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Covenant with Noah The Rainbow
Covenant And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.—Genesis 9:16 Adam Kopczyk
The covenant made between God and the patriarch Noah immediately after the flood
was one of a series of covenants entered into by the creator with his creatures.
This is important since, although restricted in a sense, it is the basis upon
which the three great covenants of the Bible—the Abrahamic, the Law, and the
New—have their standing. Without the carrying into effect of the provisions of
the covenant with Noah, the other three could not be fulfilled. Cause of the Flood The background of the flood is one of the amazing stories of the Bible. It tells us about the angels who attempted to father a race of men with human women. The apostles Peter and Jude refer to it. In 2 Peter 2:4 they are called the “angels that sinned” and in Jude 6 the “angels which kept not their first estate.” The account in Genesis 6:1-4 describes a time when mankind began noticeably to increase in the earth; some of the “sons of God,” the angels, assumed human form and took wives of “the daughters of men.” They abandoned their spiritual state to concentrate on the possibilities offered on earth. Possibly they were influenced by Satan in a plot to defeat the death sentence and so outwit God by introducing, non-Adamic life into the human race. Their offspring was a race whose conduct instituted a reign of terror in the earth. This led the Almighty eventually to destroy the entire community in the great flood and start again. Genesis 6:3 appears to suggest that the Lord placed a limitation on the situation. God had given his angels the opportunity to rule over the antediluvian world and he would not permit them to continue longer. A span of one hundred twenty years was decreed before the catastrophe would occur. It gave an opportunity for repentance and undoubtedly it was during this time that Noah was, as asserted by Peter, a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Nephilim The word rendered “giants” in Genesis 6:4 is nephilim.{FOOTNOTE: Editor’s note: Genesis 6:4 apparently says the nephilim were already in the earth before the progeny of the fallen angels were born. Thus, the word “nephilim” should probably be reserved for the giants among the male descendants of Adam. Another view is the word “nephilim” refers to the angels themselves rather than the progeny. It is a contraction of the Hebrew words naphal and elohim or “fallen gods.”} This was apparently the name given to the offspring resulting from these unnatural unions.{FOOTNOTE: Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 5, p. 104; Reprints, pp. 3934 and 3341.} The word “giants” used for nephilim in the King James Bible is derived from the Greek Septuagint which adopted the Greek gigantos in that translation leading to the English words “gigantic” and “giant.” Next we are told, “After that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown” (ASV). Some believe that the object of the angels was to impart to mankind the eternal life which Adam had lost. The birth of the nephilim continued during this period of time while the condition of things persisted. But something went terribly wrong with the fallen angels’ plan. Instead of bringing happiness, we are told the nephilim became tyrants bringing death and violence and oppressing mankind. The Apocryphal Books of Jubilees and Enoch describe in some detail the terrible tyranny which mankind suffered at the hands of the nephilim. The fifth chapter of Jubilees is almost word-for-word identical with the Genesis 6 account but it adds the deeds of the nephilim. The language in Genesis 6:4 is restrained only stating that they were mighty men of renown. Most likely it was an evil renown for they were known for their wickedness and ferocity. The Scriptures indicate that angels do not have all knowledge and do have limitations. 1 Peter 1:12 and Mark 13:32 tell us that some aspects of God’s plan are hidden from them. It appears that in their scheming and planning, the fallen angels overlooked one vital factor: human intelligence is distinct from the instinct which governs the lower creatures. Man is empowered with faculties possessed by no other earthly creature: an appreciation of God, reverence, loyalty, love, the instinct for worship, and powers of reasoning on the past and future. These are a gift of God, bestowed only by him and are attributes implanted by God at the time of man’s creation. When God created man, he gave man an unseen bond of power, which made Adam both a man and a son of God. The angel’s offspring lacked that quality that God gave to Adam. The angel’s offspring introduced an element of disorder into the divine creation. These offspring, who perished in the flood, were an illicit race since they were not pure descendants of Adam and, therefore, can have no resurrection. The Scriptures clearly teach that only those who die in Adam are made alive in Christ. In the future Adam’s progeny will awake to an opportunity of returning to and becoming reconciled with God. The hearts of the angels’ offspring were set on wickedness and every form of evil. When God looked down, he saw only that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5, RSV). “So the LORD said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7, RSV). The great deluge which was prophesied and preached by Noah for a hundred and twenty years then took place. As a result, the earth’s surface became desolated by this convulsion of nature. No human life survived, except those who drifted in the ark at the mercy of the waters. Noah, seeing the desolation before him, possibly thought that God would have to periodically blot out all earth’s achievements and make a fresh start to preserve righteousness and truth. What would become of the promise made to mother Eve much earlier, and cherished through the centuries by the family of Noah, that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head? Noah might have wondered what guarantee there would be that this destruction would not be repeated.
