Pastor Steve Perez | June 4, 2024
The Fountain Apostolic Church
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The Beginning of the Covenantal Story
The covenantal story began when God created humans in his image to partner with him in spreading goodness throughout the world. The word “covenant” (Heb. berit) isn’t explicitly used in Genesis 1, but the details of the relationship are similar to later covenants in the text.
God invites Adam and Eve to be priestly kings to represent His generous rule on Earth. They could enjoy and reproduce blessings of eternal life as long as they continued to trust and partner with Him. As God lays out the terms of their relationship, He warns them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it would bring the curse of death on humanity.
In their first test of covenant faithfulness, humans failed. They ate from the tree; fracturing the human-divine relationship and plunging humanity into corruption and death. We’d still be stuck in the wreckage if God never intervened. The rest of the Bible is all about how God is repairing this broken partnership with humans.
There’s no consensus on the exact number of covenants between God and humanity.
Mosaic – Ten Commandments
Davidic – Star of David (coming Messiah)
The Noahic Covenant, found in Genesis 9:8-17, is the promise that God made to Noah and his descendants after the flood which destroyed the world. The Noahic Covenant has several distinguishing features. First, it is an unconditional covenant. Second, it was made to Noah and all his descendants as well as “every living creature” and the earth in general (Genesis 9:8-10). Third, it was sealed with a sign, the rainbow.The Noahic Covenant is an unconditional covenant because it does not depend upon anything Noah or his descendants had to do to fulfill the covenant. The promise is based upon God’s faithfulness alone. Because of God’s faithfulness to always do what He says He will do, we can know today with certainty that there will never be another worldwide flood as there was in the days of Noah. Neither the wickedness nor the righteousness of mankind affects this unconditional covenant. There is no "condition" under which God will renege on His promise. This does not mean that God will never again destroy the earth. He has promised to one day destroy the earth by fire in the terrible events known as the “Day of the Lord.”
After the flood, God promised that He would never again send a worldwide flood to destroy the earth as an act of His divine judgment for sin. As a sign to remind Noah and his descendants of His covenantal promise, God “set the rainbow in the cloud”.
Just as circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, the rainbow is the sign of the Noahic Covenant. The lesson to us is that when we see a rainbow we should always be reminded of God’s faithfulness and His amazing grace. We should also be reminded that our God is a holy and righteous God who has a holy hatred for sin and will not allow sin to go unpunished forever. Also, just as God provided a way for Noah and his family to be saved in the ark, He also has provided a way for us to be saved through Jesus Christ. Noah and his family were saved from the wrath of God that came in the flood, just as those who are in Christ are saved from the “wrath to come”.
Red - the Blood that Jesus shed for our sins. Hebrews 9:13-14
Orange - passion, especially that of the Fire of God. 2 Thessalonians 1:8
Yellow - the color of the sun, symbolizes God as the Source of all Life. John 1:4
Green - being the color of plants, the symbol of God’s bountiful blessings. Genesis 1:11
Blue - symbolizes God’s domain over all creation, the same way that the blue sky covers all. John 6:33
Indigo - stands for God’s protection. Psalms 147:8
Violet - royalty, violet reminds us of God’s Kingship. It’s one of the colors of His dwelling during the Exodus. Exodus 27:16
6 colors on the gay pride flag
6 = the number man (pride)
The most popular version of the flag, with six stripes, first introduced 1979 and is associated with the LGBT community. You may be familiar with the rainbow-striped Pride flag. In recent years, this flag has been updated and expanded to represent the intersectional diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQIA2-S) communities.
