SUMMARY
In the wake of the disastrous experience of the floodThe flood refers to the catastrophic deluge in Genesis. In the biblical account Noah, his family, and selected beasts survive the flood in an ark; thereafter they received a rainbow in the sky as a sign of God's promise. Many other cultures also have flood..., God commits the divine self to the future of creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... by announcing an unconditional promise (8:21-22; 9:8-17).
ANALYSIS
This grieving response of God, as well as the divine reversal of the decision to “blot out” every living creature, prepares the way for God’s decision at the end of the flood never again to “destroy every living creature” (8:21). Never again will God do this, not by any means, even though sin and evil will continue apace. God is as good as God’s word, and God proceeds to express this promise in terms of an unconditional and eternal covenantA covenant is a promise or agreement. In the Bible the promises made between God and God's people are known as covenants; they state or imply a relationship of commitment and obedience. (9:8-17). This covenant undergirds all other biblical covenants.
God’s promise not to do something again entails an eternal divine self-limitation regarding the exercise of divine freedom and power. God thereby limits the divine options in dealing with evil in the life of the world. The route of world annihilation has been set aside as a divine possibility. Divine judgment there will be, but it will be limited in scope (for example, Sodom and Gomorrah). The creation and its orders are trustworthy in perpetuity, for God will not suspend this commitment to the continuance of the world for shorter or longer periods of time.