September 7, 2014: Flood and Promise

September 7, 2014: Flood and Promise

Genesis 6:16-22; 9:8-15

[God said to Noah…]

¹⁶ Make a roof for the ark and complete it one foot from the top.^[b] Put a door in its side. In the hold below, make the second and third decks.

¹⁷ “I am now bringing the floodwaters over the earth to destroy everything under the sky that breathes. Everything on earth is about to take its last breath. ¹⁸ But I will set up my covenant with you. You will go into the ark together with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. ¹⁹ From all living things—from all creatures—you are to bring a pair, male and female, into the ark with you to keep them alive. ²⁰ From each kind of bird, from each kind of livestock, and from each kind of everything that crawls on the ground—a pair from each will go in with you to stay alive. ²¹ Take some from every kind of food and stow it as food for you and for the animals.”

²² Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him

⁸ God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “I am now setting up my covenant with you, with your descendants, ¹⁰ and with every living being with you—with the birds, with the large animals, and with all the animals of the earth, leaving the ark with you.^{[a] 11} I will set up my covenant with you so that never again will all life be cut off by floodwaters. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² God said, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I am drawing up between me and you and every living thing with you, on behalf of every future generation. ¹³ I have placed my bow in the clouds; it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember the covenant between me and you and every living being among all the creatures. Floodwaters will never again destroy all creatures.

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I have officiated at dozens of weddings in my years as a pastor.  Some of them have been large and grand, others have been small by design.  Some have taken place in a church building, others have been outside in a park.  No matter what the location or size, however, the words are the same. Two individuals stand up in front of other people and make important promises: “To have and to hold, in sickness and in health…” It’s a big deal.  Some people are so caught up in the solemnity of the moment that they stumble over the words (I make sure that they repeat after me in “bite-sized chunks” of dialogue).

Marriage is a perfect example of a COVENANT: an agreement between two parties that includes promises and oaths.  You probably have experienced other “covenants:” business contracts, mortgage agreements, letters of intent, etc. In our lesson today, God is making a promise and God always keeps God’s promises. It’s a promise that the world will never be destroyed by floodwaters again.  It’s a big deal because this promise comes after THE FLOOD, when the entire earth was covered with water.

If you weren’t a passenger on the ark (or a sea animal) you were in real trouble.  Noah’s Ark has been a very popular children’s story over the ages, which is surprising when you consider it is filled with mass death and destruction. (I’ve always thought that they should sell extra animals in those Ark toy sets, dead animals with little “x’s” over their eyes that can float around the Ark).

After such a tremendously traumatic experience, for Noah and his family to receive this promise is a big deal. 

Here’s a word about the “BOW IN THE CLOUDS.” We often think about rainbows as being cute and cuddly (they are usually associated with things like unicorns).  In this story, however, the “bow in the clouds” is really meant to be God’s war bow: massive and powerful. When God “hangs up the bow” it’s like God is putting away God’s great weapon of destruction and declaring peace with humanity.

We can be thankful that like a good spouse, God stays true to the covenant (or “promise.”) It’s something that we can get used to this year: whether it’s a promise to Abraham or the people of Israel, whether it’s a promise of blessing or salvation: GOD KEEPS GOD’S PROMISES!