To answer such questions, and to commence a definition of God’s gracious
purposes and the principles of his plan, God made an unconditional covenant with
Noah. Noah’s Altar In Genesis 8:20 we are told that Noah, after his safe deliverance from the destruction that had engulfed the world, built an altar and offered burnt offerings upon it of every clean beast and every clean bird. Noah had been told, “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female: of the birds also of the heavens, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 7:2,3, ASV) That is why a clean animal and a clean bird could be sacrificed and still not jeopardize the reproduction of that species after the flood. When God smelled the sweet savor of Noah’s sacrifice, he declared and ratified his covenant with Noah. It was an important occasion, for a new world was about to be born. The evil of the past world was blotted out from God’s sight and mankind was clean in a cleansed world and able to make a fresh start with divine favor: “Jehovah smelled the sweet savor; and Jehovah said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, [and] neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done” (Genesis 8:21, ASV). It was a special occasion for a new world, one that was to witness all the strange events associated with the divine plan of salvation. The whole future of that world rested upon Noah and his three sons gathered around the altar. The covenant with Noah was established to record the divine pledge that never again would the earth be destroyed. Mankind and animals could go about their respective commissions to multiply and fill the earth without fear of another universal catastrophe. The terms of the pledge are given in Genesis 8:21,22 and 9:11-16. This covenant was not only made with Noah, his three sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their children, but also with the lower creation. The great creator pledged faith with the birds of the air, the cattle of the pasture land, and even the wild beasts of the jungle. We come across divine care for the animal world in Jonah 4:11: “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons … and also much cattle?” Our Lord confirmed God’s care for animals with his words in Luke 12:6: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” The terms of the covenant were given by the Almighty and the little group accepted their commission. In the divine plan they were to be the progenitors of the original Adamic race from whom would be taken many years later the future ministers of reconciliation between God and mankind. But that could not take place until later, after the greater Abrahamic Covenant had been made. Features of the Covenant with Noah The covenant with Noah is like the Abrahamic Covenant which followed 427 years later. It is an unconditional covenant because God committed to it without an “if” condition, as was the case with the Law Covenant at Mt. Sinai. The covenant was made with Noah as the chief contracting party, but not because of anything he undertook to do in the future. It was because of the faith and loyalty Noah had manifested in the past, as was the case with Abraham. The Abrahamic Covenant is God’s formal guarantee to bring into being a “seed,” and through that seed to bless all the families of the earth. The covenant with Noah is God’s formal guarantee to preserve the earth and all its processes from any further destruction, so that it may remain forever a suitable and fitting environment for the operations of that “seed” and a home for the blessed families of the earth. The fulfilment of the Abrahamic Covenant requires a perpetually fertile earth for those blessed under this covenant. The covenant with Noah guarantees such an everlasting earth. The Scriptural basis for this is in the ninth chapter of Genesis which details the covenant of Noah. Also in Ecclesiastes 1:4 we are assured that “the earth abideth for ever” and that it will not be destroyed again by a flood. The covenant with Noah defines for us the physical principles upon which the “present evil world” will pass away and be replaced by “the world to come,” “wherein dwelleth righteousness” (Galatians 1:4; Hebrews 2:5; 2 Peter 3:13). Today, in a world where men’s hearts are “failing them” for fear that human life will become extinct by atomic warfare and that complete desolation will come, it is comforting to remember God’s covenant with Noah. Here we find divine assurance that such a dreadful climax to human history from another flood will never be reached. In his own due time, and by the exercise of his supreme power, God will intervene and restrain the forces of evil before they can destroy mankind. Our Lord Jesus makes mention of this when he said that if the great time of trouble continued, “there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). The Rainbow It appears from the narrative that the sight of the rainbow in the clouds after the flood was a new phenomenon. It was a sign from God that he would never again desolate the world by a flood. The rainbow would have had no meaning if Noah had seen it