God's Promises Continue

Note from today’s Bible reading: Genesis 7-11

Because of the exceeding wickedness of mankind, God destroyed the world with a flood. However, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8), so only he and his family were saved in the ark.

Once the flood was over and Noah and his family were able to leave the ark, Noah offered a burnt offering to the Lord (Genesis 9:20). In response to this sacrifice, God said, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:21-22). He then established a covenant with Noah (and the rest of mankind) based on this promise (Genesis 9:8-17).

This was a reference to God’s providence. In the beginning, He was actively involved in creating and forming the world. However, His work was not going to continue in the same way. So He made the world in such a way that the natural processes that would provide all things necessary for life to continue and for His people to prosper would continue as long as the earth would stand.

So remember that God’s promises continue. Even today, God continues to provide for us – not continuing to create new things that we need because He failed to do it right the first time. Instead, He made everything “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and proves that He did through the ongoing natural providence in the world around us.