a covenant for all generations to come:13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant
between me and the earth.14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,1 5 I will
remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become
a flood to destroy all life.16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting
covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." (Genesis 9)

I\u2019ve only had to go through one tornado in my life \u2013 they happen in
Ontario \u2013 but relatively rarely \u2013 and they always seem to miss
Grand Rapids...someone mentioned something about New
Jerusalem being the reason for that\u2026

The one we went through was unreal \u2013 it came out of nowhere
really: A calm hot day in the summer\u2026then clouds rolled in and
the storm began \u2013 wind and water pounding into the barn.
Lightning flashing but the thunder barely registering over the
sound of the driving rain. It was intense and quick \u2013 so incredibly
violent.

And looking out from the barn yard \u2013 on the left you could see the apple trees pulled out of the ground and flung into the ditch across the road. On the right there were hay wagons flipped over. Half of the pig shed was ripped apart and blown a kilometer or so into the fields.

There was this path of destruction \u2013 and then overarching it all was this rainbow. Just full against the dark clouds behind it. Bright and brilliant and surreal\u2026

Rainbows are like that \u2013 they can be pretty and beautiful \u2013 but they
also let you know that the rain was here. The storm was raging.
The waters fell.

This evening were talking rainbows \u2013 and the most famous
rainbow of all \u2013 that we find here in Genesis chapter 9\u2026and as we
see it and think about it in the Scriptures \u2013 we know that it tells us
about the flood\u2026

It happened very early in our history \u2013 with the story of
generations still being very close to the story of the garden. And
the Bible tells us that the world was not turning out to be a great
place.

Sin: violence, dishonesty, murder, adultery, idolatry, revenge \u2013 all
of these things were taking place \u2013 so much so that we read in
chapter 6 that \u201cevery inclination of the thoughts of [people\u2019s] heart
was only evil all the time\u201d\u2026

If we take the pathological model of sin as our illustration here \u2013 what happened in the world is that the disease of original sin \u2013 it became a global pandemic. It was in everyone and the symptoms were out of control.

This was sin \u2013 as bad as it gets \u2013 the picture of the human
condition that we get here is the one that leaves no question to
what\u2019s going on inside people\u2019s hearts. Our sinful nature runs
rampant in the world.

And what comes next is interesting \u2013 it doesn\u2019t tell us that God
was angry that he was mad at what they were doing \u2013 we learn that
God was grieved that he had ever made human beings in the first
place \u2013 so much so that His heart was filled with pain.

This is interesting insight into the heart and mind of God \u2013 looking
down on the creation \u2013 seeing people killing each other \u2013 having
terrible relationships \u2013 living lives of violence and lust and
gluttony and revenge \u2013 and feeling such sadness \u2013 such sorrow \u2013
that people would experience an existence like this\u2026

You ever wonder what God is feeling when bad things are
happening\u2026when you\u2019re in pain \u2013 when a relationship is
crumbling \u2013 when a disaster strikes\u2026this is where you find divine
empathy \u2013 God hurts when we are hurting\u2026

So here is God grieving at our creation \u2013 saddened by our
experience and angered by our sin \u2013 and he makes the decision to
wipe everything out. To purge the whole thing \u2013 to put people out
of their misery \u2013 and to put an end to the horrible things that
people were doing on the Earth.

God said in Genesis 6:7 \u201cI will wipe humanity, whom I have
created, from the face of the earth \u2013 people and animals, and
creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air \u2013 for I
am grieved that I have made them.\u201d

The theological lessons here are profound \u2013 First and foremost \u2013
the character of God we learn so much about God here \u2013 holy in
his anger against the sin \u2013 compassionate by his grief at our
existence\u2026a righteous God torn by the not-rightness of our sin.

We also learn about our sin \u2013 we don\u2019t need theology to tell us how
bad we can get \u2013 but the story here tells us how far we\u2019ll go when
our sin remains unchecked. It\u2019s viral and it\u2019s aggressive. Our sin
fills the whole world.