We’re going to see the word covenant for the second time and now God is going to keep the promise He made all the way back in chapter six. God told Noah that He would make a special covenant with Noah, but first Noah would have to make the ark and obey everything that God told Him to do or there would be no Noah to make a covenant with! What exactly is God going to give to Noah and his family and to the whole world?
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Hi! I’m Miss Tyler and welcome to another episode of Context for Kids where I teach you guys stuff most adults don’t even know. If this is your first time hearing or if you have missed anything, you can find all the episodes archived at contextforkids.podbean.com, which has them downloadable, or at contextforkids.com, where I have transcripts for readers or on my Context for Kids YouTube channel.
(Parents, all Scripture comes from the CSB this week, the Christian Standard Bible, and we will mostly be in Genesis 9)
How many rainbows do you think you have seen in your life? Probably a lot. I can’t even think of how many I have seen and I have even seen double rainbows, which is when one rainbow is on top of another. Some rainbows are harder to see the colors on than others but a really good rainbow on a clear day will have seven color bands! Those are red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue and purple. And there’s nothing quite like seeing a really clear rainbow—you can find so many beautiful pictures of them on the internet and also some really cool science lessons about them. I will even put a link in the transcript. But what do rainbows teach us about God and His promises? Do rainbows really help God to remember? Why is it called a bow, anyway? And what does it all have to do with Covenants? We’re actually going to review a lot of things today as well as go over some brand new stuff. So, hold on to your hats because this is going to be some pretty cool stuff to impress your friends with.
Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, “Understand that I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. 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.” 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 future generations: I have placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature.The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.” (Gen 9:8-17)
That was a lot! So we are going to break it down into smaller chunks. First of all, I want to introduce you to a new word, a very important word that is translated in a lot of different ways. It’s a word that is supposed to grab you and make you pay attention. It’s the Hebrew word hinneh (hih-nay) and it gets translated many ways—like understand, look, see, behold, and it’s used almost 800 times in the Old Testament, the part of the Bible that is in Hebrew. That’s a huge number! Some words only get used once but this one gets used a lot because God and the prophets spend a ginormous amount of time saying, “Hey, dudes, listen up and listen tight! This is important, put down the smartphone and pay attention!” When Jesus would tell people things that were important, He would say “look” or “hear” for the same reason. When God tells us to understand, look, watch, listen or hear, then it is something very important. And you will see those words all over the Bible. Pay close attention whenever anyone says any of those words to anyone else. You won’t want to miss whatever it is that they have to say. So, what do they need to understand?
Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, “Understand (hinneh) that I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark.
Wow, this really is a big deal. We’ve talked about covenants before. A covenant is sometimes a promise between people, or between people and God (we will see those when we get to Abraham), or just flat out a promise from God to everyone—like this one. When a covenant is between two people or between people with God, both sides have promised to do certain things, or else the covenant is broken and that’s bad because then things aren’t good between them anymore. Like, if you and your friend make a promise to each other to help one another and your friend keeps their part of the bargain and then when they need help you decide you would rather play video games, that is really bad. That’s called a broken promise and when we see it in the Bible it is called a broken covenant. It’s kinda more complicated than that because covenants are much more than just a promise but that’s good enough for now. If you want to learn more and understand all the different kinds of covenants and how they work, you can check out Context for Kids Volume 2, Ten Commandments and the Covenants of Promise.
God is saying here that He is making a covenant not just with Noah and his family, or even with all the people who will ever be born, but also with everything living on the earth—all the birds and farm animals and wild animals and bugs and everything. But what sort of covenant and what will it be? If God is going to make them a promise, you know it is going to be good because just think of what He does for us without even promising us anything at all? He made the planet to provide food for us and not just like one kind of fruit and one kind of plant but so many kinds that we will probably never get to try all of them. He makes it rain so that things will grow. He made all the different kinds of seeds and animals for food. He made the air we need to breathe and the carbon dioxide and sunlight that plants need. A promise on top of all that must be pretty awesome so let’s see what it is! God said to Noah:
“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.”
Well, dang, that’s sure a relief. Probably if they all had one request to make then that would be the one thing everyone would certainly agree with. Now, did God say that there would never be floods anywhere ever again? Nope, there are still floods and I have seen some very scary ones in my life. I am very grateful that I have never been in one. Earthquakes yes, floods no. Have you guys ever been in a flood or has anyone you love ever been in one? I sure hope not. I have friends down in Texas and they used to live in a town where it would flood whenever there was a big tornado, and one year it was really bad. They were really brave to live there. Maybe that surprises you if you think that Texas is all a big, dry desert just like in the old Western movies.
