N is for Noah [Spi ed.] 0890517029, 9780890517024

Citation preview

First printing: June 2013

Dedicated to Mervyn Ham Copyright © 2013 by Ken and Mally Ham. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews. For information write: Master Books®, P.O. Box 726, Green Forest, AR 72638 Master Books® is a division of the New Leaf Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN: 978-0-89051-702-4 Library of Congress Number: 2013933185 Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1928-1995 This book is dedicated to our Dad, Mervyn Ham, who went home to be with the Lord June 9, 1995. A is for Adam, D is for Dinosaur, and N is for Noah were produced because of the legacy he left us—a love for the Word of God. Our father never had great earthly riches, but he left his six children (and children’s children) a spiritual inheritance more precious than silver or gold (Proverbs 13:22). In his last hours, he told his family that life is all about “for and with.” If you live in this world, it is for Christ and when you die it is with Christ. This book stands firm on the inerrancy and authority of Scripture while presenting the gospel message to children and adults. It is our prayer that lives will be changed for the Lord so many will know what it means to be “for and with” as our precious Dad declared.

Please consider requesting that a copy of this volume be purchased by your local library system. Printed by Toppan Leefung Printers LTd, Dongguan, Guangdong, China Please visit our website for other great titles: www.masterbooks.net For information regarding author interviews, please contact the publicity department at (870) 438-5288

Reading Roundup! (You can read the complete poem on the following page to your child before beginning the individual lessons, or it can be used to help the student begin recognizing words as they follow along. Reading it intermittently between several lessons can help the child become familiar with the words before the individual letter lessons take place. You may prefer to wait and read it as a review following several lessons.)

A is for Ark. Ark is a name for a great big boat. It had to be strong so it could float, to survive many months during a global Flood, ’cause man’s rebellion God had to judge.

N is for Noah. Noah, now he’s a man that sure stood out as he trusted God’s Word, without any doubt. What a great man of God Noah must have been; he believed God’s Word about things unseen.

B is for Back. Back in a garden is when it began, when the saddest day was caused by a man. Adam was told, “Don’t eat from this tree.” God made it clear, “You must obey Me.”

O is for Over. Over all the earth the water flowed fast; for many, many months this judgment would last. People outside the ark would have died; too late they realized that God had not lied.

C is for Called. Called the saddest day in world history, Adam disobeyed God and ate from that tree. Now everything changed — dirt, animals, and man. Sin entered the world; the rebellion began.

P is for Pleasure. Pleasure is not how God viewed this great Flood. He must have been sad to see people die in the mud. They could have gone through the door to be saved; a way of salvation for them God had paved.

D is for Dreadful. Dreadful things happened — when Cain killed his brother, violent things, oh, one after another. The effects of sin were seen everywhere, but sadly, so many just didn’t even care. E is for Earth. Earth, moon, and stars — the whole universe was suffering the effects of an awful Curse. Disease, death, and suffering, and lots of pain, nothing would ever be quite just the same. F is for Fruitful. “Be fruitful and multiply,” the first two were told. They probably had fifty by the time they were old. Their children had children and then there were more, hundreds of years later, there were people galore. G is for Grave. Grave is the situation many years after creation. At the time of Noah lived a wicked generation. All but eight people they jeered and they scoffed; they didn’t love God, all they did was just mock. H is for Hear. Hear that great task that God said to do: Build a great boat — your family’s the crew. Noah obeyed, he loved God so much, he didn’t complain or make any fuss. I is for Insane. Insane is the word that some may have used; “Old Noah’s stupid,” some may have accused. Noah must’ve been sad ’cause he knew what God said. It wouldn’t be long and these people would be dead. J is for Judgment. Judgment by water, God revealed His plan, a global Flood would destroy the land. That’s why Noah a big ship had to make, it was called an ark, with a barge-like shape. K is for Kept. Kept safe on the ark, only eight people went on board, with each kind of land animal and food that was stored. For seven days the ark stood with the door open wide, Noah must have pleaded, “Please, people, please come inside.” L is for Laughing. Laughing and scoffing Noah must have been hearing as he pleaded with people, “God’s judgment you be fearing. My family and each kind of land animal is inside. There’s still plenty of room and the door’s open wide.” M is for Mighty. Mighty must’ve been the bang when God closed the door, as the land did shake and the heavens did roar, great fountains of water broke through the ground and rain came down with a deafening sound.

