Covenant with Noah

Uh welcome to the Redemption Church Denver livestream.

My name's James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here uh in uh cyberspace.

Um we uh are are so thankful to be able to take advantage of this, to gather together.

Um, at least if we can't do it in both space and time, at least we can do it at the same time.

Uh and I pray that this would be a uh uh a moment of uh uh of sort of respite in your week and hopefully some sort of uh you know remembrance of normalcy um in your week that that might comfort you uh uh as we do church together this morning.

Uh I've got a couple of announcements that I want to uh make known to you.

So so here I go.

Uh so immediately following this service this morning, uh if you look in the notes of this YouTube video that you're on, you'll see a link to a Zoom meeting.

Uh so it should be this is gonna be fun, it should be like right down there.

See what I'm doing?

I can tell you're all laughing.

Uh it should be right down there, and it's a link to a Zoom meeting immediately following the service.

If you click that link, you'll be taken into a video call with uh a lot of other people from uh our church as well as the elders.

And what we've done is we've just broken out into small groups on that call and we've prayed together.

Um, this is a time to gather around in prayer as we are hearing so many stories of suffering, and there's so many difficult experiences that we as a community are going through right now.

Uh, let's call upon the Lord to set us free in this regard, to take away this virus, to help us to rally together around those who are hurting.

Um, let's do that first and foremost in prayer.

So that'll be immediately after the service.

And we are also going to be doing this on Wednesday evenings on the off weeks from redemption groups.

So that means not this Wednesday, because redemption groups meet this week, but the following Wednesday, a week from Wednesday at 8 p.m., we're gonna be jumping on the same Zoom call to pray as a church and ask God to heal our city and our world.

Uh also uh for redemption kids, uh we have not forgotten you.

Uh uh so although you're not able to gather here, hopefully you're sitting with your parents now.

Um I know last week I saw uh uh that my son was painting during this time, which is kind of fun.

But we are um uh we want to involve kids together in this.

And as Zach said earlier, to really make our homes a place of worship during this season.

So uh what we've done is our kids director, Julie McKendry, has uh created a video lesson that is in our app under practices.

And you'll just tap practices and then family worship.

And you'll see it's a video lesson that takes you through the story of Noah, which is what we're still talking about this morning, and uh has a craft or a project.

And those are gonna be released uh at least weekly, probably a couple times a week is what we're aiming at.

And uh you'll be able to find those in the app, and we'll also be pushing those to social media later.

Speaking of social media, uh overnight all churches became like digital marketing companies.

So like us on Instagram and on Facebook, that's where we're active.

Um download the app, pay attention to those things.

We we really want to, with all the means that we have, stay connected during this time.

So uh if you do those things, like and subscribe to YouTube as well, then uh it allows us to just stay better connected.

Okay, finally, uh also in the app, we're we're doing a program right now, which we're calling simply Be the Church.

Uh during this COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to provide a mechanism where those who were really experiencing uh hardship and difficulty through this time could be connected with the rest of the church body and uh be able for us to be able to more effectively lend a hand.

So if you go to the connect tab and tap COVID be the church, uh there are two forms there to sign up for.

One says uh one is for uh if you need help, and one is for if you can help.

Uh and just because you need help doesn't mean there aren't other places where you could help.

So feel free to fill out both.

Uh, but what I really want to encourage you to do is to take advantage of the church community at this time.

And that's the main mechanism that we've provided to be able to do that.

So it's already been useful in terms of some folks that have gotten sick have been able to have meds picked up.

Uh, others who are just going through difficult times, even in their marriage, have been able to reach out through that.

We've been able to rally around them, pray together.

As we're getting in stories of people losing jobs and of businesses that are going away and and all the difficulties that this season is bringing up, please, please don't go through this alone.

We want to be here for you as a community.

So uh take advantage of that, please.

Uh I know it's hard to ask for help, um, but this doesn't need to be just, hey, I, you know, uh need somebody to run to the grocery store or something like that.

It could just be like, hey, I'm super lonely and I could really use a phone call.

Let us give that phone call.

Okay, now's the time.

Now's the time.

