Elohim November 2015 | Page 36

rowing up, I heard about this colorful circle (usually seen as an arc) that appears in the sky when an “intended” heavy downpour somehow ends in a drizzle. They called it a rainbow. I was about seven years old when I saw my first rainbow. I talked about it with the other kids I was with, each of us sharing the different stories we’ve heard about the rainbow. It wasn’t until the year 2010 that I knew the real story behind the rainbow. I had just given my life to Jesus at the beginning of that year and the insatiable hunger to know Him more and more filled my being. Every minute of the day, I wanted to know Him and please Him more so, my bible became my most important possession. I read and studied it - a lot. Thankfully, I got to read the story of Noah. From the pre-ark time to the time they were in the ark to the post-ark time after the flood. Reading on, I dug out a great treasure. It laid in the 9th chapter of the book of Genesis, from the eighth verse to the seventeenth: Genesis 9:8-17 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons who were with him. He said, 9“I am now making my covenant with you and with all of your children who will be born after you. 10I am making it also with every living thing that was with you in the ark. I am making my covenant with the birds, the livestock and all of the wild animals. I am making it with all of the creatures that came out of the ark with you. I am making it with every living thing on earth. 11“Here is my covenant that I am making with you. The waters of a flood will never destroy all life again. A flood will never destroy the earth again.” 12God continued, “My covenant is between me Page 36 and you and every living thing with you. It is a covenant for all time to come. “Here is the sign of the covenant I am making. 13I have put my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14Sometimes when I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in them. 15Then I will remember my covenant between me and you and every kind of living thing. The waters will never become a flood to destroy all life again. 16“When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. I will remember that my covenant will last forever. It is a covenant between me and every kind of living thing on earth.” 17So God said to Noah, “The rainbow is the sign of my covenant. I have made my covenant between me and all life on earth.” And this got me thinking. When I was seven (and probably at some other points before), the Lord has had a reason to grieve and regret ever creating man so much that He wanted to drown us all once again with water. I thought of the many times the rainbow had appeared in the sky and each time, reminding God (like Moses did when He wanted to destroy all the Israelites in the wilderness) of His Word, His covenant and His faithfulness causing God to withdraw His wrath. I thought, if there was no such covenant, how many times over would God have destroyed the earth with flood. I wondered if I would have been among those that would be in the ark or not. Would anybody have found favor in God enough that God would instruct him/ her to build an ark? Was there someone who could have trusted God enough and obeyed Him by building an ark when instructed? We see God keeping the covenant He made everytime we Used with permission. http://articles.faithwriters.com/reprint-article-details.php?id=29181 G