the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Genesis 9:1-19
The earth has been swept clean of the consequences of sin. But the evil root is still there in the human heart, which all the flood’s water could never cleanse.
God blesses the patriarch and his family and entrusts the government of the earth to them. How will Noah’s descendants respond to this divine goodness? In the same manner as Cain in Genesis 4:1-26 : by shedding blood! God declares this: violence will reappear. Yes, the blood of God’s Son Himself will be shed and this will be the blood which alone can wash the human heart clean.
The earth is handed over to man who since then has ruled harshly. Under his yoke "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Romans 8:22).
As a sign of His covenant, God puts the rainbow in the cloud. Its appearance when there is a sudden shower is still today a mark of God’s grace, a reminder of the promise of v. 15. In the spiritual sense, it is so for the Christian. Through all the storms of life down here, he has the privilege of looking up to God by faith, to a God who is faithful to His promises. The presence of Christ at God’s right hand (Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 10:12) speaks better things than the rainbow as it is a constant reminder that a judgment more terrible than the flood, is past for ever for the child of God.