Um all right, so those are the announcements for today.

Um I'm doing no-shave quarantine, so I apologize.

But it's trust me, it's worse for my wife than anyone else.

Uh so with that, let's go ahead and pray together.

Holy Father, uh we pray that you would draw our hearts together by your spirit.

And Lord, that we would be gathered around your word in spirit, which always accomplishes exactly what you send it out to do.

Your word is perfectly effective.

And I pray that as we look at the story of Noah and the flood and the covenant that you make with him, that we would be able to understand your heart towards us more completely and to be able to live in the world with the comfort that you provided Noah through this trying time for him.

Father, uh, we pray that you would attend this by your spirit and lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So we are all learning to live in a new type of world, just as our uh protagonists in our story are learning to live in a new type of world.

We're continuing our march through Genesis, and at this point, they uh the flood has ceased, they've stepped off the boat, and this morning we're going to see how God forms a new covenant with Noah.

Now, this is often referred to as the Noahic covenant.

So when it comes up in conversations and somebody mentions the Noahic covenant, you can know what they're talking about.

Although it's likely a misnomer because the covenant is uh not just formed with Noah, but it's formed with Noah, his family, and all the animal life on earth.

Uh so it's really all of ours, it's all of ours.

It's it's a universal covenant that God forms.

But Noahic covenant still works.

When they step off the boat, they become this sort of type of new Adam and Eve because they step into a world that's empty and God calls them forth to fill it up again.

The difference is that when Adam and Eve stepped into that calling, they stepped out in sinlessness until they finally sinned.

But now Noah and his family are brought into the world, but it is deeply marred by the effects of sin.

The emptiness is a demonstration of the sin that came before, rather than just the potential that lied ahead for Adam and Eve.

So this morning we're going to see God uh do these three things for Noah and his family when they step off the boat.

The first one is he's going to call them to their role.

And it's a role that's just like Adam and Eve's.

And the second is he's going to assure them of their value.

He's going to assure Noah and his family of their true value as people.

And finally, he's going to grant, he's going to give to them his promise.

And so we'll see God will provide both the physical environment, which will support their future flourishing.

And then in the covenant that he provides, he's going to provide the spiritual environment, which will promote their flourishing.

So let's go ahead and jump into our text today, and we're going to look at the role that they're given by God.

This is Genesis 9, verses 1 through 2.

Genesis 9:1–2

Oh my goodness, I didn't read the scripture.

Uh so I didn't read it, correct?

Correct.

Correct.

Okay, yeah.

I didn't read the scripture.

So uh I'm going to go ahead and read the scripture now.

This is Genesis 9, verses 8 through 17.

Genesis 9:8–17

It says, Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you.

As many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth.

I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the sign, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations.

I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

Now let's go ahead and jump in a bit earlier before our reading for today to Genesis 9, verses 1 through 2, to see the role that Noah and his family are called to.

Genesis 9:1–2

It says that they will relate in this context of fear and dread.

The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast, upon all the animals.

And so what once with Adam and Eve was this relationship of joy and mutual flourishing, now is marked by this anxiety.

There's uh one thing that we can see in this is that uh God, although sin had corrupted the world and changed it and twisted it, it has not undone the initial plan that God had for the world's flourishing.

So sin has corrupted and twisted the world, but it has not halted the progress that God intended for the world.

He still calls us forth with this same mission: be fruitful, multiply, take dominion.

But here's this reality.

When we take dominion, it will be in the context of an anxious relationship between us and creation.

So that when we relate to the animals, it's full of anxiety and there's a sense of danger in it.

Uh danger, danger, danger.

Uh that's a quote from Joe Exotic.

So uh although we are given this type of dominion, and it's in the context of this ancient rel of this anxious relationship between us and the animals, uh, God shows us that our dominion over the animals has a limit.

And this is the way that limit is described.

In Genesis 9, verses 3 through 4, God continues and he says, Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.

Genesis 9:3–4

And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Okay.

So some people have taken this to be the innovation that humans are now able to eat meat.

They're able to become uh carnivores uh or omnivores.

And in uh so but I actually don't think that this is uh uh an innovation that's taking place here.

