According to the Bible, a rainbow is a sign from God of His promise (covenant) to never destroy the earth by water again.
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
Disclaimer: Before we begin, I need to make a clarification about this lesson. I will be approaching this section on Covenants in a manner that will differ from those who follow what is called “Covenant Theology.” According to Christ Over All:
“Covenant theology views the covenants as more than a theme of Scripture. Instead, covenants function as the Bible’s own internal structure by which God’s plan unfolds over time.” ((https://christoverall.com/article/concise/dispensational-and-covenant-theology/))
I don’t see the Bible that way. I see the covenants God made as being important, but I don’t see them as dictating an “internal structure” that dominates the total theme of the Bible. Instead, I see them as being an integral part of an eternal plan intricately knit together into a cohesive story. For those who might want to label my view, I’d probably be labeled as a Dispensationalist. That may come closest to my view, but only in that, I believe that God reveals things to humanity in stages (dispensations) according to His will and desire for us to understand His purpose and plan. Contrary to dispensationalism, I don’t think we can always understand why God does what He does unless He chooses to reveal it to us (e.g., via prophets, inspired leaders, etc.) Covenants are an important part of how God has revealed Himself to us, but they are only a part of that plan—they are not the whole plan. That said, let’s move on to the lesson.
Everybody makes promises. But, in the grand scheme of things, how many of us expect every promise made to be kept? People are unreliable. Good intentions do not always result in good outcomes. That’s just the way the world works.
Yet, when it comes to how we perceive God, many of us rationalize that if humans fail to keep their promises, can we expect anything different from God? But just by asking that question (if you did) illustrates how we don’t have a grasp on what makes God, God. To understand the Principle of the Covenants, we’re going to have to sharpen our understanding of how God thinks.
The Noahic Covenant
In the Old Testament, we read of several times where God makes promises to His people. Are you aware that He did this? Do you know what promises He made, much less if He kept them? Let’s start with something simple—God’s first major promise. ((God made many promises in the Old Testament. For the sake of brevity, we’re only going to address the five major ones most scholars tend to discuss. Suffice to say, if we looked at all of them, the outcome would be the same.)) It occurred after God took the extreme measure of sending a Flood to destroy all but eight people on the earth. God wanted those eight (Noah and his family) to know that He would never destroy the earth by flood again. The promise God made was both simple and symbolic. In the Bible, this promise was called the Noahic Covenant—because it was made by God to Noah. This is what God said to Noah:
God continued, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you (Noah) and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth.”
To this very day, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a rainbow even if they don’t associate it with God’s promise? By the way, the word “covenant” is synonymous with the word “promise.” And, for that matter, so is the word “testament.” Today, we are going to be talking about the five major Covenants God made in the Old Testament and how they apply to us.
Now that you know the story about God’s promise to Noah, will it change how you view a rainbow? It does for me. Not only is this God’s first major covenant with the people of the earth, it is the easiest one to prove. We have certainly had some brutal storms over the centuries, but none have ever come close to killing all the people on earth. Now, if your response is to say that the Flood never happened, so a promise not to do something that was never done is no promise, please read my blog, “Discovery #2: Did the Flood really happen?”
The First Covenant Principle
God cannot lie. His promises will be kept! Read what the author of Hebrews had to say on the subject:
These two things cannot change: God cannot lie when he makes a promise, and he cannot lie when he makes an oath. These things encourage us who came to God for safety. They give us strength to hold on to the hope we have been given. Hebrews 6: 18 NCV
If we cannot trust God to be true, honest, and faithful, then frankly, that which we think to be God—is not. God, by definition, cannot lie. If He is truly God, He doesn’t need to. And, if we try to define God, a few of His qualities might be to be holy, pure, all-powerful, omniscient, and completely trustworthy. If God were evil, He would only care about Himself and would not bother creating something in His own image (us) who might compete with Him. He would certainly not choose to love, nurture, and teach His creation so we could (one day) become part of His family. Evil does not like nor want competition. Satan’s entire strategy is to send us all to hell—with the expectation that he plans on defeating God and then have heaven all to himself. The story of God, as told in the Bible, is one of a God who is constantly trying to help His people. They may not always want His help, but God never gives up pursuing new ways to demonstrate His love for us.
