After God commanded Noah and his sons to do the very thing he had commanded Adam and Eve to do, he declares that he is establishing his covenant with Noah and his sons and their descendants. God's covenant is not only with Noah, his family and their descendants, but with all creation. It is God's covenant that describes and determines God's relationship to everyone and everything. Like Noah and his family, Israel, God's old covenant people, were prone to think and feel alone and overwhelmed by the task in which God enlisted them. The antidote to the despondency and despair to which God's people are prone is a clear understanding that God makes and keeps his covenant. God and God alone institutes and fulfills his covenant.