This isn't a new addition to creation, rather, it's the reiteration of something that was already a part of creation, namely eating meat, and then a new limit to that is added by God.

So the reason I think this is not an innovation is if you consider Abel's offering.

Abel makes an offering to God from the best of his flock, and when he uh provides it, he provides the fat portions to God, as though those were the best portions of the flock.

Now, why are the fat portions of an animal particularly desirable?

Um, well, I'll put it this way: it's not for aesthetic reasons.

Uh it's because they taste good.

It's because they're good to eat.

And so when we see Abel offering what seems to be a food offering of this animal, it it would be strange to consider this later event than an innovation of humans first eating animals and that being okay.

But our ability to eat animals is met with this limit.

And this limit is that you shall not eat flesh with its life.

That is its blood.

So what God is saying here is that although you have dominion over these creatures, over these animals, their life, which God uh makes blood the marker of life, says their life is not yours to consume.

Their life, which is its blood, will always be God's.

It is only his.

It is not ours to take for ourselves.

And so when he marks this out and says, you're not able to consume the blood, he is marking out something that he exclusively has the claim over.

And so while it is right for humanity to take dominion, a good leadership and rulership over creation, to promote its flourishing, it is wrong for humanity to have the hubris to consider that the lives of other creatures are ours, as though they belong to us.

Life, which is its blood, God shows us, only belongs to God.

Uh uh, we were around this area uh where we were seeing the limit that God put, where he says that the life belongs to the uh to him alone, and that the life of the animals is in their blood.

And so humans are not to consume the blood of the animals.

And this is a a law that God puts in place, which has this teaching purpose to show us that all of life is in God's hands.

It's not ours, but all of life belongs to him.

Now, uh, so we see that God adds that God gives this calling, which is like Adam and Eve's calling, to be fruitful and multiply.

He acknowledges the sinful dynamic that's going to take place in it.

And because of this danger of our uh sin creeping in to our dominion, he puts this limit, which is for our benefit and the benefit of the animals, to show that uh life belongs to God.

Those are the types of things humans need to be taught now in our sinful state.

Now, next, now that God has called them to their role, God shows us uh this assurance of value that he gives to Noah and his family when they're coming off of the ark.

So this is Genesis 9, verses 5 through 6.

Genesis 9:5–6

He says, And for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning.

From every beast I will require it, and from man.

From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.

For God made man in his own image.

So just as God puts this limit on animal life to not eat their blood, he dovetails this discussion of blood into this requiring of a reckoning from anyone who spills the blood of man, from anyone who kills another human.

Now, this applies to both animals and to humans who happen to kill a man.

So uh what does this tell us?

This tells us, first of all, we we need to look at look at the uh what's carrying the weight for the reckoning.

It isn't the wrong of having taken the life, but it is the height of the value of the life that was taken.

That is the impetus behind this aspect of this covenant, which is the reckoning that's required for the life is because the life that was taken is so valuable.

So, in this sense, it is not a ret this is not a call towards retribution, but instead it's uh a demonstration of the value of human life.

So we know it's not because of retribution, because uh animals and humans are both required to give a reckoning for taking the life of another human.

So if a great white shark were to come in and attack and kill a human, uh then then it under this, that shark is due a reckoning for having killed that human.

But we would never say that uh that shark committed some moral moral wrong.

Sharks don't have the capacity for moral rights and wrongs.

And so it wouldn't be retribution against the shark.

Uh it would just be a reckoning that is shown to demonstrate the value of the life that was taken.

Now, this is driven home completely in this final clause of this verse, which says, Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for so why God made man in his own image.

Because all of humanity carries the image of God, then the life of a man deserves a reckoning.

The life of humanity deserves a reckoning.

And that's the point that's being driven home here.

Last week, the question that was texted in at the end of the service, which you're free to do now, hopefully you can see the number, uh, we uh uh was what if you don't believe that humans are are innately uh depraved or innately evil or dead in their sin?

And uh I I understand that question, and I think that there uh we can imagine that there would be bad reasons to ask that question.

