Gen 9:12-15, And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 
	This morning, we come to one of God’s great covenants with mankind. It is the promise of never again entirely flooding the earth with water. To signify that promise, God put a rainbow in the sky. When I first began to consider the rainbow of God’s covenant promise, I thought it would be an easily defined lesson. God promised that He would never again flood the earth and sealed that promise with the colorful rainbow. However, after much reading and prayer, I have come to see that there is far more at hand with regard to the totality of what God has instituted by His faithful promise to Noah. With this in mind, I propose to take all of us into the graciousness of God’s pledge to Noah, and to us in a different manner of bringing forth God’s Word.  
	We will do so from many different perspectives, as voiced by a number of commentators and Biblical authorities. I do not usually use extensive direct quotations, but in terms of the greatness of what God has done in our passage of consideration, I hope that you will bear with me in this regard. The splendor of God’s handiwork is beautifully set before us by these writers, and I hope that their observations will enthrall you as they have enlightened and broadened my understanding in this stupendous guarantee and manifestation of God’s heart.  
	Our first reading is from G. D. Boardman. Listen as he describes the physical beauty of the spiritual pledge of God that is reaffirmed with every rainbow seen in the sky above. Quote, The rainbow: -- A pledge more appropriate or significant it is not possible to conceive. The theory of the rainbow, physically considered, can be minutely worked out only by the intricate processes of calculus. Every time the arch is formed, there comes into harmonious play a multitude of laws; for example, laws of gravitation, which determine the position of the cloud and the curve of the descending rain and the size and the shape of each molecule; laws of light, according to which the solar rays are absorbed and transmitted and reflected and refracted and polarized, and this, too, in every variety of angle and direction and velocity; laws of geometry, which determine all the angles of incidence and reflection and refraction and interference and polarization; laws of vision and consciousness, by which the beholder perceives on his own retina the image of the beautiful phenomenon, and recognizes it as a rainbow. In other words, the bow in the cloud and our perception of it is the natural result of a perfect adjustment in space and in time of all these multitudinous, complicated, delicate processes. What a peculiar appropriateness, then, in God's selecting this phenomenon of exquisite beauty as the pledge of His veracity in respect to the constancy of nature, when we remember that the rainbow, involving as it does every time it is formed the perfect adjustment of countless contingencies, is nevertheless of frequent recurrence! What a sublime testimony each recurrence of the rainbow through the ages that have gone before us has been to the infinite regularity with which the Lord of nature has administered His own manifold laws! Had the bow in the cloud never been seen except when Noah and his family gazed on it, we should have ranked it, like the flood, among supernatural events. But the frequent recurrence of the phenomenon, ever and anon spanning our horizon, brings it down within the plane of the natural. Thus the natural becomes itself a sign of the supernatural. End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
	In the rainbow, we see the perfection of God’s laws in operation. All the infinite and miniscule elements that are required to cast the rainbow in the sky are put into place by the same God Who promises never again to destroy the earth with water. His design is etched in brilliance across the sky and fills our hearts with remembrance and awe and wonder at the beauty of His creative process and His solemn oath. What we see with our physical eyes reverberates within our spiritual senses as to the faithfulness and the truthfulness and the abundant graciousness and constancy of our Lord God Almighty.
	As M. M. Kalisch describes it, quote, Well might a reflecting mind look with wonder at the marvellous arch, which in magic swiftness, and in more magic colours, encompasses the still cloud covered part of heaven; whilst the radiant sun sends his glorious beams from the other part, already restored to its usual serenity. Its beauty delights the eye, whilst its grandeur elevates the mind; it teaches the omnipotence of God, but still more His love; when the flashes of lightning have ceased, and the roaring of the tempest is silent, its chaste brilliancy falls like morning dew on the desponding heart; admiration and gratitude mingle in the breast; and when the pearly bow then appears, like an eternal bridge, to connect heaven and earth, the soul rises on the soft wings of veneration, disturbed by no doubt, and awed by no fear, to those regions where love and beauty never cease. End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
	God’s providential majesty is reflected in every splash of color across the stormy sky. As we behold His artistic glory in the heavens, we are transported into the spiritual realm in which we have no fear and no doubt about the course that He has sketched for our lives. We come to rest in the fact of His sovereign grace and mercy and love illustrated so magnificently in the salvation He has bestowed upon us in His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
	J. N. Norton highlights this reality of the rainbow’s reflection of the beauty of Jesus Christ in thought and comfort in the following statement. Quote, As the rainbow is only to be seen painted upon a cloud, so when the conscience is covered with thickest, darkest gloom, at the remembrance of many and grievous sins, Christ Jesus is revealed as the covenant rainbow, displaying all the loveliest attributes of the Divine character, and betokening peace. The bow in the cloud is not a mere general assurance that God will keep His promises with His people, but it is a special token of His grace; and as we gaze upon the beautiful iris arching the eastern horizon, and resting on its dark background of clouds, our thoughts reach far beyond the covenant made with Noah, to a more glorious covenant of grace, and we may read in its glorious colourings, as in an illuminated Bible, a pledge of the provisions of mercy secured to us by His death and sacrifice. End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
	Lest we over simplify or over dramatize this covenant symbol of God’s promise, let it be recognized that all of man’s thoughts and considerations of the work of God are always to be found in the characteristic of His Holiness and Righteousness. As that is the reality of the very creation of mankind and the redemptive operation of God’s Only Begotten Son, we must always give Him the reverence and the appreciation for what He has accomplished in the every detail of His work of grace and truth and beauty. Christ is envisioned in our hearts and lives as we undergo His active and perfect work of sanctification through all the storms and gales of our walk on this earth. 
