"When You See A Rainbow, Remember God Is Love."

Genesis 9:1-19

'‘When you see a rainbow, remember God is love’. The rainbow reminds us of the gracious promise of God (13-15). If the love of God is revealed in the rainbow, it is more fully revealed in the Cross: ‘We sing the praise of Him who died, of Him who died upon the Cross... upon the Cross we see in shining letters. ‘God is love’, He bears our sins upon the tree. He brings us mercy from above’. When we read the Old Testament stories, we must learn to see their place within the fuller Story, the Story of God’s salvation: ‘I will sing the wondrous Story of the Christ who died for me’. This is the greatest Story of all - ‘the Story of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love,... the Story of wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin’. ‘This is our Story. This is our Song, praising our Saviour all the day long’. This is ‘the Story to tell to the nations’(Church Hymnary, 258,381,132; Mission Praise, 59,744).

Genesis 9:20-29

What a sad episode this is! It teaches us that yesterday's victories can become today's defeats, if we do not keep close to God. We read, in Hebrews 11:7 of Noah the man of faith, but here we have a very different picture. The lesson is clear - ‘The arm of flesh will fail you; Ye dare not trust your own’. We must not look to our own strength to keep us in the way of faith and obedience. It cannot be done. We fail. ‘God can do anything but fail’. We must affirm our faith in God - ‘All my hope on God is founded’. In man, there is no sure foundation - only ‘change and chance’. There is nothing that will last - ‘only pride of man and earthly glory’(Church Hymnary, 481,405). Can we be guided through change and chance? Yes, but we must learn from Noah’s fall - Past grace is no guarantee of present growth - , and we must keep our eyes on Jesus, ‘the Author and Finisher of our faith' (Hebrews 12: 2).