The Significance of the Rainbow: God's Covenant with Noah

Show Notes

Episode 427: 
On this episode, Chris and Jeff unpack the significance of God's covenant with Noah. They highlight how the rainbow symbolizes God's promise to never again destroy the earth with a flood, emphasizing the eternal nature of God's covenants. The hosts draw parallels between the rainbow covenant and the new covenant established through Jesus Christ, showcasing the continuity of God's promises throughout history.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey Chris, Hey Jeffrey Man, I'm glad you're my friend. Oh, we're just a couple of friends. That's oh that's where that's where you get that from from the intro. Okay, I just thought it was a random thought. It was like, oh, yes, I am glad you're my friend. Yeah, I'm glad you're my friend too. I'm on public record now because normally when she calls us friends, you're like, that's a bad assumption. Yes, uh, well hey today are we are like a fungus? Just get it grows on you. I was trying to transition nobody. Nobody's glad for a fungus. So uh, Anyway, what I was going to say is, we have Genesis number nine today. But before we get into that, we have a segment by Desiree who asks us to come up with a bucket list draft, do it drafted bucket list items? Do rock paper scissors? Who goes first? But we're only allowed to do three items? Were only three items? Okay each? So so do we have to do rock paper scissors three times? Or do we just do it one to see you go first? Okay? Ready, ready, Oh, both of us scissors. I got a rock, he got scissors. That's like one of the first times I beat you. I know, I know. I was trying to think backwards of what I normally would do. That's funny. Get you Okay, so I get to give my first one. Yes, So I have a list. Do you have a bucket list? I do not. I do not have an actual list, but I just a moment ago, I was surprised to see that you actually made a list. I have fifty six things on my list that I made several years ago, and I've checked two of them off since I made them. So I have fifty four things left. You better hurry, h No, I'll just give you one here. I mean, you better hurt it. I know, I know. And these are all hard too, So I'm going to age out of a bunch of these. I say, you're on the back ninety. One of my top bucket list things is I want a trek to Everestpace Camp. Okay, that's like a ten day hike. Yeah, from LASA up to uh is it your birthday coming up? Yeah. Yeah, just Friday, Yeah, Friday, Friday, in just a couple of days. By the time that after they listen, I will have already turned fifty three. Yes, so I've only got a few more years on that. And I got a knee. This kind of tricky, so I'm gonna have to get that fixed and order be able to do that one. So there you go, this one. I'll do that all right. So mine is what we mentioned a few days ago. Shark cage diving. Yeah, that's on there too. That's number four for me. Yeah, So I want to I want to go into a cage and I want to see sharks. I will be scared out of my living mind to be cool, though, but I I as long as the cage was, you know, sturdy, because there are no there are cages where sharks can slip through. Sometimes it happens. Yeah, and so I do not want that, right It would be like breaking into a happy meal box at that point, right, right? Okay, let me see. I want to ride the Orient Express. Woh yeah, so you can still ride it. It only runs at one time in the year on the original old system. So there was a sister train to the Orient Express back in the twenties that still operates. It's been completely renovated and they bring it over onto the old system that the original Orient expresses. So it's essentially the same train but the same thing. So you go from London to Istanbul and I'd love to do that, but it's like fifteen grand. Fifteen grand yeah, yeah, yeah, you can spend more than that, but yeah, it's super expensive. So wow, I'm going to have to sell a kid or something to get that. Wow, that's okay, less than a half Okay. I would like to ride and this is a very simple one actually compared to that. I would like to ride in a helicopter over the Grand Canyon. Oh, that's in one of mine too. Yeah. Actually, I've heard of people going down into the Grand Canyon with donkeys and things, and that sounds like not fun for me, Like I've heard about Literally, I was like, well, tell me, how was it, and people are like, no, not really, So I just think I want to appreciate its beauty from an aerial view. Oh yeah, wow, have you been in the helicopter before? Yes? Yeah, yeah, that's fun. I like those. Okay, so I had that one on mine too. I'd also like to do a Route sixty six road trip. Oh yeah, from Chicago all the way to It would be fun. Yes, yeah, I'd like to do that. We should do it. Let's get a cool car and let's just do like a man trip for what it take us, it's what three or four thousand miles? Five. I would like to do that on a motorcycle. Yeah, yeah, that'd be fun if we should do it. And then my last one I'm gonna choose is I think I would like so A long time ago, like ten years ago, maybe fifteen years ago, I saw an advertisement for you know those those huts and like crystal clear blue waters like in the Maldives and things like that. There