In an earlier study I discussed the differences between covenants.[1] Basically, there are two types of covenants, unilateral and bilateral. The Mosaic Covenant is an example of a bilateral covenant. Under this form two or more parties agree to something, and each party has a responsibility to perform in the covenant, so it wasn’t a covenant of grace. The bilateral covenant is negotiated between equals, or at least the covenant is negotiated and ratified as though all the parties were equals. On the other hand, the unilateral covenant was different. The unilateral covenant wasn’t negotiated but dictated by the party of higher rank, such as a king or military general. The covenants, which God made with Abraham were unilateral covenants. Each time a covenant was made the text reveals that it was God, who both initiated it and dictated its conditions. Not all unilateral covenants are covenants of grace, but those the Lord made with Abraham were. Abraham’s only responsibility was to enjoy the promises God made to him. (Genesis 15:1-18; 17:1-14).
In Genesis 9:8 God was speaking with Noah and his three sons, and he told them that he was about to make a covenant with them. It was to be a unilateral covenant, vis-à-vis a covenant of grace. No one, not Noah nor any of his sons, or their descendants had any responsibility to fulfil in order for it to be received. The covenant was also made with all lower lifeforms, and it would be a perpetual covenant that would not cease (Genesis 9:8-10).
What God wanted to do was set mankind’s heart at ease. In other words, man’s natural instinct would be to wonder, would the Lord ever repeat his judgement upon mankind, as he had executed upon the antediluvian world? Therefore, the Lord made a promise to both man and beast, “Never again will all living things be wiped out by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.” (Genesis 9:11).
A mockery of this promise is made by those who try to say that the Genesis Flood was a local flood. There have been many floods, since the Genesis Flood, and they’ve all been local floods. On each occasion lives were lost by man and/or beast. If this is all that was lost in the Genesis flood—local life, then a mockery of the promise of God is made in that understanding, because, essentially, the teaching accuses God of lying, or simply being unable to keep his promises. If this is so, why call him God at all? Why even say there is such a being as God? Once mankind pushes the knowledge of God away in favor of his own wisdom (cp. Romans 1:21-22, 28), he foolishly embarks on a journey that can only hurt himself.
At this point, the Lord pointed to the bow, the rainbow, in the sky. He told Noah and his sons that this would be a token of his covenant, he has made with them. Both he and they could look at the rainbow and recall that God promised that the Genesis Flood would never be repeated. This promise would have been particularly significant, if the antediluvian weather patterns didn’t include rainfall. The text implies that the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and this catastrophe was the cause of the rainfall that occurred for 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:11-12). Originally, these fountains gently watered the whole land, as God didn’t yet cause the rain to fall from the heavens (Genesis 2:5-6). Therefore, it seems that the text at Genesis 9:12-17 implies rain, which hadn’t been a part of antediluvian weather patterns, would now continue to be included in the postdiluvian world’s weather. Therefore, especially in Noah’s generation, fear of catastrophe would have been the norm every time it rained, if God didn’t make a covenant and promise this would never occur again. The token of that promise would be the rainbow, which first appeared after the Genesis Flood.
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[1] See my study of Abraham’s life, The Second Covenant.
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