This lesson is compatible with the "Enoch, Noah, and Babel" Flash-A-Cards from Abeka Books.
Scripture References: Genesis 6:1-22; Hebrews 11:7, 2 Peter 2:5
“Where’s Enoch? I haven’t seen him in his garden lately. Did he die?”asked Enoch’s neighbor. “Haven’t you heard? God took him up to heaven!” said his other neighbor. Do you remember why God took Enoch to heaven? (allow answers)
Not too long after God took Enoch to heaven, a boy was born. It was Enoch’s great-grandson!
Enoch had a son named Methuselah. Methuselah is famous as the man who lived the longest. He lived to be 969 years old! Methuselah had a son named Lamech, who had a son named Noah. You might have heard of him before!
Noah learned all about his family, including Adam and Seth. He might have heard Adam’s grandson Enos [not the same man as Enoch…he was Enoch’s great-great grandfather] talk about them. Enos was still alive when Noah was growing up. I’m sure he heard all about how Adam and Eve lived in such a beautiful paradise, but then had to leave because they sinned. I imagine Enos talking with Noah as a young boy and saying: “My dad Seth, and my grandpa Adam always told me how sorry Adam was when he could no longer walk with God. That’s what our sin does, Noah. It separates us from God. We need to ask God to forgive us, and we need a sacrifice of blood to cover our sins. Cain tried to give God a sacrifice that wasn’t blood, but God didn’t accept it. It has to be blood.”
Noah learned about God, and how God made a promise to send someone to die for their sins someday. Noah chose to believe in God. He grew up to be a man and had 3 boys. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Noah taught his 3 boys about God, too. It was hard for them sometimes. They might have gone to a school where no one else wanted to hear about God. Perhaps their neighbors didn’t want to play with them, because they talked about God too much. I am not sure if those things really happened, but I do know one thing. No one else cared about God. They were all very wicked and mean. They were very violent, too. There were always fights breaking out at the marketplace. “I’m not paying that much for this bread!” shouted someone in the crowd. “You pay, or you don’t get anything!” the baker shouted back. “Give me that blanket! I saw it first!” shouted a woman. “No! It’s mine! I got it first!” shouted another woman. People were always angry and mean. No one showed love to anyone else. And the men who used to love God decided to marry women who didn’t love God. The Bible tells us not to do this. If a woman who loves God marries a man who doesn’t love God do you think she will find it easy to go to pray and read her Bible? Will it be easy for her to go to church whenever she wants to? No! The same is true if a man loves God but marries a woman who doesn’t love God. Pretty soon they will forget about how they love God. They will stop going to church and reading their Bible. They will stop teaching their children how much God loves us all.
The Bible tells us that when Noah was alive, people were so bad that it made God sad. The Bible says God was sighing over the sin of man. He was grieving because of the sin of everyone. He was so sad about all of the sin that men were doing that it was like we feel when someone we love dies. Did you know that our sins break God’s heart? Every little sin we do. The mean thoughts we have about our family…the bad words we say…the grumpy thoughts we have. They all break God’s heart!
The whole world in Noah’s day broke God’s heart with their sins. Their thoughts were only bad all the time. God looked at the world and said, “I will destroy everyone, because I cannot stand the sin.” God is holy, which means He can’t sin, and He can’t stand sin.
Even Noah and his family were sinners. But the Bible tells us there was one difference between Noah and everyone else. Noah had faith in God, that God would send someone to die for his sins. Noah was not perfect. His family was not perfect. They were sinners also. But Noah received grace from God because of his faith. Grace means a blessing or a forgiveness that is not deserved. My sins are forgiven, not because I am good enough to get forgiveness. I am forgiven because I have faith in Jesus!
Noah got grace from God because of his faith in God.
God spoke to Noah. “I will destroy everyone because of their sin and all of the terrible violence. I will send a flood of water, and everyone will die. You must make a boat. You and your family will get in the boat, and you will be safe. This is a promise to you. You, your wife, your 3 sons and their wives will all be saved from the flood. And you must put two of each unclean animal in the boat, and 7 of each clean animal. They will be safe also.” (A clean animal is an animal that could be used as a sacrifice, like sheep, cows, and birds.) God told this to Noah, and he told Noah to gather enough food for the animals and for his family. God also told Noah exactly how to build the boat. We call it an ark. The ark was a long, tall rectangle shape, big enough to fit all the animals on it.
Noah believed God and began to build the ark. He and his sons worked hard every day cutting down trees and making smooth planks to build with. How long do you think it took Noah to build such a gigantic boat? Some people think it took around 40 years! We don’t know exactly, but it was a long time!
We do know that while Noah was building the ark, he was telling people about what was going to happen. “God is going to destroy everyone and everything! Ask God to forgive you! You can be saved it you have faith in God!” For years, Noah’s friends and family heard this. His neighbors came often to hear him. “Let’s go listen to crazy Noah! God’s going to kill us! Hahaha! It didn’t happen yesterday. Will it be today? God will send water falling from the sky! Haha! Crazy old Noah.” They all thought Noah was strange. Water had never fallen from the sky before. It had never rained! God had made the earth special at creation. There was a mist cloud every morning that watered the ground. The mist came in from the rivers and lakes…like fog does. So, no one believed Noah when he said it was going to rain, and water was going to cover everything. They thought he was a crazy old man. No one wanted to ask God for forgiveness. So, Noah and his sons kept building. They also planted vegetables. They had to store up enough food for the animals and themselves. They had to save enough to last them many months. They might have even saved enough for a full year!
I image people from all around heard about “crazy Noah and his 3 sons”. I’m sure even Noah’s wife and his son’s wives helped out with the building and food saving. “Let’s go see the crazy 8 of Noah’s family!” they said. “Hey Noah! Save me a space with the rhinos! Hahaha!” they mocked.
Noah kept believing in God, though. He kept working, and praying, and teaching his family about God’s love. He kept offering blood sacrifices for his sins.
Finally, the day came for them to put the animals on the ark. We will have to find out if they all fit next week!
Let’s pray now, and ask God to help us love Him, and believe Him, even when our friends or family make fun of us. When it’s hard to believe God, we can ask for His help to keep believing in Him and His Son, Jesus. The Holy Spirit will help us.