land was submerged and everywhere around was only water. Finally, they landed, and God permitted them to step out of the ark. What was left were only 8 people with a whole load of animals. I can imagine the fear that Noah had. The very first thing he did was to build an altar and make sacrifices to God.
In return, God blessed Noah. Then, everything shall start fresh. Noah is to receive all the instructions God once gave to Adam. The vision God had for men had not changed. Man is still going to populate the entire earth and rule it. The only difference is man may now eat meat. However, man still has to respect lives by not drinking blood.
God did not issue laws to Noah as He did for the Israelites before they occupied their promised land. I believe it is because man still retains God's truth in their heart. Thus, there is no need to have the law.
Finally, God unilaterally promised them that he would not destroy the world with a flood anymore. He gave the rainbow as a sign to seal the promise. It seems like God regretted greatly that He had to restart everything in such a manner. We know God did not take pleasure in all the destruction but owing to our sins, destruction is inevitable.
So the rainbow reminds us of God's love. He did not want destruction to come our way. However, on the other hand, He must maintain His righteousness. Thus, let us live in holiness and never face God's disciplinary hand.
