The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
God’s Promise of the Seasons
Yesterday our calendars marked the beginning of summer. I find it amazing that even after all this time since creation, the world still revolves and the seasons still change. Of course God did not just set things in motion at creation to walk away; He has continued to interact with our world and its people through the ages.
Living where I do, at the juxtaposition of two major mountain ranges and the high desert, the weather patterns are slightly different each year. It has snowed here on July 4 several times since we moved here. The snow was so heavy in the winters of 1992 and 1993 that we had to shovel it off our roof more than once each winter. And yet, in the winter of 1994, we had no snow and very little rain. It was just plain cold from September to May that year.
Aside from the worldwide flood described in Genesis, or droughts like that described in 1 Kings 17:1 and the subsequent relief of rain afterwards (1 Kings 18:45), not much is said in the Bible about the variability of each season’s weather. But the consistency of the cycle of the seasons is another of God’s promises. This one establishes the reliability of the phenomenon of the changing seasons and is not specific to Christians, but is a matter of course for all who inhabit the earth.
The promise is best described in Genesis 8:22, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” God gave this pronouncement “in His heart” with regard to Noah after he and his family exited the ark that had carried them safely through the cataclysmic deluge. Whereas modern day floods seem terribly destructive, they are entirely localized. They are usually generated by hurricanes, seasonal rains, or overflowing banks of rivers that are swollen by melting snow at higher elevations. The flood of Genesis, however, annihilated every living thing, including people, except those safely ensconced inside the ark that Noah had built at God’s direction for him, his family, and the animals God had designated to go with them.
The water did not come exclusively from the clouds. Genesis 7:11-12 tells us that “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” In other words, along with forty days and nights of non-stop rain, great geological upheaval occurred which released massive amounts of water from within the earth. These two circumstances combined left enough water enveloping the entire earth to even cover the highest mountaintops.
It was a hundred and fifty days more before it was dry enough for Noah and his family to leave the ark (Gen.7:24). “And God said, ‘This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. It shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. The waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth’” (Gen. 9:12-17).
When you look at a rainbow in the sky, what do you see? Scientifically it is the prismatic effect of light from the sun colliding with droplets of water (rain). But a rainbow is much more than that. It is the symbol and reminder of God’s promise that He will not destroy the entire earth by flood again. As promised, the seasons come and go as expected with weather patterns that are generally consistent with each season. But a worldwide flood will never happen again. God promised!
Update/Prayer Request: We have read the report from Dan’s PET scan last week and it appears that all five of the tumors are gone. However, Dan continues to have more bad days than good because of the on-going side effects from the immunotherapy. We will see the doctor today and we have many questions for him about other issues that showed up in the report as well. Please continue to pray for complete healing from the side effects for Dan and for healing/restoration of mobility in my hand after my recent surgery to replace a bone-on-bone knuckle joint.
