The Light of Resurrection - Pt 4

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 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. 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.” 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: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9:8-13 ESV).

Today you should have five candles lit before reading. Folks who have never been to the Hill Country in Texas have a difficult time believing the incredible beauty in the display of the Bluebonnets in early spring. The added bonus of a rainbow after a brief rain is as beautiful as anything I have ever seen. The story of the rainbow is found in our reading today. Usually God holds back his anger over sin. But in this one instance (cf. Genesis 6-9) He revealed His wrath in a catastrophic way. The Great Flood totally destroyed his creation. He did show mercy through Noah. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Noah. God comes to him and tells him of the impending doom. Remember that it had not rained on the earth yet. This was so foreign to him; yet he believed God and began construction on a boat bigger than any of our super tankers today. The Ark was twice as long as an early Boeing 747-100B airliner; it would take nearly one and a half football fields to equal the Ark’s length; NASA could lay three space shuttles, nose to tail, upon the Ark’s deck; it was nearly half the length of a modern Nimitz class aircraft carrier! And, he built it by hand with only the help of his family. By the way, Noah lived in one of the arid regions of the middle east. Not only had there been no rain previously, they weren’t even near a lake or ocean! Now, extinguish the next candle. It took Noah about 120 years to build the ark. During that time he made preparations and tried to warn as many people as he could. However, they were so blinded by the spiritual darkness that covered the earth they simply scoffed at this foolish man. The rain did come and the floodwaters rose plunging everyone and everything not on the ark to their death. It was a dark day indeed! Forty days later the rain stopped; and, after another couple of months God told Noah to depart from the ark. It was then that the first rainbow was seen. It was the seal of God’s promise to never destroy the earth by water again. Jesus’ death is the completion of this promise for eternity.