Week of 12.4.2022 | Day One
Time passed, sin increased, and more people filled the earth. Signs that God’s kingdom had been broken by sin were growing clearer with each generation. Amidst this brokenness, God had not abandoned His creation. Grieved by sin, He sends a flood to wipe away the sin and evil that had broken His creation. God demonstrates His grace by choosing to preserve the life of a faithful man, Noah, and his family. But Noah was not perfect, he still had a sinful heart, just like every person born since Adam. No amount of water from the flood could wash it away.
The spark of hope reappears as God makes another promise to never flood the earth again but to preserve His creation. He seals it with a sign, a rainbow. Someday He would send the perfect King to wash away sin forever and restore His kingdom, just as He designed it to be.
Read
The following scriptures give an overview of how the story progresses. Read as much as you see appropriate for your children: Genesis 6:5-8, 13-14, 17-19, 22; 7:12-15; 8:15-17, 20-22; 9:11-13
Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood…
17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth…18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female…
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
Genesis 7:12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
Genesis 8:15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Genesis 9:11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Discuss
This story might be difficult for younger children to hear. Be mindful of your children’s age as you teach truth. The most imporant elements are man’s sin, God’s judgment (which He alone can justify), and God’s grace.
What has happened since Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden?
Why is God justified in His judgement of mankind?
What is the covenant that God makes in this section?
Is this covenant conditional (depending on mankind to do something) or unconditional (not depending on mankind to do anything)?
What sign does God give as a reminder of this covenant?
How should we respond to what we read?
Pray
Lead your family in a time of prayer.
Consider the ACTS model (Adoration- Adore or praise God, Confession- Confess sin, Thanksgiving- Thank God, and Supplication- Ask God to supply our needs)