was a hut where a guy, uh you know the house. The little hut was on stilts and he actually swam into his living room right where he actually can you know, swim and then just walk right up into the commons area of the living room. Ye I thought, I thought, I want to rent a hut where I could literally be in my living room and then just right in the center of the living room go swimming, go swimming, and then go out blue water and then come back and walk into my living room. Yeah, yes, and I thought, I want to do that. Okay, you have to do it all right, I have. I have minor weird ones too. I got I want to ride a horse to sleep in a yurt in Mongolia. Wow, I would never do you talk about the years that are really really high, you know, the yurts are there? Those those round tents that they set they carry around was a little uh sling shot, uh like like what do you call them? The hammocks? Hammocks? Yeah, yeah, no kind that you hook up against mountains. No, in Mongolia, they're famous for riding on horses and their their homes are really really sturdy, but they they them up and carry them and set them back up again. Yeah, you're tent like that. He got a bunch of those. I want to sleep in a tent with the Sahara and Mongolia. I want to Grand Tour of Europe, which I'm going to try to check that one off this year. Wow. So yeah, a lot of neat stuff. We want to track for gorillas and Rwanda. Come on now, I'm not joking. It takes a long time to get out there, but I want to. You can die. But I almost had that happen. So I was at a meeting with the President of Rwanda and his chief estaff was sitting across the table from me, and she said, so, have you guys gone to see the gorillas? I said no, I wanted to, but it was so expensive we couldn't do it. She goes, okay, hey, let me get a card. I'll just send you on my helicopter. She's gonna send me on the president's helicopter out to me and Chad out to go see him. And just as she was digging through her purse, the president walked up and called her over and she went, I'm so sorry, and she left while her hands were in her purse looking for her card to send us on her helicopter. So I missed it, and server since then now I'm just in agony about it. Every time you think about I missed it by second, missed it just the second. Wow, Well i'll tell you what that is. That is your list is way more exotic than me. Well that's why I was saying. I got a hurry. I'm going to be fifty three in a couple weeks, so I've got a window here. I got too close the gaps on some of these, so fifty four of those real quick thirty seconds. So my brother Tommy wanted to grant wishes to my parents, who are aging. They're in their mid eighties, and she said. He said to my mom, what's one thing you want to do before you you know, before you leave the earth. And she said, I want to go to Italy because we're Italian. So he took her to Italy. Well, then he asks my father, because he went around and asked his stepmother and all this, or his mother in law. Anyway, they all had something and my father's request was he wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. Well, we've done Murieals thing, you know, tom did my mom's thing. Well, now my dad, we're taking a trip this summer with my dad. He goes, see Statue of Liberty. Cool, and my dad says, I can't believe that everybody else asked for things out of the country and I just chose New York. He goes, if have known, he said, I would have chosen something more exotic. You know that three hour drive, it's pretty great though. Yeah, it's a moving experience. You guys can do that this summer. Yes, good for you. Yeah, it's really cool for you. Okay, Well, here we are. You know, we live on an amazing planet and there's a lot of things to go see and do. So that's kind of God gave us the planet back. That's right. He destroyed everything on it and then gave it back. That's where we are, Genesis chapter nine. And so this is Noah receiving a covenant from God. That's right. So we'll just start Genesis chapter nine, Verse one. It says, then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them be fruitful and multiply fill the earth. All the animals and of the earth, and all the birds of the sky, and all the small animals that scurry along the ground. All the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and tear. I've placed them in your power. I've given them to you for food, just as I've given you grain and vegetables. But you must never eat any meat that still has the life blood in it. And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person's life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. Anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life. That person's life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image. Now be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the earth. Then God told Noah and his sons, I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, and with all the animals that were on the boat with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, every living creature on earth. Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures. Never again will a flood destroy the earth. Then God said, I'm giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures for all generations to come. I've placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on Earth. And God said the Noah, Yes, this rainbow and this is the sign of the covenant. I'm confirming with all the creatures on the earth. Yeah, and it's one of the It's one of my favorite moments in the Old Testament when God gives the rainbow, because again, we we look at the rainbow, and I don't think that too many people connect. I mean, unless you went to Bible college and you preach and you know, and you're you live in church world very heavily. I would venture to say ninety nine point high decimal point of percentage of people when they see the rainbow, they don't think, Oh, that's God, you know, reminding himself and reminding us that even though it rained just now and then here comes a rainbow, don't worry. I'm not going to I'm not going to let it continue to rain right, I'm not going to destroy the earth. It's not it's not going to be like it once was. And so and so every single time we see rainbow, it's a it's a it's a promise of God's covenant. And God still remembers it today. And it's so funny. We always look at rainbow all the cup pretty there's a scientific reason for rainbow. The water droplets and the lights they formed this blah blah blah blah blah. But that's not the reason for the rainbow. That's just the scientific explanation for it. The reason is God is reminding us from this moment until now that he keeps his promises. And that's exactly what it is. So when I hear that, I think the same things, right, just how great it is God keeps his promises. That He's given us this promise for now thousands upon thousands of years. Yes, and how many gajillion times has a rainbow been in the sky, you know? I mean, but there's a few interesting things. You remember when I was talking about how I believe back in the day before the flood that the world was protected with a canopy of water. Yeah, that's a good theory. This is the first time God ever mentions clouds, right, So that if that theory was true, that canopy is gone. And now the atmosphere is much than it used to be. Our lifespan goes down to one hundred and twenty years, which makes total sense. And now there's clouds. Clouds with direct sunlight are going to create rainbows. Before this time, there was no system for creating rainbows because the light couldn't get all the way through the canopy in the same way. Right, Yeah, so it works, it fits in that. But this is the first time that God mentions clouds, and he mentions them like three or four times in this thing like it's a new thing. Hey, those are clouds, right, that's kind of how he's talking to them in this. And then the other thing that God does here is he establishes the first law. Right, so this is the law for humanity. Before it was individuals that he talked to Caine, if you kill anybody else, I'm gonna write, right, if anybody tries to hurt you, I'm going to judge them. But here now he establishes some laws. He says, you can eat everything, but don't eat meat that has blood in it. Still drain drain the blood out of it because the blood's unhealthy for you. By the way, technically he's still talking to an individual, but he's but he's giving the law for humanity. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's this is a generic law for everybody he's talking to, because he wasn't only to the individual. He also was speaking to Hamshem and Jafith, their wives and right because he told them go forth and be fruitful and multiply right, So he's not talking to the six hundred year old guy right right, right, right right, So first go and be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, manage it, just like I told Adam and e if I want you to manage this planet. And then I want you to be careful how you eat. There are some healthy things and unhealthy things, so be careful with that, particularly with regard to bloody meat. And then he says, I'll require the blood of anyone who takes another person's life. So now he's all outlawing murder completely. Not only that, he's establishing capital punishment as the consequence for murder here, right, If somebody murders, then you have to execute them. And that's a really big one. If anyone takes a human life, that person's life wi also be taken by human hands, for God made human beings in his own image. I said, I value human life so much that if somebody devalues the human life, they have to be eliminated, right right, And that's a big one. And then he says the same thing about animals. If a while animal kills a person, you have to go hunt it down and do the same thing. So he establishes this these two basic laws. Be careful with what you eat, or be fruitful, multiply and manage the earth. Be careful what you eat. Don't kill each other. And I did a message when I was in Bible College, and it was called Symbols of Significance. And there's the title that's great, and so I did three symbols. I did the rainbow, and I talked about how this one little symbol is so cool, but we don't really think about the significance of it because it symbolizes this big, huge promise. And then I did Believe It or Not the American flag, where I actually had the American flag, and I said, I said, think about