Kids sometimes say to each other: “Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye.” It’s a way of saying: “You can trust me. I’m telling the truth” or “I will keep my word.” We all want to be able to trust others are telling the truth or will keep their word, but we’ve learned from experience: not everyone does.
For
thousands of years, people used covenants to make important promises to each other. Sometimes covenants were between equal partners. One king might say to another king: “If your enemy attacks you, I’ll come help you.
If my enemy attacks me, you come help me. And if I break our covenant, may I suffer
divine curses!” Sometimes covenants were made between powerful emperors and their vassals: “If you serve me as a faithful subject, I’ll protect you and treat you
fair.
But if you rebel against me, I will destroy you and everything you love!”
In the
Bible, God made covenants with people to build, repair, and strengthen His
relationship with them. These agreements show that He wants to be close to
people, even though they make mistakes and do wrong things. Covenants also give
people guidance on how to live in peace with God and each other.
I once heard the true story of two men who went rock climbing together out in the wilderness. One man held the safety rope for his partner while he climbed up the side of a cliff. But something went wrong and the safety rope failed and one man fell a hundred feet. He was broken and severely injured, but still alive. His partner called for help, but the rescue mission was very difficult. A rescue team had to hike in to retrieve the injured man. A helicopter had to life flight him to a hospital and an ICU team had to work with him for weeks to get him stabilized, perform multiple emergency surgeries to repair shattered bones and ruptured organs. Even then, the rescue wasn't complete. it took months for the injured climber to heal and years of physical therapy before he could walk again and begin to return to a normal life. Today, thanks to God's healing and so many people who contributed to his rescue, that injured climber is able to work again and carry on a normal life with his family and friends.
Bible scholar and teacher, Sandra Richter, compares the way God rescued humanity from the brokenness of sin to the rescue of an injured climber--it is a long, difficult, and very costly process. We call the original sin of Adam and Eve "the fall". It's an apt description because after the fall, humanity (and all creation) were broken physically, mentally, and spiritually and we were unable to rescue ourselves. We need God to save us.
In Genesis 6:5, it tells us “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.” Humanity was so broken, the best thing our good, companionate, merciful, and patient God could was to start all over with creation--to wash the world clean with a flood. God decides to start over with one man, Noah. God instructs Noah to build an ark to save his family and pairs of all the animals. Then God sends a great flood that destroys the earth and every living thing not in the ark. Afterward, God makes a covenant with Noah and all creation. Let's read it.
Genesis 9:8-17
8 Then God told Noah and his sons, 9 “I
hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, 10 and
with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock,
and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. 11 Yes,
I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all
living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
12 Then God said, “I am giving you a
sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations
to come. 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds.
It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. 14 When
I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, 15 and
I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again
will the floodwaters destroy all life. 16 When I
see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God
and every living creature on earth.” 17 Then God
said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming
with all the creatures on earth.”
This is an important moment in our relationship with God. It might be understandable if God decided to give Up on humanity. We rebelled against Him for no good reason. But despite our treachery, God did not give up in us. He looks over the disgusting mess we made of His world, and God decides to save what He can. And starting with Noah, God begins to rescue the world. And He starts with a covenant.
Components of a Covenant
A typical covenant in the Bible and the ancient world usually included these components:
1. The Parties
Involved – the parties in the 1st covenant are God and Noah &
all living creatures.
2. Promises
– what each party commits to. In this 1st
covenant, God will not destroy the earth with a flood verse 11. People will not murder and will be fruitful
and multiply and repopulate the earth (verses 5-7)
3. Consequences
– Specifies the blessings for obedience and the penalties for breaking the
covenant. God says He “will require the
blood of anyone who takes another person’s life.” (verse 5)
4. A Sign
– to serve as a tangible reminder of the agreement. What was the sign of God’s covenant with
Noah? The rainbow. In the ancient world, it was common to carve
a picture into a stone monument as a sign of a covenant between a conquering
king and the people he conquered…
5. Witnesses
– In the first covenant, God and all living things are witnesses to the
promise.
God’s covenant with Noah teaches us something important: God is faithful, even when the world around us is not. God kept His promise to Noah, and He continues to keep His promises to us today. But this covenant also challenges us to live as people who reflect that same faithfulness. In a world where broken promises are common—where commitments are often abandoned when things get hard—we are to be true to our word.
Think
about the promises you’ve made. Maybe it’s to your spouse, your kids, or a
friend. Maybe it’s a promise you made to God—something you committed to in prayer or
during a tough time. These promises matter. Just as God’s word never fails, He calls us to be people who keep our word.
The truth
is, being faithful isn’t always easy. There will be times when it’s tempting to
walk away from commitments—when relationships feel too hard, when life gets
overwhelming, or when sticking to your word feels inconvenient. But it’s in
those moments that faithfulness becomes a powerful witness. When you keep your
promises, even when it’s hard, you show the world a glimpse of God’s character. You reflect His truth and reliability in a world that desperately needs both.
So, how
can you live out faithfulness today? Maybe it means forgiving someone you’ve been holding a grudge against because
you promised to love as Jesus loves. Maybe it means staying committed to a relationship that’s difficult right now. Or maybe it’s about showing up and following through on the small promises
you’ve made, even when no one else notices.
Faithfulness
in small things adds up to a life that points others to God. When we are faithful with what we say and do, we become part of God’s ongoing
story of redemption—reflecting His goodness and reliability to those around us.
As we
leave today, I challenge you to ask: What promises have I made that I need to
keep? How can I be more faithful in my relationships and commitments? Remember,
we serve a God who never breaks His promises—and He calls us to live with that
same kind of faithfulness.
As we close today, I want to invite you to come to the altar while the praise band sings. The are pens and slips of paper on the altar. Each paper has a rainbow on it and it says: Write down one promise to God you intend to always keep.
I invite each
of you to come to the altar and pray for a moment about the promises you’ve
made.
And then I invite you to write down one promise to God you intend to always
keep. Then, take the slip of paper with
you and put it someone where it will always remind you of your promise, just
like the rainbow in the sky reminds us of God’s promise.
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