The Five Basic Covenants
After the Noahic Covenant, God’s promises require a combination of time, wisdom, and perception to “rightly divide” the truth behind His intentions. What may look like an untruth to some is simply because they judge God with incomplete knowledge. As we unveil the five Covenants we’ll be studying, I’ll reveal the nuances that God used to ensure that His intent would only be understood over time—often a long time! Here are the five Covenants we will be covering:
- The Noahic Covenant
- The Abrahamic Covenant
- The Mosaic Covenant
- The Davidic Covenant
- The “New” Covenant—as given by Jesus
The Abrahamic Covenant
Let me show you what I mean with His next promise—the Abrahamic Covenant. Abraham was 75 years old when God first told him he was going to bless him with a family. Until that time, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had been unable to conceive and were understandably frustrated. Yet, God waited another 25 years before fulfilling His promise! Why? Would you have had the patience and faith to continue to believe that God was serious about making good on His promise when you were 100 years old? The Bible seems to suggest that Abraham and Sarah would joke among themselves about how God could get two extremely old people pregnant. Yet, He did. And that wasn’t even the focal point of where God wanted to take Abraham. He said:
4 “I am making my agreement with you: I will make you the father of many nations. Genesis 17: 4 NCV
Some people think that God’s promise was to make Abraham just the father of the nation of Israel. But God said Abraham would be the father of many nations —and he was—through his sons Jacob (the father of Israel) and Esau (the father of the nation of Edom, now a part of Jordan). Through these two sons, many nations followed. Frankly, not all of them produced a good outcome—both Israel and Edom would be continually at war with each other throughout their history.
But then God made a second promise to Abraham:
7 And I will make an agreement between me and you and all your descendants from now on: I will be your God and the God of all your descendants. 8 You live in the land of Canaan now as a stranger, but I will give you and your descendants all this land forever. And I will be the God of your descendants.”
God promises to be the God of Abraham’s descendants. But notice how He then caveats His definition to include just those who will live in the land God will give to them—Canaan. This promise is clearly targeted to just Jacob—the son of Isaac, who will become the father of the nation of Israel, and Canaan will become known as “the Promised Land.”
The Second Covenant Principle
God is always clear about what He is promising, even if we aren’t! Why does God do this? God does this deliberately because it helps us to develop the faith and trust we need to always rely on His word and His faithfulness—despite what we see. When God promises Abraham that both he and his descendants will live in the land of Canaan forever, we learn later in scripture that there will be many temporary stays in Canaan before a final, forever residence can be claimed. To some, this looks like God is hedging His bet at best and being less than honest at worst. Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s promises are not based on nor limited by time. From His perspective, once He speaks these words to Abraham, their fulfillment occurs in the very next instant. There are no detours, no misdirection, no room for doubt. From Israel’s perspective, they waited years for any sign of when (or if) God would remember what He said. The frustration they felt was in direct (yet opposite) proportion to the faith they had in their God that He cannot lie and that He will always do as He says.
The Mosaic Covenant
The Mosaic Covenant introduces yet another layer on how the faith of His people will be tested while waiting for God to act. The essence of this covenant can be found in Exodus 19: 3-6 NCV:
3 Then Moses went up on the mountain to God. The LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “Say this to the family of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: … if you obey me and keep my agreement, you will be my own possession, chosen from all nations. Even though the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be my kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Notice what God does here. For the first time, His promise is delivered with a condition: “IF you obey me and keep my agreement,” THEN “you will be my kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” God is starting to make a transition in the types of promises He makes to His people. For the first time, God sets up a conditional promise that He knows His people cannot fulfill. Is that fair? Is it because He doesn’t want His people to become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation?” Absolutely not! But the only person who can unlock this promise and fulfill its condition is Jesus. The Jews will mistakenly think that the Law can get them there, but time and again, they are proven wrong. Only the perfect Son of God, Jesus, could obey God and keep His agreements (commandments). God gave this promise with the full understanding of how it would be fulfilled. He was clear. The Jews were not.
The Third Covenant Principle
Focus your attention on trusting God, not on trying to understand Him or (worse) second-guess Him. The Jews took the Ten Commandments offered by God to Moses and then blew them up into 613 laws that ruled their lives. They made the Law the object of their worship and the key to their becoming a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” They placed the burden of compliance on themselves. When they failed, they blamed God because the Law revealed how corrupt and weak they were—unable to meet the standards it demanded. They traded their trust in God for human priests who were trusted to use their power to speak on behalf of God and interpret His words. Jesus rebuked these priests (the Pharisees) for their error:
38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 …These men will be punished most severely.” Mark 12: 38-40 NIV
42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because… you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
52 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” Luke 11: 42, 46 & 52 NIV
By shifting their focus from trusting God to trusting the Law and the teachers of the Law, the people failed to achieve their calling. As Jesus rightly pointed out, this gave the Pharisees all the power and prestige—neglecting justice and the love of God while loading people down with burdens they can hardly carry and hindered those who were (trying to) enter(ing) into a knowledge and trust of God. (All edit marks are mine). Clearly, Jesus’ point was that the Pharisees loved being the object of worship by the people, and because of that, they diverted the people’s trust away from God and towards the Law and those who interpreted the Law (the Pharisees).
