The Rainbow as Theodicy

You can have read the Bible your whole life and still you get surprised by something, surprised by something staring at you right in the face but something you've never seen before.

For example, think of all the theodicy questions we ask about Hitler and genocide. Why does God allow things like murder, rape, abuse, slavery, torture, exploitation and sex trafficking?

The answer you tend to hear is free will. But that's not the answer the Bible gives. The theodicy the Bible gives is Noah:

Genesis 6.5-8; 8.18-21; 9.12-17
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord...

So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

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 humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done..."

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. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

Isn't Noah a theodicy?

I've never read Noah as a theodicy, never before see this obvious thing staring me in the face. The Noah story is all about why God allows evil in the world. God allows evil because God made a promise not to punish human evil with violence.

That doesn't mean God ignores evil. The story continues with God's call to Abraham.

To be clear, I'm not saying that God's pledge to Noah is a satisfactory theodicy. What I'm saying is that in all the theodicy conversations I've ever had I've never once heard anyone mention Noah.

Question: Why does God allow evil?

Answer: The rainbow.

I've never heard anyone answer like that.