You know, a bad reason is I don't want to acknowledge the wrong that exists in me, um, or I don't want to acknowledge the wrong that exists in other people.

Now, I think that that could be a bad reason to ask that question, but a good reason to ask that question, and why I think it's uh actually a pretty intuitive question to ask, is because humans seem so valuable.

And so when we say that that humans are dead in their trespasses and that they're unable to please God in their sin, then that seems like a like a declaration that they're not valuable.

But those are saying two different things.

God is requiring a reckoning for the blood of sinful, depraved people.

He's saying, yes, they're dead in their trespasses and sins, and yet they have this un this essential mark that makes them uh more valuable than anything else on earth.

And that mark is that they were made in the image of God.

So one thing that we know about sin.

Is that it does not remove the image of God.

Just as sin, although it has corrupted the world, has not shifted the mission of the world, which is to go out, be fruitful, multiply, cover the earth, fill it with life and flourishing.

Sin has twisted the dynamic of that, but God has not abandoned that project.

In the same way, God sees that sin has twisted what humans were called to be, and yet this essential quality that they are made in the image of God, sin cannot conquer.

So to say that we are both radically depraved and unthinkably valuable as being made in the image of God, I think can feel contradictory, but it really isn't.

Those are really uh uh uh different aspects that we're talking about.

Now, uh and so in in in that way, uh God always requires recompense for those who are killed.

So it would be strange to brush over this without saying something about the death penalty uh more generally, because I think that this can often be used as just a proof text of like that there should be a death penalty uh and it should look like this, just uh, you know, man for man, and we're done.

Um, but to do that, I think we'd have to sort of uh cut and paste uh the whole rest of the passage with us, which would be uh, you know, don't eat animals with their blood in them, um, and uh as something that we would like that we should as well just cut and paste into our way of being, although I don't think that there's anything morally wrong with that.

There are, however, some principles that we can see in this that are important that are important for us to recognize.

One, uh a death penalty, generally speaking, is not a wrong thing.

Uh it's actually there's there's a uh uh uh the sword has been given to the government to demonstrate the value of human life in saying that when the life of a human is taken, then there should be recompense for that life that was taken.

But this is not to say that a badly enacted death penalty is uh in some way better than no death penalty at all.

Uh it would be better to have no death penalty than to have a badly enacted death penalty.

Because what we're seeing here is the way in which the government would then be called to wield the sword.

And the way that we would be called to wield the sword is not for retribution, but for a demonstration of the value of the human life that was lost.

And so, what is the principle that we can have to sort of guide this conversation to show that uh uh uh before we jump to policy too quickly, we would need to have our principles right that we're working from.

And the principles are the way that the death penalty is enacted here, the weight is on demonstrating the value of the human life.

And that's where the recompense comes.

Finally, we need to consider this limit that's placed in creation from the perspective of Noah and his family who are just getting off of the ark, who are hearing these words.

Consider what they just saw.

All that they had made, all that they had invested in, all that they had seen their community come and be a part of had been completely washed away.

It it was gone.

Everything that wasn't on the ark was annihilated.

The friendships that they developed, the the other people that they loved, they were all gone.

And then they first step off the boat and God says, be fruitful and multiply.

Well, think of what they might have considered.

Be fruitful and multiply for what?

Isn't this all just gonna go away?

Is there any real value?

Uh God shows the value to Noah and his family so that he can encourage their hearts to continue being fruitful and multiplying, showing their goodness in that regard.

And that's why after demonstrating their value by showing there's a reckoning that is owed for human life, he calls them once again and bookends this passage by saying this in Genesis 9, verse 7 and you be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.

Genesis 9:7

So he says it once before, and he says it once after, because God uh is seeking to show that uh although humanity has been corrupted by sin, that this is not something that he is throwing away.

This is not a project that he is abandoning, but this is a project that he is working to redeem, to bring it back to the good intentions that he had at the very beginning of creation.

Now, uh we've seen God provide their role and he and offer this assurance of their value.

And now we see that he gives them the promise of the of a covenant that they might move forward with total confidence in what God is calling them to.

So God lays out his covenant uh with Noah and his family and with every living thing that moves on the earth.

