Genesis 9 invites us to wrestle with a familiar tension: our desire to understand how versus God’s insistence on showing us what it means.

After the Flood, God establishes a covenant—not only with Noah and his descendants, but with every living creature and even the earth itself. This covenant is unconditional: never again will all flesh be destroyed by floodwaters.

The sign of this covenant is the rainbow.

Scripture does not explain how the rainbow works, whether it existed before the Flood, or whether the atmosphere changed. Those questions—interesting as they may be—are not answered because theology does not depend on the answer.

In Genesis 9:13, God says, “I have set my bow in the cloud.” The Hebrew word for “bow” (qeshet) is the word for a weapon of war. This is not decorative imagery. The bow is hung up, unstrung, no longer aimed at the earth. The sign is not primarily for human reassurance—God says it is a reminder for Himself of His covenant restraint.

Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly teaches us that meaning outweighs mechanism:

• Where Cain’s wife came from does not change the story. • How tall the giants were in the Promised Land does not change the story. • Whether the rainbow existed before Genesis 9 does not change the story. • The unanswered technical questions surrounding the Flood do not change the story.

What matters is trust.

When the spies said, “We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers,” their failure was not faulty measurement—it was fear instead of faith.

Jesus teaches the same principle. When pressed for explanations, He redirects us toward meaning:

• “Do not worry about tomorrow.” (Matthew 6:34) • “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3) • “The wind blows where it wishes…” (John 3:8) • “As were the days of Noah…” (Matthew 24:37)

Jesus affirms the story without explaining the science. Because obedience, trust, and repentance do not depend on technical certainty.

Genesis 9 tells us that judgment is real—but so is mercy. The Flood reveals God’s seriousness about sin. The rainbow reveals God’s commitment to restraint.

The bow remains in the clouds, unfired.

Meaning—not mechanism.

And that is enough.