Q is for Quiet. Quiet must have been Noah and his family when all of the destruction outside they did see. But then they must have praised God out loud; no doubt they humbly prayed with heads bowed. R is for Raven. Raven was the first bird Noah sent from the boat, now that the ark no longer did float. God caused the water to drain off the land and dried up the earth using wind like a fan. S is for Sent. Sent from the ark, the raven did fly to and fro across the sky. So Noah sent out a dove as a test, but it came back so it could rest. T is for Twice. Twice, Noah chose the dove to fly about to see if from the ark they could finally go out. When the dove came back with a leaf from a tree Noah knew now soon the earth he would see. U is for Usher. “Usher out of the ark,” God to Noah did tell, “your family and each of the animals as well.” Noah obeyed, as he always had. To get out of the ark, he must have been glad. V is for Very. Very thankful was Noah, he was full of praise. So to thank the Lord, an altar he raised. He made a great sacrifice, the best he could do, for God saved Noah, His Word is so true. W is for Wonderful. Wonderful, magnificent, and beautiful was the sign when the colors of the rainbow overhead did shine. It was God’s promise that there will never be another global Flood like this catastrophe. X is in eXtensive. eXtensive, a word that describes evidence of the Flood, fossils over the world that were buried in mud. What a warning to remind me and you to be like Noah, believe God’s Word is true. Y is for Years. Years, about four thousand three hundred are there, since the worldwide Flood made the earth so bare. And another judgment’s coming, from God’s Word we learn, when the whole of the universe from fire will burn. Z is for Zealous. Zealous, all of us need to be to tell of God’s ark for you and for me. Jesus, God’s Son, did die for our sin. He is the ark door — make sure you go in.

Let’s Read: A is for Ark Ark is a name for a great big boat. It had to be strong so it could float To survive many months during a global Flood, ’Cause man’s rebellion God had to judge.

The Starting Point: As we read about Noah’s ark and the global Flood, we need to go back to the beginning of Genesis to understand how man became so sinful and rebellious that God decided to judge the world with such a Flood. The Bible is God’s revelation to us. It can be trusted to tell us the true history of the world. In the Bible, we learn about the Garden of Eden, the origin of sin and death, and the Flood. We also learn about God’s wonderful plan of salvation.

ºº God sent a great Flood to cover the whole world as a judgment. ºº God had Noah build an ark of salvation so those who loved and believed God would be saved. ºº The Bible tells us that we disobey God and sin, too — because we are children of Adam and Eve. ºº We need saving in an ark — our ark is the Lord Jesus

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Tell me what you see in the picture. ºº Is the Bible just filled with made-up stories or is it a book of history? ºº Does the Bible have answers to our questions about life? ºº What does the Bible say about us? Do we sin?

I call the Bible “The History Book of the Universe” — from God’s “very good” creation to the entrance of sin into the world, until the time of the new heavens and earth.

Always Remember:

Read 2 Timothy 3:16–17:

The Bible is the history book of the universe. It tells us that God loves us and wants us to be happy. But He also wants us to obey His rules. When we don’t, we sin. And God has to punish sin. The Bible tells us that God sent the Flood because so many people were rebelling against Him.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº We know that what the Bible teaches is true history. ºº The history about Adam and Eve enables us to understand where sin came from. ºº God had to punish the people for their rebellion against God.

(The child needs to repeat this back to you.)

Stuff to Do: Let a child hold a Bible and tell them how truly amazing it is. There are actually 66 books in it — about 40 different people wrote them over about 1,500 years, in three different languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic). The Bible is God’s Holy Word. And even though it is filled with history, poetry, prophecy, and more, it all comes together to teach us God’s Word and His desire to share with us His grace and truth forever. God is good!

Quick Review: A-NOTES pg. 53

1. Is the Bible just a book of “stories”? 2. Why did God send a Flood? 3. Do we sin?

1

A is for Ark Ark is a name for a great big boat. It had to be strong so it could float

To survive many months during a global Flood, ’Cause man’s rebellion God had to judge. 2

Let’s Read: B is for Back Back in a garden is when it began, When the saddest day was caused by a man. Adam was told, “Don’t eat from this tree.” God made it clear, “You must obey Me.”

