A Sign of Mercy

A sign of mercy.  The next time you see a rainbow, I pray that our reading from today will come back to your memory.  God put the rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant that He established between Himself and every creature on earth (Genesis 9:17).  The covenant that God made came after the flood in which God destroyed every living creature on the earth, except what He so graciously preserved on the ark.  This is the covenant that God made: “I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth” (Genesis 9:11).  Why did God destroy the earth with the flood?  The reason God destroyed the earth with the flood was because the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and filled with wickedness (Genesis 6:11).  The Bible says every creature had corrupted its way (Genesis 6:12).  Did corruption and wickedness stop after the flood? No!  God knew that as well.  God said, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward” (Genesis 8:21).  The earth will one day be destroyed, but not by water; it will be by fire.  The earth is certainly corrupt and wicked.  However, a lack of destruction is not a sign of God’s approval, it is a sign of His mercy.  The next time you see a rainbow, just think of all of the wickedness and corruption that exists and remember the reason why God has not destructively addressed it yet is because of the covenant He made so long ago.