Dear Friends in Christ,
Have you ever
connected a verbal promise to a visible sign of that promise? If you are
married, look at the second finger on your left hand. Remember saying, “Receive
this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness?” God has made the
connection. Next time you celebrate the Lord’s Supper look again at the bread
and wine. We thank God that in, with, and under those visible elements we have
received “in his true body and blood the pledge of your forgiveness.”
After Noah and his family exited the ark, God made a pledge, a verbal covenant with them and all generations to follow. Never again would God destroy the earth with water. As a visible sign of that verbal promise, God connected his covenant to the rainbow.
Poised under that
first rainbow and all rainbows since, stands God’s promise of the forgiveness
of our sins. This promise is visible connected to Jesus Christ. John wrote of
Jesus, “We have seen his glory, the glory
of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The apostle pointed Jesus out to a crowed as Jesus approached and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world.”
This evening we are going to talk about promises and their visible signs. Our conversation begins outside the ark with Noah and his family, the remnant of the church. With these fellow Christians, we behold The Wonder of God’s Promise. It is a covenant for all generations. It is a covenant God has established as his certain Word. It is a covenant we see in visible signs.
I hope you noticed in this account that God did all the talking. God did all the promising. “Never again will life be cut off by waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” The verbal covenant God signed with the varied colored inks of the rainbow is a unilateral covenant. It is one sided. Man did nothing to bring it about. Man would do nothing to continue it.
Then God created the rainbow as “a sign of the covenant.” God goes on to speak in human terms through Moses. “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.” The rainbow is a sign of God’s everlasting promise. It is a covenant for all generations. Noah’s sons and their wives knew that God’s promise was for them and for their children, and for their grandchildren and so on. Therefore, they carried on that promise.
It is the same promise that has continued through the centuries to reach us and our children and grandchildren. We continue to carry it on and share it with future generations. The LORD had spared the church for the sake of the promise he had made in Eden of the Savior to come. It was for the sake of the promise of the Seed who would crush Satan’s head that God would spare the world from another deluge that would destroy all but a few.
Yes, there will be a final judgment after this time of grace. However, when all who hate God are destroyed by fire to be judged and sent to hell, God will take his church completely out of this world in that final, complete redemption Jesus told us about in our gospel last Sunday.
The wonder of God’s promise is eternal as the church proclaims Jesus Christ. We will live and reign eternally through Christ and with Christ in heaven. The rainbow does not just mean there will not be another flood. It means God’s covenant of grace in Christ never will cease. It is for all generations.
The wonder of God’s promise also is a covenant God has established on his certain word. The Word of God cannot be broken. The Word of God cannot change. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever,” [13:8] We say that the Word of God is the same always. We rely on that changelessness of God and his promises.
In his second epistle Peter wrote, “We have the sure Word of God, and you do well to pay attention to it.” Peter had seen the transfigured Christ on the mountain. Here Peter makes the point that the Scripture is more certain than even a visible experience. Noah and his family had the visible experience of seeing the rainbow. However, even more sure than that for Noah was God’s certain Word that such a flood would never happen again.
We have the certainty of the Scriptures as the assurance of the word of promise that God has forgiven all our sins in Christ. We hear pastors and teachers preach and teach that Word of God.
Noah and we hear God make a covenant with us but God ties it to something we see, like the rainbow. The rainbow is a natural phenomenon of sunlight passing through water vapor. It always is Roy G. Biv. In that state out in the Pacific you see rainbows daily. Behind the natural, the wonder of God’s power and the wonder of God’s promise are the glory behind the rainbow. Every time I see a rainbow I know it is the visible sign our loving God hangs in the skies that is connected to the promise he made to Noah and family, and to us, including the promise of our redemption and salvation.
We have that certain Word of God connected to visible signs in many other places. God tied a verbal promise to Abraham to the visible sign of circumcision. [Gn 17:10] Isaiah told King Ahaz and the house of David, they would defeat their enemies.“Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and will call him Immanuel.” [7:14] The angels gave the shepherds a sign, “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger.” [Lk 2:12] Jesus’ cross and empty tomb are visible signs God tied to his certain Word that he is not kidding about punishing our sins, and he is not kidding that he punished Jesus in our place so that we conquer sin, death and hell.
The Wonder of God’s Promise he made long ago has not changed a bit. The Lord God will keep his covenant of the rainbow and of Christ. In those promises the Lord God saves us to withstand the coming fire of judgment as he saved Noah and his family from the water of judgment. Amen. <SDG>