The Starting Point: Have the children look up Genesis 2:9: And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then read Genesis 2:16–17 (which is part of a more detailed description of what happened on the sixth day of creation): And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº God created all the plant kinds on the third day of creation. ºº Adam, Eve, and the animals were to eat fruits and plants. ºº On day six, God planted a garden with two special trees. ºº God told Adam never to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden before they sinned. ºº Think of how many trees God may have made all over the earth and in the garden — maybe millions. Adam and Eve would have had lots and lots of trees from which they could eat the fruit. ºº Do you think Adam and Eve were happy in the Garden of Eden? ºº There were two special trees in the garden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Which tree is in the picture? ºº What did God tell Adam about that tree?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God created the world and told Adam and Eve to eat plants. God told Adam not to eat from only one particular tree in the special garden He planted.

Stuff to Do: Ask the children, “Why did God test Adam and Eve this way?” If you have a puppet, use it to explain to the children that you can make the puppet do whatever you want. You control the puppet. Explain that God did not make Adam and Eve to be puppets. He did not make them and then force them to love and obey Him. God wanted Adam and Eve to love Him because they wanted to. They had the ability to choose.

Quick Review: 1. What was the one thing God told Adam not to do? 2. Why do you think Adam disobeyed?

B-NOTES

3. What was it like to live in the Garden of Eden?

pg. 53

3

B is for Back Back in a garden is when it began, When the saddest day was caused by a man. Adam was told, “Don’t eat from this tree.” God made it clear, “You must obey Me.” 4

Let’s Read: C is for Called Called the saddest day in world history, Adam disobeyed God and ate from that tree. Now everything changed — dirt, animals, and man. Sin entered the world; the rebellion began.

The Starting Point: Adam did something very wrong — he disobeyed God. When he did, sin entered the world and then it changed from very good and safe to bad and dangerous. It was like a sickness had come, and everything and everyone needed a cure. Life got hard for Adam and Eve. They had to leave the Garden of Eden, and Adam now had to work in the fields to grow food and make a living. Read Genesis 3:6–8: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº Sin is disobeying God. ºº God had told Adam (and Eve) not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ºº Even though God made Adam and cared for him, Adam chose to disobey Him.

ºº After eating of the one tree Adam and Eve were told not to, God sent them out of the garden so they couldn’t eat of the tree of life and live forever in their sinful state. ºº Now they had to work hard against a cursed ground to grow their own food. ºº They now had to worry about weeds, rocks, and thorns. ºº What had been a good world became a world filled with pain and suffering because sin entered the once-perfect world (Romans 5:12).

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº How would you describe what sin is? ºº What changed about the world because of sin? ºº Do our sins hurt others?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) The first sin from 6,000 years ago still hurts us today, just like our sins hurt others and God. It’s so good to consider every day that God makes a way for us to do what’s right through His Son Jesus.

Stuff to Do: Discuss what sin is. Have the children list out what they know is bad or hurtful. Then talk about some of the specific things in Scripture that God clearly states as sin in a context children can relate to, such as lying or stealing. Help them understand that because Adam was the head of the human race, and we are descendants of Adam, we are just as much to blame for sin and what it did as Adam. It is our fault there are bad things in the world — it’s not God’s fault.

Quick Review: C-NOTES

1. How did sin change the good and perfect world? 2. Is sin still in the world today?

pg. 54

5

C is for Called Called the saddest day in world history, Adam disobeyed God and ate from that tree. Now everything changed — dirt, animals, and man. Sin entered the world; the rebellion began. 6

Let’s Read: D is for Dreadful Dreadful things happened — when Cain killed his brother, Violent things, oh, one after another. The effects of sin were seen everywhere, But sadly, so many just didn’t even care.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

The Starting Point:

ºº What is a sacrifice?

The Bible tells us about a sad event that happened to Adam and Eve’s family. Their first two children offered sacrifices to God. Abel’s sacrifice pleased God, but Cain’s didn’t because his heart was not right. He likely did not trust God as Abel did. Cain was in rebellion against God.

ºº What did Cain do to Abel?

Read Genesis 4:3–8: And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Bible Bits:

ºº Do you think Cain believed no one would know what he did? ºº Even if no one else is around, God still knows what we do, doesn’t He? He sees and knows everything. He sees everything you do and knows everything you are thinking. He knows every person’s heart.

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) When Cain killed Abel, it was a terrible sin. Things are getting worse and worse since Adam disobeyed and sin came into the world.

Stuff to Do: Think about the things that make you angry with your brother or sister. Then remember what God tells us to do — love one another, and forgive one another. What is something nice you can do for your mom and dad, or brother and sister to show you love them?

(Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.)

Quick Review:

ºº Cain and Abel were brothers.

1. Who killed Abel?

ºº God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain’s.

2. Why was Cain angry?

ºº Cain was jealous of Abel.

3. How did God know that Cain did something wrong?

ºº Cain became angry and killed Abel because God did not accept Cain’s sacrifice. ºº God punished Cain because of his sin of killing another human being.

D-NOTES pg. 55

7

D is for Dreadful Dreadful things happened — when Cain killed his brother, Violent things, oh, one after another. The effects of sin were seen everywhere, But sadly, so many just didn’t even care. 8

Let’s Read:

ºº Even the ground changed, making it hard work for Adam and Eve (and now us) to survive.

E is for Earth Earth, moon, and stars — the whole universe Was suffering the effects of an awful Curse.

ºº When you see thorns or weeds, remember they exist because Adam (and we, as children of Adam) disobeyed God.

Disease, death, and suffering, and lots of pain,

ºº God is holy, pure, and perfect — so sinners can’t live with a holy God.

Nothing would ever be quite just the same.

The Starting Point: The disobedience of Adam and Eve didn’t just mean they had to leave the Garden of Eden and work hard to grow food. It also meant that changes took place in the whole universe! On earth, thorns and thistles, disease and suffering are just a few examples of how the world changed from a beautiful and perfect creation to one that contained pain, suffering, and death. But always remember: it’s not God’s fault all this happened, but our fault because we sinned in Adam. And even though we sinned, God had a plan to save us from our sin! Have the children look up Genesis 3:17–18: Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.” Read Romans 8:20–22: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº The world was perfect without sin, but when Adam sinned, the world — the whole universe, in fact — changed.

E-NOTES pg. 56

ºº God had to judge Adam (and all of us who are children of Adam) for this sin — that means Adam (and all of us) had to face punishment because of disobedience.

ºº God didn’t want people to be separated from Him forever, so, because He knew we would sin, He had a plan to make a way for people (including you) to be saved from sin and eternal separation from God.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº How was the Garden of Eden different from the world today? ºº What happened to the world because of Adam’s sin? ºº Do we see the results of Adam’s sin in the world today?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) When Adam disobeyed God, the whole world was changed. Death, disease, and thorns are the results of sin, and they are a reminder of what happened on that sad day when Adam disobeyed God.

Stuff to Do: Help with weeding a flower bed or the garden — learn to pull out the weeds and how to know the difference between a weed and what should be there like a flower or a vegetable plant. As you pull out weeds, you could say, “I have sinned — I have sinned.” This is just a reminder that it was our sin in Adam that resulted in weeds. Then when you have time, draw a picture of what you think a perfect world may have looked like without weeds, thorns, or thistles.

Quick Review: 1. Why are there weeds and thorns? 2. What was the world like before Adam disobeyed? 3. Was it easy for Adam and Eve to grow food?

9

E is for Earth Earth, moon, and stars — the whole universe Was suffering the effects of an awful Curse. Disease, death, and suffering, and lots of pain, Nothing would ever be quite just the same.

10

Let’s Read: F is for Fruitful

Let’s Talk!

They probably had fifty by the time they were old.

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

Their children had children and then there were more,

ºº Look at all of Adam and Eve’s children!

“Be fruitful and multiply,” the first two were told.

Hundreds of years later, there were people galore.

The Starting Point: There are lots of people today because Adam and Eve had lots of children, who also had lots of children. Their children had more children, and it went on and on. And that is how you and I and everyone who is alive today came to be. We are part of Adam and Eve’s very big family tree! Read Genesis 1:27–28: So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº The Bible explains that people began with Adam and Eve. ºº Back then, they lived for a very long time! ºº Everyone living today is part of their family. ºº We are all members of the same human race descended from Adam, no matter what shade of brown our skin is, or where we live, or what language we speak.

ºº Count as many children as you can. ºº Are all the kids the same age? Can you see any differences in them? ºº The Bible tells us the names of some of these children: Cain and Abel were first, then Seth, and then other “sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:4).

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) Adam lived to be 930 years old — he had a lot of birthdays! And he and Eve had a very big family. Even though people may have a different skin shade or talk differently than us, they are all still part of Adam’s large family.

