Genesis 9:8-17 - link to the NRSV text
The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible lections for Lent this year, other than the Numbers reading on the fourth Sunday, revolve around God's covenant with Israel. From Noah to Abraham to Moses and Sinai to Jeremiah, the theme of covenant moves us toward Easter and the covenant inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
And this journey of covenant begins with Noah; in fact, the word "covenant" (Hebrew: berit) appears for the first time in the biblical narrative in the flood narrative: "But I will establish my covenant with you: and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you" (Genesis 6:18). I've blogged about the flood story before, so I'm going to shift away from the flood itself (which occurred in the chapters before our reading) and focus instead on the aftermath.
Divine speech encompasses the entirety of our reading; it is God laying out for Noah the covenant that God is establishing as he had promised back in chapter 6. The verses immediately preceding laid out Noah's responsibilities:
To be fruitful and multiply (9:1)
Reaffirmation of humanity's stewardship over the creation (9:2)
God's permission to eat meat, but not the blood (9:3-5)
Condemnation of shedding human blood (9:6)
Repetition of command to be fruitful (9:7)
These commands could potentially be seen as a reestablishment of the relationship between God and humankind as it originally was following creation. The commands to multiply and the reaffirmation of humanity's stewardship of creation echo similar commands from the creation stories. The condemnation of human bloodshed seems to echo the Cain and Able narrative as a warning from God to not repeat that mistake.
But the focus of the story is not in Noah's responsibilities. If these commands are a reestablishment (or at least a recitation) of the divine-human relationship, they are only of any consequence in light of God's choice to enter into covenant with the creation. "I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (9:11). The continued existence of creation now and in the future rests solely on God's decision to not wipe it all away and start over.
And to seal the covenant, God declares that a sign will be given as a reminder. "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth" (9:12-13). God sets aside a "bow," and instrument of war and destruction, as God's sign that further destruction against the creation will not occur.
I remember as a child being told that the rainbow was the sign that reminded us that God would not send a flood again. The text, however, as a much different take: the bow is not a sign for us primarily, but a sign for God. "When I bring the clouds," God says, "and when I see the bow in the clouds, I will remember the everlasting covenant between me and all that is in the earth."
The rainbow, what the ancient author of the flood narrative interpreted as God's weapon laid aside, stands between us and God as a sign of the covenant that reminds us of the mutuality of covenant: that there are two parties, both of which are in this together.
The rainbow does serve as a sign for us, a sign that reminds us of God's promises first and foremost, a sign that reminds us that God remembers us and has not abandoned us. It is a sign that God's memory is more powerful than our forgetfulness, that God's desire for resurrection and new life overcomes our appetite for destruction and death.
"When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God remembers, God is faithful, and God continues to be in covenant, to be in relationship with us. And in my book, that is good news.