“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’
And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.’
So God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.’” (Genesis 9:8-17 NIV)
As I looked out this morning to check the weather, a beautiful surprise greeted me. In the distance, over the mountains to the west, was a rainbow. What a wonderful welcome to a new day!
Rainbows are beautiful, but they are also reminders from God that He is for us and not against us. For in the time of Noah, after God had wiped out virtually all of life on earth via the Flood, He made a promise never to do it again. From that point to this very day, the Lord has sought to infuse us with life rather than to take it away.
But what we see from biblical history and in our own world today is so many of those whom God is for turn against Him and go their own way. As a result, it may seem He is not really for us because we are often caught in the undertow of the evil they wrought. We can suffer physical or emotional abuse, be lied to, taken advantage of, neglected, and left brokenhearted. We can easily find ourselves pulled into the current of hopelessness by the acts of those who have hardened their hearts against the Lord. It may feel as if our very lives are ebbing away.
And then that rainbow appears so beautifully in the sky to remind us of a promise God made so long ago. No matter what is happening around us or to us, the fact remains the Lord is for us and not against us. He has not abandoned us in the terrible circumstances in which we may find ourselves. Rather, He is there with us to bring good out of evil, as Paul so powerfully reminds us in Romans 8. He is there to infuse us with life and stands against those who would seek to drain it from us.
Today, if you have been bruised and battered by the evil in this world, remember God’s promise: He is for you, not against you. The rainbow is a reminder that, in the midst of evil, He is right there, working His will for the good of those who place their trust in Him.
© Jim Musser 2014
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