God is making a covenant with everyone and everything that will ever live but what do they have to do in return so that He will keep His promise? Nothing. In this kind of covenant, God is saying that He will not flood the whole earth no matter what anyone else does. This is called an unconditional covenant because there are no conditions, and conditions are things that have to be done or not done. Like, if someone tells you that if you get your chores done you can have ice cream, then you know ahead of time that can’t have ice cream unless those chores get done. Getting your chores done is a condition or a requirement. If you don’t do them then you don’t get ice cream. But that isn’t what God is doing here, God’s promise is going to happen no matter what anyone ever does.
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 future generations.”
Wait a minute! We have an important new word–sign! In Hebrew it’s ot which sounds kinda like the oat in oatmeal. The first time we see ot is in Genesis 1 when God talks about why He created the sun, moon, and stars! In verse 14, God says that they will, “They will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years.” That means that they are there to tell us about when the seasons and festivals happen, when it’s time to plant and to celebrate, and to tell us when we are supposed to do different things but they were also there to tell people when important things would happen. And I am not talking about astrology! Astrology is something that God says we must never do, trying to find out our future and things about our personalities by looking at where the planets and stars are. That’s called divination and it is a lot like witchcraft. But sometimes, like when Jesus was born, important things would happen in the sky to let people know. That was another kind of ot, or sign. But here we have a totally different kind of sign because this is a sign that causes God to remember and keep His promise to us, and so it also became a sign for us—after all, He has never broken this promise no matter what nonsense we have done. He is obviously not only very patient and loving but also absolutely trustworthy! All future generations! That’s me, that’s you, and that’s your kids and grandkids! God is in it with us for the long run until Jesus comes back as King over the whole earth! But what would this sign be?
I have placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
A bow? In the Bible, that word almost always means the kind of bow that you would shoot an arrow out of. So, a bow is something that can be used as a weapon to attack enemies. But God is saying that He is going to put that bow in the clouds and this is some fancy and confusing language, so we have to pay very close attention. Because the rainbow is shaped like an archery bow, God is telling them that they don’t have to worry about Him attacking the earth with water—because that’s kind of what happens in a flood. Have you ever watched a TV show where someone is carrying a weapon—a gun or a sword or a spear or a knife or a lightsaber—and then they put it down? They might put it on the ground or on a table or in a sheath or they might put the arrows back in the quiver but when that happens everyone gives a big sigh of relief because they know the danger is over. Well, God is doing something like that here—except, instead of putting a gun on a shelf or in a safe, God’s putting His bow in the clouds. It’s like God is using the clouds as a shelf! And He’s saying, “You don’t have to worry about this.” Very cool, right?
Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature.
Wow, do you remember the word zakar?–The word translated into English as remember? We talked about that in Episode 44, when God “remembered” Noah and everyone in the ark. But God doesn’t forget so how can He remember? Well, zakar is a word that means God decided to do something for someone—not because He forgot about them but because He has finally decided it was the perfect time to help them. People can zakar because they forget—like the Cupbearer of Pharaoh forgot about Joseph! Fortunately, God never forgets any of us or we’d be in big trouble. Jesus even said that God notices every single sparrow—can you believe that? When Jesus was telling people not to be afraid of what other people could do to them, because it was very scary living in the Roman Empire where they could kill you without even a fair trial or a trial at all, He said, “29 Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. 30 But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12) Jesus wasn’t telling them that nothing bad would ever happen to them but that God would never ever forget about them. No matter how alone you feel, God sees you. We can trust that people who put their faith in Jesus (and not everyone who says so actually does, some people who claim to love Jesus hurt people very badly)—well, when we trust Jesus and when we know the Gospel story is true and we make Him our King, when Jesus comes here to be King over all the earth we can know that all of our troubles and sadness and pain will be over. Because God sees me and He sees you—and He also sees the people who are hurting others.
“The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.”
You may ask why God keeps repeating this same thing—because He wants to make sure that we get it. He does this a lot because we are kinda clueless. God is very much like a parent who needs to repeat Himself over and over again so that His kids, us, will actually listen to Him and believe Him—maybe. That’s a big part of the story too—God saying a whole lot of things and people not believing Him at all.
God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.”
