God Is A Covenant Making God - Genesis 8-11

Genesis 9:8-13 (ESV)

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

God is a covenant making God.   The word, covenant is used almost 300 times in the Bible.   It means to make a league or a confederacy with someone.   It is first used a few chapters earlier, with Noah, regarding the ark, the flood and God’s promise to keep Noah and his family safe through it all: 

Genesis 6:18 (ESV)

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

There are seven covenants recorded in the Bible:

1. The Adamic covenant (even though the word is not used). 

2. The Noahite covenant.

3. The Abrahamic covenant. 

4. The Mosaic covenant. 

5. The Davidic covenant. 

6. The Messianic covenant. 

7.  The Everlasting covenant. 

One of the greatest passages that speak about God’s covenant with man (the Everlasting Covenant, specifically) is in Hebrews:

Hebrews 8:10-12 (ESV)

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds,

and write them on their hearts,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor

and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

for they shall all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more.”

When God put the rainbow in the sky it was a reminder to Him and us that God is a covenant making God.  He will not break a covenant.   This is God’s faithfulness to us by being faithful to His promises.   God cannot go back on His word.   A covenant is His word.   Man constantly breaks the covenants he makes with God.  But God can NEVER break a covenant that He makes with us.   We can rest in our faith because God is a covenant making God.