Last Memorial Day, our house was hit by a tornado. Living in Arkansas means that tornado watches are fairly common, and we\u2019ve gotten used to just going to sleep during a watch. But only twenty minutes later, a tornado had materialized, hit our house, and finished its path. By God\u2019s grace, we were fine and the damage to our home was all exterior. But as we retell the story, we find ourselves saying each time, \u201cit came out of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wonder if those who lived in the days of Noah thought the same thing as the flood waters rose\u2014blind to the effects of their own wickedness and staring down a massive natural disaster. To Noah, God gave an advanced warning, \u201cEverything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you\u201d (Genesis 6:17\u201318). God made Noah a promise of protection and enduring relationship, and Noah responded by obeying all that God commanded him (v.22).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, after disembarking his boat and finally hitting dry land, Noah got drunk and his son Ham dishonored him (Genesis 9:20\u201322). After such a clear and disastrous consequence to the evil humanity wrought, humanity still could not live up to the righteousness of God. Even as Noah\u2019s family could not hold the same level of righteousness, God made a covenant with Noah, choosing to rebuild the world through Noah and his family. I love that God gave Noah\u2014and us\u2014a visceral, experiential reminder of His promise. Don\u2019t you just love catching a rainbow in the sky? The bigger, the better, and bonus points if it\u2019s doubled. God said to Noah, \u201cI have placed my bow in the clouds….Whenever I form the clouds…and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant\u201d (Genesis 9:13\u201315). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Old Testament promise made to Noah is a foretaste of the promised Savior we fully see materialized in the Gospels. In the time after God\u2019s covenant with Noah, evil still seethed in humanity\u2019s heart\u2014and truthfully, still does today. But that time, God poured out on Jesus the judgment reserved for humanity and creation. Jesus is our defense, and no charge can be brought against those of us who are in Christ because God, the justifier, has already made us right with Him (Romans 8:32\u201333). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These symbols\u2014the rainbow, the cross, and the empty tomb\u2014are God\u2019s reminder to us that nothing \u201cin all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord\u201d (Romans 8:39). Rainbows are easy to miss if you aren\u2019t looking for them. God\u2019s promises often slip our minds too. But just as God transformed the clouds in the skies to show a rainbow after a storm, He has renewed our hearts so that no matter where our sin leads us, His covenant faithfulness calls us back to Him.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last Memorial Day, our house was hit by a tornado. Living in Arkansas means that tornado watches are fairly common, and we\u2019ve gotten used to just going to sleep during a watch. But only twenty minutes later, a tornado had materialized, hit our house, and finished its path. By God\u2019s grace, we were fine and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":71765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genesis25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71878],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"She Reads Truth","devotional_text":"GOD'S COVENANT WITH NOAH<\/b>
\r\nby Becca Owens<\/i>
\r\n
Last Memorial Day, our house was hit by a tornado. Living in Arkansas means that tornado watches are fairly common, and we\u2019ve gotten used to just going to sleep during a watch. But only twenty minutes later, a tornado had materialized, hit our house, and finished its path. By God\u2019s grace, we were fine and the damage to our home was all exterior. But as we retell the story, we find ourselves saying each time, \u201cit came out of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>
\r\n
I wonder if those who lived in the days of Noah thought the same thing as the flood waters rose\u2014blind to the effects of their own wickedness and staring down a massive natural disaster. To Noah, God gave an advanced warning, \u201cEverything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you\u201d (Genesis 6:17\u201318). God made Noah a promise of protection and enduring relationship, and Noah responded by obeying all that God commanded him (v.22).<\/p>
\r\n
However, after disembarking his boat and finally hitting dry land, Noah got drunk and his son Ham dishonored him (Genesis 9:20\u201322). After such a clear and disastrous consequence to the evil humanity wrought, humanity still could not live up to the righteousness of God. Even as Noah\u2019s family could not hold the same level of righteousness, God made a covenant with Noah, choosing to rebuild the world through Noah and his family. I love that God gave Noah\u2014and us\u2014a visceral, experiential reminder of His promise. Don\u2019t you just love catching a rainbow in the sky? The bigger, the better, and bonus points if it\u2019s doubled. God said to Noah, \u201cI have placed my bow in the clouds....Whenever I form the clouds...and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant\u201d (Genesis 9:13\u201315).<\/p>
\r\n
This Old Testament promise made to Noah is a foretaste of the promised Savior we fully see materialized in the Gospels. In the time after God\u2019s covenant with Noah, evil still seethed in humanity\u2019s heart\u2014and truthfully, still does today. But that time, God poured out on Jesus the judgment reserved for humanity and creation. Jesus is our defense, and no charge can be brought against those of us who are in Christ because God, the justifier, has already made us right with Him (Romans 8:32\u201333).<\/p>
\r\n
These symbols\u2014the rainbow, the cross, and the empty tomb\u2014are God\u2019s reminder to us that nothing \u201cin all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord\u201d (Romans 8:39). Rainbows are easy to miss if you aren\u2019t looking for them. God\u2019s promises often slip our minds too. But just as God transformed the clouds in the skies to show a rainbow after a storm, He has renewed our hearts so that no matter where our sin leads us, His covenant faithfulness calls us back to Him.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"5","scripture":"Genesis 9:1-29, Genesis 10:1-32, Isaiah 54:9-10, Romans 8:31-39","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}