Lent, Day 20: THE GOD WHO KEEPS HIS WORD

Scripture:   Genesis 9:8-17

Focus on the Word

    One theme that runs throughout the Old Testament is the fact that God is a covenant making and covenant keeping God.  God gives His Word and keeps it.  People may fail the covenant but God never fails the covenant.  So it was after the great flood God made a covenant with Noah and the descendants that would follow him, and with "every living creature and every beast of the earth" (Genesis 9:9-11, NASB) never again would the earth be destroyed by a flood.  

As a sign of the covenant God established that the rainbow would forever be a reminder of the covenant.  In the midst of storms and rain and thunder and lightning and winds, the rainbow would be a reminder, "the sign of the covenant" (Genesis 9:12, NASB).

Signs that help us remember are good.  Memorials and markers and altars and sacred places are good for folks who live real lives in a real world.  It gets very dark out there sometimes, and one can lose his or her way.  The sign of the rainbow or the memorial of God's faithfulness or the markers that remind us God hasn't forgotten.  They are the altar where our shaken, broken, and traumatized lives bow before the God who keeps His Word and who acts in grace and mercy, and reminds us that after all the words have been spoken and all the deeds have been done and all the storms have done their deed, there is still one more word to be spoken and it is the Word of God who keeps His covenant and honors His Word.

In Lent we slow down and look at the rainbow, stare at the memorial, gaze on the altar, look into the face of Jesus and remember whatever is going on in our world Jesus stands before us, with signs of nails in His hands and feet saying, "Come to Me, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

Today’s Prayer

Make me know Your ways, O Lord; 

Teach me Your paths.  

Lead me in Your truth and teach me, 

for You are the God of my salvation; 

For You I wait all the day long.

(From Psalm 25:4-5)