"Then Noah built an altar to The Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in His heart: 'Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done' ... Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 'I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ... Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.' And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you ... and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come ... I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth ... Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life ... So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth." Genesis 8:20-9:17 (NIV)
This first book of Moses reveals that after the great flood, and after the waters receeded, God made a covenant with Noah, and all of his descendents after him, that He would not destroy mankind and every living thing on the earth by water. The rainbow in the sky is a sign of that covenant.
Not only are we descendents of Adam and Eve, we are descendents of Noah so God's promise was also made with us. The rainbow is the sign that God will not destroy the earth and every living thing therein again by water. That does not mean that the world will never be destroyed again, just that the next time it will not be by water. In his vision which revealed future things to come, the Apostle John said: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." (Revelation 21:1) The prophet Isaiah saw in a vision and predicted that God would create a new heaven and a new earth. (Isaiah 65:17 & 66:22) The Bible does not address exactly how the present earth will "pass away," but there are many Bible scholars who believe that the world will be destroyed by fire the next time. However, don't worry, all of the believers, past, present, and future, will be saved and become the occupants of the new earth. Besides, the rapture will occur beforehand so we won't be here when the world is destroyed the next time, by fire or whatever. Let the rainbow in the sky remind us that God destroyed the world once, and He will destroy it again. Noah, a righteous man who walked with God, and his family were spared the first time. Let us make sure that we are spared the next time.
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