The Hung-Up War Bow: God's Covenant of Preservation
Introduction: The Great Sign-Heist
We live in a time of rampant theological larceny. Our modern world does not just disagree with the God of the Bible; it actively seeks to plunder His house, steal His treasures, and repurpose them for its own rebellious ends. And there is perhaps no more blatant example of this than the cultural hijacking of the rainbow. A symbol given by God as a profound promise of His mercy has been commandeered as the banner for a revolution against His created order. This is not a small thing. This is cosmic defiance. It is looking at God's promise not to destroy the world and using that very promise as a flag to celebrate the sins that would warrant destruction.
Therefore, we must not surrender this ground. We must not shrug our shoulders and let them have the symbol. To understand the rainbow is to understand the character of God, the nature of His covenants, and the very stability of the world we live in. This passage is not a quaint story for children's Sunday school classes; it is the constitutional basis for all of subsequent history. After the terrible and righteous judgment of the flood, God does not leave the terrified survivors to wonder if the next rainstorm will be the end of them. He establishes a covenant. He makes a promise. And He illustrates that promise with a sign of breathtaking beauty and theological depth.
This covenant, what theologians call the covenant of common grace or the Noahic covenant, is the reason the sun rises, the seasons turn, and societies can build and plan for the future. It is the platform upon which the entire drama of redemption is played out. Without this promise, there is no stable stage for the call of Abraham, the giving of the Law, or the coming of the Christ. So let us look to the text and reclaim what has been stolen, to see the bow in the clouds not as a banner of rebellion, but as the hung-up war bow of a merciful and covenant-keeping God.
The Text
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, "As for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. Indeed I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, and there shall never again be a flood to destroy the earth." Then God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am giving to be between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I put My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it will be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. So the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."
(Genesis 9:8-17 LSB)
A Covenant for All Creation (vv. 8-11)
We begin with the establishment of the covenant itself.
"As for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you... Indeed I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood..." (Genesis 9:9-11)
Notice first the initiator. God says, "As for Me, behold, I establish..." This is a unilateral declaration. This is not a treaty negotiated between two equal parties. This is a sovereign decree from the Creator to His creatures. Noah and his family are passive recipients. God is the one who sets the terms, makes the promise, and guarantees the outcome. This is how all of God's covenants work; they flow from His grace, not our merit.
Second, notice the scope. This covenant is breathtakingly broad. It is made with Noah, his sons, and their descendants. But it doesn't stop there. It extends to "every living creature," including the birds, the cattle, and every beast. This is a cosmic covenant. God is not just concerned with humanity; He is the Lord of the sparrows and the leviathans. The judgment of the flood affected all flesh, and so the promise of preservation extends to all flesh. This is the foundation of what we call common grace. It is the basis for the stability and predictability of the natural world. Because of this promise, a farmer can plant a seed with the reasonable expectation that the seasons will continue and a harvest will come (Gen. 8:22). This covenant provides the stable theater in which the subsequent story of redemption can unfold.
Finally, notice the promise. The promise is specific: God will never again destroy "all flesh" with a global flood. This does not preclude local floods or other forms of judgment. But it is an absolute guarantee that God will not hit the reset button on the entire world in this way again. He is promising to preserve the world in its fallen state until His ultimate purposes are complete. He is promising a stay of execution, providing the time and space for the gospel to go forth.
The Sign of the Divine Warrior (vv. 12-13)
A covenant from God always comes with a sign, a visible seal of the invisible promise. Here, the sign is the rainbow.
"This is the sign of the covenant... I put My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth." (Genesis 9:12-13)
We have become so accustomed to the rainbow as a symbol of peace and happiness that we have forgotten its original, startling context. The Hebrew word for rainbow is simply "bow" (qesheth), as in a bow and arrow. This is the weapon of a divine warrior. Throughout Scripture, God's judgments are pictured as arrows shot from His bow (Ps. 7:12-13; Lam. 2:4). The flood was the ultimate unleashing of God's arrows of judgment upon a wicked world.
So what is God doing here? He is taking His war bow, the very instrument of destruction, and He is hanging it up in the clouds. And notice the orientation. A bow hung in the sky is not aimed down at the earth. It is aimed upward, away from humanity, pointing back toward the heavens. It is a gesture of peace, a unilateral act of disarmament concerning global destruction by water. God is saying, "The war against all flesh is over. I am hanging up my bow." Every time a rainbow appears, it is a memorial of the most terrible war the world has ever known, and a promise that such a war will not be fought again.
A Reminder for God (vv. 14-16)
What follows is one of the most remarkable and condescending statements in all of Scripture. God explains who the sign is for.
"...the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant... So the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant..." (Genesis 9:14-16)
This is astonishing. The sign is not primarily for us, but for God. God, who is omniscient and cannot forget, binds Himself with a visible reminder. This is what we call divine anthropomorphism; God speaks in human terms so that we might understand His commitment. When a man ties a string around his finger, it is to remind him of something he might otherwise forget. When God places His bow in the sky, it is to assure us of something He will never forget. He is placing Himself under the obligation of His own promise. The sign is God's own self-reminder.
Think of the dynamic. The clouds gather, dark and threatening. Rain begins to fall. For Noah and his family, this would have been terrifying. The clouds are a symbol of potential judgment. But it is precisely in the midst of the clouds, in the very context of the storm, that God places the bow of His promise. It is a promise of mercy that appears in the very face of judgment. God says that when He sees the bow, He will remember His promise and restrain His wrath. This is a profound picture of the gospel. In the midst of our sin and the judgment we deserve, God has provided a sign of His mercy: the cross of Christ.
God's Definition is Final (v. 17)
The passage concludes with a final, authoritative declaration.
"And God said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'" (Genesis 9:17)
God has the final say. He establishes the covenant, He sets the terms, and He defines the sign. This is the Creator's prerogative. We are the creatures. We do not get to redefine God's symbols. To take the rainbow, God's sign of His promise to preserve all flesh, and to make it a symbol of a sexual ethic that God condemns as sterile and destructive, is an act of high-handed rebellion. It is to take the sign of God's mercy and wave it in His face as a banner of defiance. It is an attempt to rewrite the dictionary of reality, and it is doomed to fail. God's meaning is anchored in His character and His Word, and it will stand long after the rebellious movements of our day are a footnote in history.
Conclusion: From the Bow to the Cross
The Noahic covenant is a covenant of common grace, not saving grace. It keeps the world from being destroyed, but it cannot save a single soul from sin. It provides the stable platform, but it is not the play itself. The play is the story of redemption.
The bow in the clouds is a glorious promise that God will restrain His wrath for a time. But the ultimate storm of God's wrath against sin still had to fall. That great flood of judgment was not poured out on the world again. Instead, it was gathered up, concentrated into a single point, and poured out in its full fury upon the head of God's only Son at Calvary. On the cross, Jesus absorbed the flood. He took the full measure of the divine wrath that we deserved.
The rainbow is a sign that God has hung up His bow of watery judgment. The cross is the sign that God has satisfied His bow of righteous judgment for all who are in Christ. The empty tomb is the glorious rainbow that appeared after the storm of Calvary passed. Therefore, when we see a rainbow in the sky, we should do two things. First, we should thank God for His common grace, for His faithfulness in preserving this world and giving us every breath and every meal. But second, and more importantly, we should let it drive us to the cross, where we see His saving grace. For in the cross, we see a greater promise, sealed with a better sign, the body and blood of Christ, which guarantees not just that our bodies will not be destroyed by a flood, but that our souls will be saved for all eternity.