Genesis 9-11: A Covenant

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:  I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.  Gen 9:12-13 NKJV

The word covenant is first used in Chapter 6 when God tells Noah he will keep his family safe through the flood, but in Chapter 9, the word covenant is used repeatedly.  And to seal the deal, God puts a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant.  There are several uses of the word covenant.  According to Wikipedia, "a covenant is, in its most general sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. A covenant is a type of contract in which the covenantor makes a promise to a covenantee to do or not do some action." 

A covenant therefore is a contract, a vow, just like a marriage vows is a contract, a contract that is forever binding.  In our day and age, though, we treat covenants more like resolutions, vows that are made to be broken. We go into a new year full of resolve to lose weight, exercise more, be a better person, but two or three weeks later we're back to our old ways.  But not God.  The covenant in Genesis 9 was with the whole of his creation and he promised that never again would the world be destroyed by flood.  So that begs the question, "How big is God?"  Is he bigger than the threat of global warming.  Will cities be flooded by man's influence on the environment, by melting ice caps, or will God's promise remain.