Covenant of the Bow

Covenant of the Bow

10/25/16

Most of us know the story of Noah, the flood and the aftermath of the waters that were present on the earth.  Approximately the same amount of people should know that God established the bow as a physical symbol in His eyes and heart that He would never again destroy the earth and life with water.  But do we know what prompted God to make such a covenant with mankind and what the origins actually mean to our existence today?  If we did we would understand why certain worldly techniques are being used in such a specific manner.  Now is the time that we repent and allow God to restore our relationship with Him so that the origins of the bow do not have to have a similar fate in another form.

I do not believe I have ever heard a minister talk about the origins of the bow covenant before.  I know I have heard many sermons and teachings about the reason for the bow and why God created it, so it makes me wonder if anyone has ever thought about its origins.  When we study the Book of Genesis and specifically the story of Noah, the ark, and the situation with mankind, we find that things have progressed way beyond controllable.  God ponders this setting with great holy uneasiness because He understands that His prized creations are headed into a non-reversible condition and that He will have to act accordingly.  I cannot imagine that God has just sat around on His throne and has not tried to stop humanity from completely annihilating their existence on all levels. But eventually, it comes to the point where God believes that He has no choice but to destroy the perfect creations that He cherishes so much.  This would be a travesty and ultimately prove God that He was wrong.

In Genesis Chapter 6 the following verses hold the key to the origins of this covenant and to be more specific a single word represents the specific reason God can have this opportunity.  Genesis 6:7-8 states the following: “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls in the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”  It is here that the origins of the Covenant of the Bow is initiated and the foundation that it serves upon and when we study this verse carefully we see that the origin of this Covenant has nothing to do with the sin God sees that has encompassed the face of the earth.

When God describes the setting on the earth He must do so with a heavy heart for it looks to Him that everything that He has established has chosen to go their own sinful way from His wishes, this is a given.  As a parent, it is heartbreaking to find out that one of your children has deviated from the ways that you did your best to instill in their lives.  Losing your perfect creation to a lifestyle of sin must have devastated God in a manner in which our finite minds and hearts cannot understand, but to have their futures be darkened enough to warrant complete destruction from their Creator, cannot be comprehended.  Evidently, this was the case and while it grieved God beyond acceptance, He must stay the course of completeness and do the unthinkable.  But wait! There’s more to the story.

Look at what God does when He creates, establishes and executes a covenant with mankind.  The laws of the covenant are strictly endorsed by God in order to protect the person, group or nation from the situations of the world.  Covenant is an eternal separation process that cannot be broken only violated since the originator of such Covenant cannot sin, lie, cheat, steal, and does not even have a rival.  Therefore, the covenant made must be for the reckoning of this separation status and we have the verse of Genesis 6:8 to reinforce this truth about God.

Verse 8 states: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”  The lone keyword here that relates the origin of the Covenant of the Bow is the word “But”.  It is through this word that God sees a ray of hope in one of His prized Creations and that ray of hope is named Noah.  The Bible states that God finds grace in Noah which means that Noah while still being a human has the heart of grace that God can relate.  It is this single spiritual heartbeat that God sees which gladly changes His mind concerning the fate of the world.  If Noah was not in grace with God there would have been no way possible to stop God from completely wiping all of His Creation off the earth.

I can guarantee that Noah had many days in which he questioned his life and why he was faithfully serving God while everyone else was enjoying themselves.  Noah also could not help but notice the world’s attitude going downhill as well for God’s Word states that every thought was evil, and if the thoughts were evil then the actions must have been even more grotesque.  Noah knew of the progressive mannerisms to which the people played their hands and it was these mannerisms that presented God into the reality of sin that ruled the earth.  For this reason, alone God chose the bow in order to be a symbol of His Covenant with mankind AND to remind mankind that they are fallible and were the subject of such a covenant.