every single thing that this flag, you know, symbolizes. You know, and we all know this, but the flag has every star represents some thing. The red, the white, right, the blue, it all represents something. And I talked about just the history and you know, every time you look at it, it's not just a recognizable symbol. It represents something that's so big and rich. And then then I took the cross and I said, Okay, the third symbol is the cross, and it used to be it used to represent this, but now represents this. It used to be death and you know, sorrow, but now we as Christians look at it as a symbol of life and resurrection. So it was really cool and and it always stuck with me, and I've actually repackaged that sermon that I originally wrote in Bible College like three or four different times over the years because I just love this idea. So God's promises, he makes it with a covenant. You know, that definition of a covenant is a promise until death. That's that's the definition of a covenant. And so that's why we call it when we say marriage covenant. We quantify it with words like till death do us part, right, because it's a marriage covenant. And that's why it's so significant here that God makes a covenant with his people because he will. In this particular case, he calls it an eternal covenant because God never dies. So whenever God makes the covenant with his people, that's pretty significant because God's always going to keep it until death. And so that's pretty cool. If you think about the covenant that Jesus made, remember when he gave the communion and the Passover meal, and he said, this is the new covenant that I established with you. And he makes a covenant that you know that Jesus is now paying the price for the sins of humanity. That is an eternal covenant that God makes with his people that will forever be until there is no more earth, right until we get to the New Earth. So it's kind of cool. Yeah, And then he does destroyed at the end. Right, So Jesus does destroy it. He won't do it with water, right, It will happen one day, that's right. And so we have this window of time where God is allowing time to play out so that everybody who is going to be born will be and everybody will have an opportunity to either turn to him or from him for salvation. But he's going to keep this promise. I think that's significant. Hey, by the way, before I forget, I've thought about it like five times during this podcast. I said last podcast that I would look up whether or not God gave extra animals for sacrifice, and it is actually not the case. So your joke was right. Your joke said, up, he couldn't sacrifice more than five, right, because you got to have two sheep? Right, no more than five sheep or five? Do? Right? Couldn't sacrifice more than twelve? Actually? But yes, yes, And actually I was looking at Genesis chapter seven where he gave the instructions, That's where I thought it was. And he says, take with you seven pairs male and female, and then he says, of each animal, I have approved for eating and for sacrifice. And so I thought I was picturing in my mind he's setting aside animals for sacrifice that are extra but he's saying, no, of those seven, I have approved some for eating, some for sacrifice. Yeah, well they could eat the ones that could be sacrificed. That was that was legally allowed, both in the law and I think in that time. So yeah, anyways, I thought that was that was interesting. We went back after the episode was over and dug around a little bit, tried to figure it out. Yeah. Yeah, I don't I don't want to say that was right, because that would be what ever, dude, I don't do that when I'm right. I don't want to take credit at all, because you know, that would just it would lack humility, and if anything, I'm nothing if I'm not humble. And so I'm the best of you know, I think I'm the most humble person I know. Maybe maybe so so so yeah, so this is this is a great moment for humanity. Is it is? Uh? You know, God being patient, extending his grace, not being willing to, you know, do away with humanity just because, after all, he did say we bend toward evil, our sinful nature bends toward that way. And yet God is saying, okay, I'm now going to establish this rainbow, saying hey, I'm not going to do this again. And then eventually, you know, he sends his son and so again I talked about last time when when when God built the altar and made the sacrifice. How is a foreshadowing of Jesus. You can connect the dots in some ways, I would, I would, I would venture to say that the rainbow, you could, you can connect it right now. He also attaches the seasons to that promise too. So when you see the leaves change, that's also that's the same promise as the rainbow. When you see the snow come, that's the same promise as the rainbow, right right, So he attaches the seasons to the rainbow as well. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, well, I think that that looks like almost our time. Is there any any other application that we can take away from? There's nothing else in there. We've mind it thoroughly, We mind it thoroughly. All right, very good, all right, Well, that looks like our time and we will see you hopefully tomorrow on the Bible, guys,