In the weekly Bible study that I attend, we are seeking Jesus in Genesis. Seeing familiar stories, such as Noah’s Ark, with ‘new eyes’ is revitalizing my Bible reading. This particular story in the Word was anything but a sweet scene perfect for babies’ nurseries. While Noah and his family believed God and faithfully obeyed Him, others perished in the ravaging waves of water. Being outside of God’s protection and covering will always end in destruction.
Perhaps that’s one of the themes that struck me so much while re-reading Genesis 6-9. God’s covering over Noah’s family protected them while enduring judgment. Noah was a man just like any other, but he was given faith by God to believe. When God warned Noah of impending doom and gave instructions for his escape, Noah believed and obeyed. The faith he had was an active and alive one. As a result, Noah and his family endured the same judgment as the rest of the world, but were protected by God through the safety of the ark.
If you have been given faith by God to believe Him, you are under a protective covering as well. All of mankind will again face His judgment one day, but those who believe and trust in the perfect work of Christ on the cross will be covered by His sacrificial blood and righteousness.
Do you believe?
Many cling to the promise of God’s defense: the bow. We so commonly refer to it as a ‘rainbow’ that it’s easy to forget this is actually a ‘bow’. Like as in a bow and arrow. This bow acts as a reminder that God keeps covenant with His children. This bow is a covering over those who claim Him as Father.
It covers us and defends us–God keeps His promises. Is this covering for all people, though?
No.
This bow may be used otherwise for those who reject Him as Father:
If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts.”
Psalm 7: 12-13
Just as the ark did not include everyone on the earth, only those God had chosen, such is still the case. If you seek your own ways, persist in defiance against God’s commands, scoff at God’s Word…there is no covering for you. As was the message of Noah, the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist and the apostles, today we must heed the same call:
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Acts 3: 19
Those who claim homosexuality and the defense (in other words, “support”) of God (via the ‘bow’) are completely misled and must repent. God does not defend those in direct defiance against His will. It’s easy to call out this sin, though, isn’t it? But, we all must remember that our only hope and covering is through Jesus Christ, not through any of our ‘righteous deeds’. Each of us is a hopeless sinner on our own. We must turn to Christ for hope, for righteousness and for salvation from His judgment.
Under His righteous covering, we can stand firm in storms and battles because our Defender is a promise-keeper!
Love, Wendy