Recently the rainbow and the colors it has within its spectrum have become a symbol of a human revolution that direct roots to the creation of the bow.  In Genesis 6:1-4 it states that a specific sin was vastly present in the hearts of mankind and that this sexual idolatry was prevalent in all minds.  I find it intriguing that this type of activity is specifically mentioned and when it comes to other sins the word “ wickedness” is used and therefore can be considered a large grouping.  We must always remain undivided in the fact that our enemy cannot create anything new he must pervert what is already established by God.  Emphasis is placed on sexual sins here and it is safe to say that sexually related issues dominated the earth at this time, an eerily replica of what our world is currently striving for today.

It was the separation of Noah’s heart from the world that attracted God and it was Noah who was taught by God how He was going to save His prized Creation.  What a task this must have been for Noah to wrap his heart around but it was one that he accepted and stood for until the day of reckoning arrived.  It was the bow that defined the separation status that God saw in Noah and I guarantee that every time a bow appears in the sky, God remembers the conditions of the world and Noah himself. If Noah was not the man who God doted over then the rainbow and the covenant that it means is a farce.

It can be cumbersome at times for us to articulate our thoughts away from our immediate presence.  For instance, the weather in Colorado a couple of weeks ago was sunny and warm while the east coast was receiving a major hurricane.  We must contend that life goes on all around the world even when we are not immediately present at other locations.  It is this picture that God saw when He looked on the people of the earth and saw nothing but sin and iniquity.  It is through this lack of articulation that we lose out on how many of us really feel, however, we also use this type of presentation as a way to ignore the truth as well.  But many find it easy to articulate their conjunctions especially when they are speaking or writing about a topic that is passionate in their lives.  It is through this passage in Genesis that God is articulating His warning towards mankind and we have placed this expression of God’s true love in the back of our minds and have accepted the conditions which made God troubled in the first place as our home.

We have boldly disenfranchised God’s authority in this manner and have replaced this truth with our own placemat covering. Why would God change His mind and heart for anything lower than His standards?  He never did this for Lucifer so what makes us believe that we would be any different, especially since Satan is doing his best to destroy our lives and to promote the same conditions on earth today as they were in Noah’s day.  The rainbow appears all over the world today just as it did when God first established it thousands of years ago and it served as a reminder to both God and mankind about what God wishes for His Creations.  No one can doubt the beauty of the rainbow for it is a great symbol of restoration as our eyes focus up towards the sky after the water has fallen to the ground.

When our enemy convinces us that it is ok to have different opinions from God’s it is at this point where we become vulnerable to his lies.  While the rainbow serves as a reminder of what will occur if we do not obey God’s ways, Satan tricks us into refocusing our spiritual eyes on a physical characteristic instead of the spiritual.  When this refocusing process commences it allows Satan to instill his philosophy of worldly hate into our spiritual institutions which in turn subtly eats away at the relationship we have with God and further distances ourselves from His presence.  We now see people identifying themselves under the colors of the rainbow and while they believe they are raising themselves up in equality all they are doing is accepting a worldly sentence of separation from God.  This is the complete opposite of what God created the rainbow for, it is the wrong separation process and we are falling for it left and right.  Satan does not care anything about your life and all he really wants is for you to be right about things.  Reread that sentence if you did not understand it for it is the truth.  When we place ourselves first it is our nature to seek that which proves us right or supports our ideas.  This action of ours leaves God in second place or in a 1.2 millionth place.  It is through this lie that humanity is falling further away from eternal life than ever before.

There is a real reason as to why God’s Church needs to take a stand against this lie of our enemy.  The rainbow is meant for God’s children to recognize the sin of the world and to voluntarily turn from their sinful ways.  It is imperative that we do not forget this very important passage of scripture because it is proof that God’s Word is relevant today and that we have an obligation as a created species to seek after our Creator and not another created being.  Our enemy always has an alternative message from what God has stated and this message from him shall always lead one astray from God even if it sounds sound enough to follow.  It is vital that we hide the Word of God in our hearts and to accept its content as the absolute truth no matter what others around us are proclaiming. 