Isn’t it great how God keeps giving so much reassurance to us? How He comforts and protects us even when we don’t deserve it? I mean, God doesn’t have to do anything except promise to protect us and that should be enough for us to trust Him but then–He does things to back up His promises! He gave clothes to Adam and Eve so that they wouldn’t be naked and exposed to the harsh weather outside the Garden. He put a mark on Cain so that no one would hurt him—even though Cain wasn’t the least bit sorry about killing his brother. And now, He is giving Noah (and everyone) a sign in the sky so that we will remember His promise. And this isn’t the last time that God will do something like that in the Bible—not by a long shot. We’re just still at the very beginning. God gives signs to people but then sometimes He doesn’t. I am going to tell you a story about when Jesus just flat out refused to give a sign to some people who were asking Him for one. The different writers of the Gospels talk about signs a lot because Jesus did so many amazing things but one day, the Pharisees came to Jesus right after He had fed four thousand people with just seven rolls and a few fishes.
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, demanding of him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” (Mark 12)
They want a sign??? He just fed four thousand people with some barley rolls and a few sardines—and there was a ton of leftovers! I don’t know about you but that seems like a sign that says, “Hello!!! This is one honkin’ huge sign!” I mean, and before that He fed five thousand people, and he tossed demons out of people, and healed a deaf man, and he cured a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, and he raised a little girl from the dead, and he made someone who was totally paralyzed walk again. That’s not just a sign, that is like a neon billboard on the top of a mountain kind of sign. You know, the kind that is really hard to miss. But the leaders were angry because Jesus wasn’t doing things the way they thought He should. They really wanted a Messiah, but every group wanted a Messiah who would do things their way—because they thought their way was God’s way. And people are still like that, a lot of people in your life will think that whatever they say and do is exactly what God wants but the Bible tells us that none of us is that perfect. We all get things wrong, and we all grow and learn and so we have to be very careful before deciding that God agrees with us about everything. I know He doesn’t agree with me about everything because He has shown me on many occasions how wrong I have been about things. So, the Pharisees and the Chief Priests, and the Scribes all had their own ideas about what Jesus should be doing and how He should be doing it. Because He didn’t do it that way, nothing He did was going to be enough for them.
They were demanding that He show them a sign or a miracle. It would have sounded something like, “Show us a miracle in the skies right now or we will know you are a total faker!” But Jesus knew their hearts just the same as He knows our hearts today. Jesus knew that if all He had done up to that point hadn’t been enough that nothing ever would be. And you are going to see that a lot in your life. This morning a person I don’t know was being really mean to be on the internet. She was even saying that I don’t love Jesus and I don’t know God. All because she disagreed with one thing I said. And no matter how I tried to help her understand and to get her to be kinder, it just got worse. I just gave up after a while. And that will happen to you all through your life. You will get into situations where someone is going to decide that something is true about you and no matter what you do, nothing can make them see that they are wrong.
Jesus taught us, when He refused to show them a sign from heaven, that it is okay to walk away from an argument even when and especially when people think that means that they are right and you are wrong. The only thing worse than losing an argument is fighting an argument that you can’t win—and wasting your time trying to talk to someone who won’t listen to you no matter what. Plus, Jesus had shown them signs before and you know what they said? They said the signs were from Beelzebul, the ruler over the demons. So, Jesus knew that no matter what He did, they would just say that the sign was from Satan, and they would have seen it as proof that Jesus was evil. Jesus knew that giving signs to people who are absolutely determined not to believe is just a dangerous trap. Because some people wanted to hurt Him, He refused to do things in front of them that He gladly did for those who believed Him.
And so, this sign to Noah—God didn’t have to send it. God wasn’t ever going to forget about us. But God was just sending the sign so that Noah and all his children and grandchildren all the way down to us would see that sign and remember God and that He has kept His promise to us for a very, very, very long time. See that? We can zakar too, but it’s because we actually forget!
The woman who was being mean to me, I don’t think she is a bad person but for some reason, she decided that I was a bad person. So, being mean to her would have been very wrong of me. Some people, once they decide bad things about someone else, just can’t ever admit that they aren’t right because it is embarrassing. When we fight with people like that, they just see it as proof that they are right about us. But you know the cool thing that happened? Other people read what happened and saw how I was acting and how she was acting and they spoke up and said that how I was treating her was all the proof they needed that she was wrong about me. I know it feels better to make someone who hates us change their mind or to feel guilty, but God uses everything and our good behavior never goes wasted. And I say that as someone who has behaved badly in arguments way too many times for anyone except God to count. I hope you will learn your lesson a whole lot younger than I did!
I love you. I am praying for you. And I pray that you have a wonderful time studying the Bible with the people who love you.