He lays out this covenant with.

And this is what he says in Genesis 9, verse 11.

Genesis 9:11

He says, I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

So, some things to note immediately about this covenant that God makes.

God establishes this covenant with Noah and his family completely of his own accord.

There's nothing that Noah does to request it.

There's nothing that anyone else in his family does, and this covenant doesn't even have a term or a condition.

The covenant is not something that can be broken in any way.

So this shifts our understanding that we might have had of what a covenant is.

A covenant is is not a bargain, uh, a covenant is not a deal that uh both sides are entering into in this regard.

The covenant that God is enters into is from God, and it is totally God's to uphold.

And there is nothing that Noah or his family can do to upset God's intentions for the covenant that he is making with Noah and his family and everything else that lives on the earth.

It's for God alone, and humans can't change it.

Now, another thing that this covenant means is that God promises again that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

You may think, well, that doesn't seem like much of a comfort.

You know, God's just gonna use other things to destroy the earth.

It'll be a bunch of earthquakes, uh, it'll be fire, and later that that'll kind of happen.

But there's uh uh it's it's not, it's it we need to get a better understanding of what it means that God used a flood in the first place.

It wasn't that just God ad hoc decided, I'm gonna use a flood uh as just some means.

No, as we saw when we looked at the flood narrative, it's a a perfect reversal of creation, as the waters that were separated from the sky and the sea were brought back together again, and the sea that was separated from the land is brought back together again.

And so the picture that we see with the flood is a reversal of creation, an unwinding of creation to bring it back to a state uh that was not as corrupted by the sin of the people before the flood.

And so what that's showing in God promising that he will never again flood the earth is that there will never be a reversal again in which redemption is sought.

What's happening in this covenant is God is God is showing that there's the only way towards redemption is forward.

It is only in moving forward through a new world with a new developing covenant and new promises that we will see this creation unfold.

Now, uh as this continues, uh as it so what we see here is that there is no retreat backward.

The flood was not just an incidental thing, redemption only lies forward.

Now, as we continue on, this covenant has a sign, and the sign is that of a rainbow.

This is Genesis 9, 12 through 13.

And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations.

I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

So, just as with uh the snake being cursed to crawl among the dust, uh, this is this is not uh a story about the creation of the rainbow or why rainbows are created any more than that is a story of uh how the snake lost its legs.

This is not a just so narrative.

Instead, what we're seeing is that God uses the natural means to communicate things about himself to us.

And so that God takes the rainbow and now he assigns it this meaning.

And what does it mean?

That God will never again destroy the earth by a flood.

We know that.

It is certain because of the rainbow.

You know, uh it's this is such a silly uh thing to bring up, but uh remember uh in like 2010, the double rainbow video uh with the guy who walks out, and it was like back when there was one viral video at a time and not one like every minute.

Uh the double rainbow video, the guy walks out and he and he films a double rainbow and he's like, Oh, double rainbow all the way across the sky.

And he and he shouts, what does it mean?

And it's it's funny because we all laugh at him because he's funny.

Um and uh but that question I think is really legitimate.

Like when we see a rainbow, it begs this this thing kind of in our hearts, which is like, what does that mean?

That has to mean something.

This isn't just generic creation or sort of mindless physics.

There seems to be a real meaning in a rainbow.

And I think that that's our hearts uh tugging at this reality, that there is a real meaning to the rainbow.

Uh the text continues in Genesis 9, 14 through 15.

When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

So let's consider the rainbow as a symbol for the rest of our time, and we'll consider what it means for us that uh God chose the rainbow for this covenant.

First, it is from God alone.

You know, we can't make rainbows because you can't make the sun shine and you can't make a storm roll in, you can't make it rain.

It is just out of our reach and out of our ra grasp.

It's to God alone.

Because look at what the symbol is for.

He says, uh, when I put the when I when the bow is seen in the clouds, God says, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you.

God does this as a symbol, not it it may be for us and our seeing it, but it is to God.

It is to God, it is from Him and it is to Him.

And next, it is for human benefit.

Uh, but it's not something that is entered into as a sort of bargain.

