Intro: Parents, this is one of my "Read to me" stories. Until your young people can read it for themselves, an adult, or an older child with understanding, should read it to them. There are lessons to be learned and a verse I shared at the end for memorizing and to help them understand what God is teaching us in the words below. I hope you and your children will enjoy this "Read to me" story.
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Long ago, near the dawn of all time, lived a man named Noah and his family. Among the people of the community Noah was a man of upright character and thought by all to be most righteous, especially by God. It was said of him; “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” And after he was 500 years old Noah had three sons: Ham, Shem, and Japheth.
The whole earth was filled with wickedness and violence. God saw the corruption of the earth and its inhabitants. So God came to Noah and said; “I am going to destroy the earth and all of its people, for they have become filled with wickedness and violence. I want you to build a huge boat, an ark if you will, to save a people for myself. Build it out of gopher wood. It should have many rooms and be coated with pitch inside and out. I want you to build it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make an opening for light and put a ledge around it 18 inches high. Put a door in its side and build lower, middle and upper decks within its walls. Because I am going to bring a great flood over the whole earth and destroy everything that breathes in order to live. Every person and animal on earth will die. But My promise is with you and your family – you will enter this ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. And will bring two of every kind of living creature, male and female, to put into the ark with you and keep them alive with your family. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of living creature that crawls along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You will take every kind of food for you and for them.”
Noah did everything that God had told him to do. Noah and his sons built the ark following the plans that God had given him. I believe that others of Noah’s family may have helped in the building, also, people like Methuselah and his son Lamech, Noah’s father and grandfather. People lived much longer during this time in history, Methuselah lived to be 969 and Lamech lived to be 777. So it is quite possible that Noah had their help for a part of this building project because it took Noah and his family about 100 years to complete this enormous project.
When the ark was completed the Lord called Noah, his sons and all of their wives to enter the ark. Then he gave Noah more complete instructions on what animals he was to take into the ark. God said; “Of the all the clean animals you are to take them in by sevens, the male and his female, and of the unclean animals by twos, the male and his female. Of all the birds that fly you are to take them in by sevens, the male and his female; to keep them alive so that they can refill the earth after the flood destroys it and all the people and animals that live on it. In one week I will make it rain on the earth for 40 days and nights. Again Noah did everything the Lord God told him to do. God called all of the animals to Noah, and he put them in the areas he had built for them in the ark.
On the seventh day, all that were to be housed in the ark were aboard and God closed the door. All were “snug as a bug in a rug,” so to speak. And the rain started to fall just as God had said it would. Noah was 600 years old when the rain began. Not only did it rain great bucketsful from heaven, but it says in the Bible that the “fountains of the great deep” were broken up, too.
Deep within the center of the earth, there is a hot core of melted rock and minerals, or metals, called lava, which can spew forth from volcanoes during earthquakes and eruptions. I believe this is what the Bible means by the “fountains of the great deep” breaking up.
Also below the earth's surface is the water table that supplies much of our drinking water and is the source for many of our lakes and rivers all over the globe. When the earth quaked and volcanoes erupted, this unseen water also escaped its underground rivers and lakes and mixed with the rain and the lava that was traveling over the surface of the earth and destroying everything.
The Bible says that all the high mountains were more 22 feet underwater and that every living thing on the face of the earth was killed; all the people, animals, birds and insects. Literally, everything that had once breathed was now dead. All except for Noah and those who were with him in the ark.
All of this water covered the whole earth for 150 days, but it didn’t stay there. The Bible says that God remembered Noah and all the people and animals with him in the ark and He sent a great wind pass over the earth to dry up the floodwaters; and that He also stopped up the fountains of the deep. I imagine that when the earthquakes stopped and the waters flowed over the lava it was cooled which made it into solid rock and then the water table re-stabilized.
After five months of traveling on top of the floodwaters and experiencing the world’s very first rainstorm, the ark finally came to rest on top of the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to dry up from the earth’s surface and three months later the ark’s passengers were able to see the tops of the mountains around them. Forty days later Noah opened up the Window of the ark and let a raven out. This raven flew around and around until the waters were lower and it was able to land. He also set a dove free, but the dove could find no place to land, so she returned to Noah in the ark. A week later Noah sent the dove out again, as it was getting night she returned to Noah with an olive leaf in her beak. Noah knew the waters were low enough that she found the top of the olive tree to rest in.
Noah waited another week and sent the dove out once more, this time she didn’t return to Noah; so he knew that the water was dried up enough that the dove could live on its own outside of the ark. But still, the people stayed inside.
After they had been in the ark 11½ months, Noah took the top off and let the sunshine in upon the people and animals. After such a long time in one place these passengers, people and animals alike, began longing to be outdoors. I know that after a long, snowy and wet winter, like we tend to get here from time to time, I look forward to the warm spring days when I can get outside once again. I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like to be trapped inside their ship for this long a time. But God kept all of the people and animals safe and well, mentally and physically, while they were in their necessary confinement.
When the top was removed from the ark, Noah and his family saw that the water had all disappeared and that the ground was dry again. But God didn’t let them out of the ark for another seven weeks. At that time God unlocked the door and told Noah to leave the ark with all of his family and the animals they had cared for during their voyage. Do you know not one life was lost inside the ark during the flood and the months afterward as they floated over the earth? All that was taken into the ark left it on the day that God opened the door. And I imagine a few more besides, as they were in this floating zoo for over a year.
When the ark was unloaded, Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice to God; worshiping Him there with his family. It was a large offering; one of every clean animal and bird that had shared this ship of grace during its first and only voyage. God enjoyed this act of worship. In fact, the Bible says it was a pleasing smell, like that of a beautiful perfume, as the smoke rose to heaven. And He made a promise to all people within His heart. His promise was this; “I will not curse the ground again for man’s sake. Neither will I destroy again all living things, as I have done. While the earth remains seedtime and harvest, hot and cold, summer and winter, day and night will also continue.” God confirmed this promise to Noah and his family, and to all people everywhere and in every age, even to us. His confirmation of this promise is seen in the rainbow when it appears in the sky.
Now after each rainstorm you can see God’s promise in the sky, if you are paying attention. God shows us this promise by putting rainbows in the sky. Never again will the Lord God destroy the whole earth by a worldwide flood. In the book of Numbers, the Bible says, “God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. Has He said and shall He not do it, or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?”
Because God doesn't lie, we know that He can be trusted to keep this promise and all of the promises He has written in the Bible.
Learning Grace:
Memory Verse:
“But Noah Found Grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:8 KJV
Questions to think about and answer:
What is Grace?
How did Noah “find” grace in the eyes of the Lord?
Did Noah and his family deserve to be saved from the flood? Why/Why not?
Why do you think I called the ark Noah’s ship of Grace?
Do we have Grace today?
Is there an ark of Grace now?
Who gives us Grace?
Do (or can) we earn Grace?
What is our reward for having Grace?
What is the “reward” for NOT having this Grace?
