God spoke to Noah and his sons, telling them: “Behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your children after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth. I establish this covenant with all that come out of the ark: never will all flesh be cut off again by floodwaters, and there will never again be a flood to destroy the entire earth. Here is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations; it is a rainbow, which I have set in the clouds, as the symbol of my promise.”
“I put my rainbow in the clouds, and it will remind you of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring a cloud over the earth, and a rainbow is visible in the cloud, I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature; and the waters will never more become a flood to destroy all flesh.” Genesis 9:8-16
In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose.
At this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that His words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of His word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of His grace, which is a haven of delight.
God gave us a perfect place to live, and we messed it up. But in all the wrath He visited on the evil of the earth, He has always protected His people. Like Noah's family on the ark or the Hebrews in Egypt, God's grace shelters those who have taken His son into their hearts, with a spiritual shelter that no force on earth can invade or harm. By Daily Prayer
Have a great new week!
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