It's nothing we can throw away any more than we could make a rainbow go or go away, or any more than we could even get to a rainbow to be able to touch it.

It's not that type of thing.

God sets it in the clouds above our grasp of his own accord as an unshakable promise to humanity.

The rainbow is accommodated perfectly to the moment of our fear.

If you consider what Noah and his family's fear would be, can you imagine what rain would sound like to them the next time it started to rain and the next time it started to keep raining for a long time?

It's like when you get the hiccups and you're like, well, but what if it lasts forever that I have these?

Every time it rained for them, they'd be considering, well, what if it just doesn't stop again and all that we had been fruitful and multiplied for just goes away like it did that other time?

God places the rainbow exactly at the moment of their fear.

When it begins to rain, this thing that was once frightful now is a demonstration over and over again of God's faithfulness, of his promise.

It may be raining now, it will stop.

The floods will not destroy everything again as they had previously.

Also, the rainbow is set in the midst of the clouds.

Now, throughout scripture, God coming on the clouds or coming with the clouds of his glory is also a sign of his judgment.

That when when God comes with his clouds, he's coming amidst the judgment.

And so the rainbow being set amidst the judgment is it draws us to see this tension that we've been tracing throughout the biblical narrative this whole time, which is that God's justice and his mercy seem to be taking place at exactly the same point.

In the flood, his justice is coming, but the ark is what floats right above the flood.

And so his justice and his mercy are in the same moment.

And here again, in this covenant promise, right at the edge of the storm where the light is breaking through, we see God's justice and his mercy collide and create something that is unthinkably beautiful, like a rainbow.

You know, I think it would be an overly restrained imagination, which would neglect to see that it is a bow.

It's a weapon, a bow that is set down.

It's the very same word for like a bow, an arrow, like an archer's bow.

And it is God's bow that he takes and he sets aside in the midst of the clouds.

And uh, you know, what have we learned before this?

In this same passage, we've seen that God requires recompense for the life of a human.

And we think that's incredible because it demonstrates that there is this unthinkable value still in sinful people because of uh the image of God that they bear.

But then we consider it consider just Jesus' teachings about what our hearts really are.

Jesus' teaching is that uh if we even just have anger in our hearts towards one another, it's as though we've murdered.

And so the seeds of this murderous spirit are in our hearts.

So who's gonna make recompense for us?

Who's gonna make recompense for the one who deserved to receive the recompense?

At the end of uh the story of Noah in the Jesus Storybook Bible, uh, which is a little kid's Bible, we read to JT pretty frequently.

We give them away here for baby dedications.

Um and uh at the very end, it's by it's by a lady named Sally Lloyd Jones, unrelated to the doctor.

Um she ends the story of Noah with this.

She says, God's strong anger against hate and sadness and death would come down once more, but not on his people or his world.

No, God's war bow was not pointing down at his people, it was pointing up into the heart of heaven.

In the rainbow, we see this picture of God's justice and mercy colliding, and it creates something of unthinkable beauty, like a rainbow.

On the cross of Christ, we see God's justice and mercy come together once again, but it shows us something horrific.

The terror of what our sin and what the recompense for our sin actually looks like.

The question is who will receive the recompense?

Jesus takes it upon himself.

The bow that was set down is aimed at Christ so that we, in although in our sin, might be with God forever, that we might be cleansed.

The one beautiful picture of the combination of God's justice and mercy shows the reality of the beauty of God's love towards us and his covenant faithfulness, which is unshakable, and the other in Christ, of God's justice and mercy coming together on the cross, shows us the terror and the horror of our sin.

One humbles us into the dirt, one raises us into the heavens.

And so when we see the rainbow, we see the covenant that God gave to us, that he wouldn't destroy us, but we know that it points forward to this greater covenant, that in Christ we would not only not be destroyed because of our sin, we would be completely forgiven just by putting our faith in Christ, and we would be given his righteousness so that we might live for eternity in the presence of God, seeing his throne, which by the way is surrounded by rainbows.

There's an amazing beauty in this gospel.

In Christ's, we see the true beauty of the rainbow, that we might be forgiven to live with God forever.