That is what is described in Barnes’ Notes, as he recounts the physical consideration and description as the rainbow only appears after the storm. Quote, It comes with its mild radiance only when the cloud condenses into a shower. It consists of heavenly light, variegated in hue, and mellowed in lustre, filling the beholder with an involuntary pleasure. It forms a perfect arch, extends as far as the shower extends, connects heaven and earth, and spans the horizon. In these respects it is a beautiful emblem of mercy rejoicing against judgment, of light from heaven irradiating and beatifying the soul, of grace always sufficient for the need of the reunion of earth and heaven, and of the universality of the offer of salvation. "Have I given." The rainbow existed as long as the present laws of light and air. But it is now mentioned for the first time, because it now becomes the fitting sign of security from another universal deluge, which is the special blessing of the covenant in its present form. "In the cloud." When a shower-cloud is spread over the sky, the bow appears, if the sun, the cloud, and the spectator are in the proper relation to one another… "And I will look upon it to remember." The Scripture is most unhesitating and frank in ascribing to God all the attributes and exercises of personal freedom. While man looks on the bow to recall the promise of God, God himself looks on it to remember and perform this promise. Here freedom and immutability of purpose meet. End quote. (from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
 What a glorious description of the working grace and love and mercy and salvation wrought in, by, and through Jesus Christ. He is our perfect connection into the very presence of God, the Father. By His atoning work, we are brought into the proper relationship that always was the intent and purpose of God in our very creation. All the Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience of God are inherent in the beautiful array of His every attribute forever etched into our hearts by the very hand of God.
As Barnes continues, quote, The covenant here ostensibly refers to the one point of the absence, for all time to come, of any danger to the human race from a deluge. But it presupposes and supplements the covenant with man subsisting from the very beginning. It is clearly of grace; for the Lord in the very terms affirms the fact that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, while at the same time the original transgression belonged to the whole race. The condition by which any man becomes interested in it is not expressed, but easily understood from the nature of a covenant, a promise, and a sign, all of which require of us consenting faith in the party who covenants, promises, and gives the sign. The meritorious condition of the covenant of grace is dimly shadowed forth in the burnt-offerings which Noah presented on coming out of the ark. One thing, however, was surely and clearly revealed to the early saints; namely, the mercy of God. Assured of this, they were prepared humbly to believe that all would rebound to the glory of his holiness, justice, and truth, as well as of his mercy, grace, and love, though they might not yet fully understand how this would be accomplished. End quote. (from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Oh, the amazing faithfulness and glory of God’s grace bestowed upon us in His Son. That covenant with Noah, splashed across the sky, defines the very heart of God in all His love as recorded in John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 
This tremendous provision of God’s covenant with man in His Son was prophesied by the Psalmist in Ps 89:19-37. In this passage, we find rejoicing in the steadfast faithfulness and honor and truthfulness of Our Lord God Almighty. Once Thou didst speak in vision to Thy godly ones, And didst say, "I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. "I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, With whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him. "The enemy will not deceive him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. "But I shall crush his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him. "And My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn will be exalted. "I shall also set his hand on the sea, And his right hand on the rivers. "He will cry to Me, 'Thou art my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.' "I also shall make him My first-born, The highest of the kings of the earth. "My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. "So I will establish his descendants forever, And his throne as the days of heaven. "If his sons forsake My law, And do not walk in My judgments, If they violate My statutes, And do not keep My commandments, Then I will visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. "But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. "My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. "Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. "His descendants shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me. "It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful." Selah. 
	Lord willing, We will continue with this avenue of consideration in our next message, in several weeks, as we find absolute rejoicing in the promise of God to all of us as confirmed in the rainbows of His creation. So be it!
And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. Amen.

 	This morning’s benediction is Ps 138:4+5. All the kings of the earth will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, When they have heard the words of Thy mouth. And they will sing of the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord. Amen.