Today's Reading:Genesis 9:1-17
"God's Promise to Noah"
Focus Verses: Gen. 9:12-16
12 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 generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 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."
Insight:
As God had instructed Adam in the beginning (Genesis 1), he now instructed Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. In the Garden, God had given every plant for food, but here in the account of Noah's new start after the flood, God gives every living thing for food (changing the relationship between humans and animals).
God warns against the taking of human life because "in the image of God has God made man." One who takes another's life will lose his own.
God makes a covenant with Noah and all life on earth, to never again destroy them. The rainbow is a constant reminder to humanity and to God of this promise.
Response and Action:
All life is precious. Human life is especially precious because it somehow reflects the very image of God. A rainbow is a reminder of God's promise of good will toward all life on earth. As a person made in God's image, the rainbow should remind me of my responsibility and good will toward all life. I should have a reverence for human life and a sense of respectful stewardship for all living things.
O Lord, thank you for life. Shape and guide my attitudes and actions that I might truly value, with reverence for you, the lives of all people as they are made in your image. Direct my heart and mind to respect and care for all living things, as all life is precious. Thank you for the salvation and life you have offered to all people through Christ. Thank you that you are reconciling all of creation to yourself through Jesus. It's in his name I pray, Amen.
Proverb for Today: Prov. 24:17
"Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD."
New Testament for Today: Colossians 1:19,20
19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
In Context: Colossians 1:15-23
Resources:
Redeeming Creation: The Biblical Basis for Environmental Stewardship
by Fred Van Dyke, David C. Mahan, Joseph K. Sheldon, and Raymond H. Brand