The Davidic Covenant
Next came the Davidic Covenant, which was directed towards King David and had provisions that were both short-term and long-term. Here’s what God promised King David (2 Samuel 7: 8-16 NCV):
8 “You must tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
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Promise # |
Promise |
Status/Term |
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1 |
9 … I will make you as famous as any of the great people on the earth. |
Done/Long-term |
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| 2 |
10 …I will choose a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them so they can live in their own homes.
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Done under Joshua and David/Temporary Awaiting final fulfillment/Long-Term |
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| 3 |
12 “‘When you die and join your ancestors, I will make one of your sons the next king, |
Done via Solomon/Short-Term | |||||||||||||||
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4 |
16 But your family and your kingdom will continue always before me. Your throne will last forever.” |
To be done via Jesus/Long-Term |
The Fourth Covenant Principle
Time can make all the difference! Under the Davidic Covenant, God shows us how little time matters to Him. To God, David was famous before he was born, Israel was already living in their forever home—the Promised Land, and Jesus had claimed his rightful place on David’s throne! God is always focused on how His promises will come true, and the Jews (and us) are usually focused on when they will come true.
Because it is impossible for us humans to ignore the influence of time, we consistently and wrongly interpret what God says in His promises. The fourth promise that David’s family and kingdom “will continue always before me” and his throne “will last forever” has confused many Jews and scholars because there are times when neither of these phrases were true. But God has not yet written the last chapter where we know that Jesus will come back and assume the throne of David and reign there forever. His time has not yet come.
The New Covenant
Finally, we come to the New Covenant offered directly to us by Jesus. According to Christianity.com, “The New Covenant is the promise that God makes with mankind that He will forgive sin and restore communion with those whose hearts believe in His Son, Jesus Christ.” ((https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/the-new-covenant-in-jesus-christ-bible-verses-and-meaning.html)) Jesus gave the new covenant to his disciples at the Last Supper where Luke records:
20 And in like manner, He took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament or covenant [ratified] in My blood, which is shed (poured out) for you. Luke 22: 20 AMPC
Under the New Covenant, the Jews are set free from their bondage to the Law, and the rest of us are set free from the bondage of sin through the shed blood of Christ, providing we believe in, trust, and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. The New Covenant:
- Makes us all a part of the family of God—thus completing the Abrahamic Covenant.
- Enables all His people (not just Jews) who believe in Jesus to become a nation of priests and a holy nation, thus fulfilling the Mosaic Covenant.
- Gives us a Messiah and a King, who will sit on the throne of David and rule His people forever, thus completing the Davidic Covenant.
- Gives us a High Priest, who will be our priest forever under the New Covenant.
The New Covenant is called the “New Covenant” because it replaces the Mosaic Covenant. How? The author of Hebrews made this very clear in chapter seven:
11 The people were given the law concerning the system of priests from the tribe of Levi, but they could not be made perfect through that system…18 The old rule (the Law) is now set aside, because it was weak and useless. 19 The law of Moses could not make anything perfect. But now a better hope has been given to us, and with this hope we can come near to God. 20 It is important that God did this with an oath. Others became priests without an oath, 21 but Christ became a priest with God’s oath. ((All quotations from the seventh chapter of Hebrews are taken from the NCV.))
It is interesting how God worked this out. Under the Mosaic Covenant, priests were appointed according to their genealogy—those who came from the tribe of Levi. Their appointment ended when they died, and they, like all of Israel, were human and just as subject to sin as anyone. God declared Jesus to be a priest forever of the order of Melchizedek. Yet, who is this person? 3 No one knows who Melchizedek’s father or mother was, where he came from, when he was born, or when he died. Melchizedek is like the Son of God; he continues being a priest forever. What does this mean? 22 This means that Jesus is the guarantee of a better agreement from God to his people. This is how the New Covenant replaces the Mosaic Covenant.
The Final Covenant Principle
God’s ultimate promise is to restore us to Himself—as it was in the Garden of Eden.
Collectively, I believe that the great lessons God teaches us via His Covenants are:
- God never lies. He will always keep His promises!
- God’s role is to be faithful, not clear.
- Our role is to trust Him at His word, regardless of what we see.
- God is blind to time. He cares about the “how,” not the “when.”
- Since He first made us, His ultimate goal has been to restore us to Himself.
- Restoration is only possible through and by Jesus.
Praise the Lord!
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