Genesis 9:8-11  Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

I don't know about you, but I don't particularly like what God said to Noah after the flood. I mean, I like part of it, I like the part with the rainbow and the whole not destroying the earth part, but if you look carefully at the reading, I think you'll notice two pretty nasty things. First of all, God only promised not to destroy the earth again with a flood. That's sort of like some one promising not to punch you in the nose again...with their left hand. It leaves some flexibility. It's not the most comforting thing in the world: "Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth" (v. 11).

This is the part of God's covenant with Noah that we remember: the promise not to destroy the world with a flood. But has easily remembered is the fact that God told Noah that He will "demand an accounting" from both mankind and animals for how they conduct themselves on this newly clean earth.  God demanding an accounting is a scary thing.

But let's look at another covenant that God makes, this time with Abram. In Genesis 15, God told Abram to set up the butchered halves of several animals in the normal arrangement for covenant making. Ordinarily, both parties entering into a covenant would pass between the animals, implicitly saying that if they broke the covenant, they would end up with the animals.

But then God did something amazing: He put Abram to sleep and passed between the animals alone. He guaranteed both sides of this new covenant! This is the kind of deal God makes with us: instead of condemning His people for not living up to His standard, He comes Himself in the person of Jesus to suffer the consequences of our covenant breaking for us.

God says to us, "Our relationship doesn't depend on you. It depends on Me." And He shows His faithfulness in both calling for the accounting and the sending His Son, Jesus, to give the account. Through His atoning work, the account is settled.

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,