before. Possibly there was no rain as we know it before the flood and therefore no rainbow in the sky. If light from the sun was diffused by a kind of water canopy surrounding earth, no rainbow could be seen even around a waterfall. The rainbow seen in the clouds must have made a tremendous impression on the minds of Noah and his family. Eventually, as mankind spread over the face of the earth, they took with them the idea that a rainbow was a sign of assurance, of security and a token of God’s faithfulness (Isaiah 54:9,10). It gives us a connection between the covenant made with Noah and the much later fulfillment of divine promises in the protection and salvation of his people. The rainbow is a witness of this covenant. Genesis 9:12 states that it is a covenant for “perpetual generations,” and in verse 16 observing the rainbow will cause God “to remember the everlasting covenant.” There could not be a more beautiful or fitting token that there shall never again be a flood that sweeps away all flesh and destroys all the land. The bow rose from the rain of the very waters that destroyed the earth, but were now used to seal God’s original intent in having created the earth. By saving Noah and the cargo of animals, God was making a statement before all the myriads of angels who were watching. We are told that we are a spectacle unto the angels (1 Corinthians 4:9). A rainbow is caused by the rays of the sun reflecting from falling raindrops at a particular angle to the eye of the spectator. A beautiful arch of reflected and refracted light is formed for every eye. Since there is no longer a veil of water around the earth, such a flood will never be repeated. Interestingly, while the rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colors, humans typically see in the rainbow seven distinct colors. These may also have spiritual significance. The seven colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Seven represents perfection, so the rainbow might picture God’s perfect plan. When all the colors of the rainbow are combined together, they give us white sunlight. White is the symbol of purity and the righteousness of Christ, just as black, the opposite of white, pictures sin. The seven colors with possible spiritual significance contained in the rainbow are in the order of the letters ROY G BIV: Red is the color of blood and represents the shed blood of Jesus given for many for the remission of sins to meet the demands of perfect justice. It is the color that stands for the ransom paid. We are told that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Orange is a combination of yellow, symbolic of God’s divine nature, together with red, symbolic of Christ’s sacrifice. The resulting color of orange is symbolic of God’s perfect plan and purpose for mankind. Orange could show us God’s favor to mankind. Yellow is the color of gold. It reminds us of the things pertaining to the divine and its nature. Green is a combination of blue and yellow. It is the yellow of God’s power and the blue of Jesus’ faithfulness that will give everlasting life to all people of the earth. Therefore, green could stand for longevity, eternity, or earthly prosperity. Blue could represent faithfulness. It reminds us of God’s faithfulness. As the blue color of the heavens does not change, so also with God: “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). Indigo, the color between blue and violet, is rather a blue with a reddish cast to it. This could represent our Lord Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins; Jesus’ blood (red) through faith (blue) (1 John 2:1,2; Romans 3:25). Both indigo and violet also represent royalty. Violet, the color in the rainbow with the shortest wavelength, is considered a shade of purple, according to English usage, because it lies between the colors blue and red on the color wheel. True purple is not found in the rainbow because it is a combination of two non-adjacent colors of the rainbow: blue symbolizing God’s faithfulness and red representing the ransom. Purple is the color of kings and symbolic of royalty. Violet, also lying between blue and red, could also represent royalty. Conclusion The rainbow is the divine promise that never again shall there be such a calamity as a flood to destroy all flesh. The covenant with Noah provided the necessary guarantee that this earth, with all its wealth of minerals, vegetable, and animal life will continue its course into the ages of glory and infinite future. All who give themselves to God, whether in this age under the Abrahamic Covenant, or in the next age under the New Covenant, can do so in full assurance, that having been reconciled to God, they will go on into eternity resting in the faithfulness of God and of his eternal purpose. He who has redeemed the world shall be its lord and king. The dominion shall not be given to other people nor left to others. When the Messiah shall have conquered and put down all insubordination and everything contrary to the divine will, then the kingdom shall be delivered to God, that he may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). |