City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

¹² 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: ¹³ I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Genesis 9:12-17 (ESV)

³ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

Matthew 16:3 (ESV)

Commentary

In the 2002 movie, Signs, a father (Mel Gibson) and his family living in the country discover crop circles on their farm. At first they attribute the crop circles to pranksters, but when alien humanoid creatures are seen around the farm, it is clear the crop circles were a sign, and incredulity turns to fear.  But while the movie starts with signs from aliens, what ultimately saves Mel Gibson’s family are signs from a higher power (read, God), who despite the alien invasion is still sovereign and, using circumstances as signs, ultimately saves Gibson’s family and the earth. There are signs and then there are Signs.

I once had a cat named Godfrey. He was a stoic, pure-bred, seal point Himalayan, with basically one facial expression, but he was very sweet and a great cat. In 2017, Godfrey was diagnosed with lung cancer and surgery wasn’t an option. He was struggling to breathe, and the veterinarian recommended we put him down. 

When I got him home from the vet and he got out of his carrying case, he got up on the bed with me and curled up under my arm. As we lay there together, I asked the Lord what we should do. I didn’t want to lose Godfrey, but I didn’t want him to suffer. As I prayed, Proverbs 12:10 came to mind: “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal.” As I began to meditate on that verse, Godfrey stood up, got down off the bed, walked over and got into his carrying case, which he had never done on his own before. The meaning of this sign was unmistakable: take him back to the vet, and let him go.

Application

Communication, even amongst humans, is often nonverbal. Sometimes it’s a look, a gesture, or some other sign. When the trash can in the kitchen is full, Cindy leaves the lid up, so I can see the trash is full. It’s a sign. I get it. Time for me to take out the trash.

God didn’t have to promise not to destroy the world with water again. It was totally His perogative to do so, and He would have been just in doing so. There was nothing man did for God that bound the Lord to such a promise. It was a unilateral covenant, one without legal consideration, as we say in contract law. Yet God chose to bind Himself to this promise to give comfort to man. As a reminder of that promise, He designated the rainbow, a beautiful sight that appears in the sky when it rains. 

Like a professional skywriter, the Lord has communicated in a way for all to be constantly reminded of His loving restraint toward humanity.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for communicating with us in unmistakable ways. Amen.