Over the past year, the area in which I live has been blessed with an adequate amount of moisture and the appearance of rainbows after these storms have been magnificent to view.  The weather before the storm, during the storm, and after the storm is all alive and is in continual motion which in itself is a testament to God’s life-giving abilities.  I have also witnessed many double rainbows as well and to my recollection, I have not been privy to seeing as many double rainbows as this past time frame.  Ever since God has been sharing His heart with me I look at many things differently and I must include rainbows as part of this inclusion.  When I was younger I stood in amazement at rainbows but never really took much consideration in their spiritual and eternal meaning and I sure did not revel in the meaning of the rainbow’s covenant. 

But when I started studying God’s Word and applying it to my life it was then that God began to deal with about exactly what is going on around us.  The Covenant of the Bow is a constant reminder to God about His promise to not destroy the world again with water, but at the same time it is a reminder and a symbol for us not to get caught up in the world’s affairs and while we must live here until we are reunited with God we should not accept the death wish of the world.  We are to separate ourselves from the world and not gain our countenances from the world.  We need to remember why God created the bow and the promises that He gives for honoring this covenant.  The Covenant of the Bow is a prime example of why we should stand for God and God alone for when we do God must remember His Covenant with mankind which provides us with the strength of His Kingdom as a driving force against the worldly kingdom.  We cannot EVER forget that God is serious about sex and the content of its creation.

We must never forget that when we include ourselves in the fight with the world we are including ourselves against the fight with God.  Covenants are eternal and holy when God ordains and establishes them and this covenant is one that has significant meaning to our existence.  Another significant proportionate lie that we have believed from our enemy is this and it comes from this same passage and deals with a situation that we will soon face if we do not turn back to God and it deals with the phrase in Genesis 9:13 – 17 when God is giving the specifics of His Covenant.  God states that He shall never again destroy the earth and all living things again by water.  This is a huge statement and one that we have not taken seriously.

We have somehow got it in our minds that what God is saying here cannot apply to nations, tribes, or groups.  But on the contrary it should speak volumes to our hearts and spirits for God says He shall not destroy the earth again and He never mentions anything about nations, tribes or groups.  There is a HUGE difference between the words all and some and God is very specific here in this meaning.  I fear the connection between the sexual sins of the world in Genesis and what sexual non-limitations we are promoting – for our own benefits – today.  We have embraced the Covenant of the Bow with worldly eyes and sinful hearts which nullifies and places us in violation of the real Covenant that God has established with us.  This is a dangerous position and one that will cost us a gross amount of lives if we do not turn our lives around and place God as 1# in our lives again.

Dig into the Word of God and when you do leave out the selfish details that enthrall your lusts and open your heart and spirit to the truth.  God is not out to control you but to set you free from the death grip that our enemy is placing on you.  God has mentioned this many times over that His laws are not to bind you but to free you and when we accept His ways He will then cleanse us both inside and outside as long as we give Him access.  Church you have fallen into this trap as well by accepting the world into your spiritual doors.  There is a reason that we were witness to the numerous double rainbows last spring and summer, just as the bow is a sign to God it should serve justly as one for us as well.

Your motives were noble but your lack of understanding concerning God’s Word has blinded you to the truth.  It is time for you to wake up and to allow God to take off the scales that cover our eyes.  This is a war and it is an eternal war for the placement of your spirit.  Being eternally separated from God is a disaster and a torture that is incomprehensible to the human mind.  God is not mean by installing this truth into His Word for it is a necessity for us to understand and know that God is serious when He offers His Covenants to our lives.  There is a reason for the Covenant of the Bow and it is time we take this covenant seriously and return to its holy confines again.  For you are worth God saving the earth for, so why do you continue to purposefully fail to throw Him out?  God takes the Covenant of the Bow very seriously and He lives through this Covenant every second of the day; remember Covenant violations can be very disastrous in their course; God’s advice to us is that we heed this Covenant and return to its confines immediately.

DLB