Stuff to Do: Ask to see some of your family pictures. Do you have photos with your mom and dad or brothers and sisters? Create your own simple family tree with the help of your parents. You can draw your own pictures or make copies of some family photos. Create a small “Adam and Eve’s Family Tree” — use images clipped from magazines to show different people, different ages, different shades, and different eye shapes. Be sure to draw in your own family at the bottom of Adam and Eve’s family tree!

Quick Review: 1. Are people who don’t look like us still part of Adam’s family tree? 2. Why are there so many people today? 3. What were the names of some of Adam and Eve’s children?

F-NOTES pg. 57

11

F is for Fruitful “Be fruitful and multiply,” the first two were told. They probably had fifty by the time they were old. Their children had children and then there were more, Hundreds of years later, there were people galore.

12

Let’s Read:

ºº Just like Adam and Cain, God saw what the people were doing.

G is for the Grave Grave is the situation many years after creation. At the time of Noah lived a wicked generation. All but eight people they jeered and they scoffed; They didn’t love God, all they did was just mock.

ºº He had to punish them — but there were more people now, so God chose a different punishment. ºº God sent a great Flood over the whole world. ºº God saved only eight people from the Flood — Noah and his family.

The Starting Point:

Let’s Talk!

Even knowing that Cain was punished for killing his brother, people started hurting and killing each other. They refused to obey God, choosing instead to be mean and hurt others. But there was a man who was still obedient to God and followed His rules. His name was Noah. Read Genesis 6:5–13:

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Read 1 Peter 3:20: . . . who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.)

G-NOTES pg. 58

ºº Tell me what you see in the picture. ºº Why was God sorry He had made man? ºº Why did God send a Flood? ºº Why did God save Noah and his family?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God loves us and wants us to be happy, but He also wants us to obey His rules. When we don’t, we sin, and God has to punish sin. God sent the Flood because so many people were very wicked.

Stuff to Do: Put a Bible on a table and stack regular books like dictionaries and informational reference books next to it. Talk about how the information books are filled with facts and figures, while the Bible has God’s wisdom and knowledge in it. The one stack can help you know about certain things in the world, while the Bible reveals who we are, where we came from, what our problem is (sin), God’s loving plan for salvation, and how He wants us to live. Have the children name some of the rules God gives us in the Bible. Ask them, “Why does God give us rules?” Ask the children to talk about a time when they broke a rule in school or at home. Ask them what happened when they broke that rule. Ask them why it is important that we obey rules.

ºº T he problem of sin just kept getting worse and worse.

Quick Review:

ºº It was so bad that people were hurting and killing one another.

2. How big was the Flood?

1. Why did God send a Flood?

13

G is for Grave Grave is the situation many years after creation. At the time of Noah lived a wicked generation. All but eight people they jeered and they scoffed; They didn’t love God, all they did was just mock.

14

Let’s Read: H is for Hear Hear that great task that God said to do: Build a great boat — your family’s the crew. Noah obeyed, he loved God so much, He didn’t complain or make any fuss.

The Starting Point: Many years after Adam and Eve’s sin, a man named Noah loved God, even though the people in the world turned against the Lord. God told Noah to build an ark, a large ship that would keep Noah and his family safe from a great Flood that was coming. Read Genesis 6:13–18: And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark — you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.”

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº Noah was a good man who loved God, even though all the world (except Noah’s family) had turned against God. ºº With so many people rebelling and with wickedness only getting worse, God told Noah that He would send a Flood to cover the earth.

ºº Because Noah was a godly man, God gave him instructions for building a large ship to save himself, his family, and the land animal kinds in the world. ºº The Bible shows how terrible sin can be if we do not seek God. ºº God provides a way to save those people who love and follow Him.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Who was Noah? ºº Noah was a great man of God who pleased God and honored Him with his life. ºº At the time of Noah, people on earth had turned against God. ºº Sometimes when people do bad things they get punished, and God knew He had to punish those who would not obey Him. ºº Do you know what God told Noah to do?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) Sin is a terrible thing. It had caused much pain and many people had turned away from God. So God let Noah know that the world would be completely covered by water in a catastrophic judgment.

Stuff to Do: Have a child pile blocks up in one single stack to see how high they can go. When the blocks finally fall over, state that the blocks are like sins: the more sin there is, the more things become shaky and insecure. Long ago, the balance of the world was thrown off by sin. Our sins today can hurt us as well as our family and friends.

Quick Review: 1. If Noah loved God, why was God still so sad about sin? 2. What was God going to do to punish the world for sin?

H-NOTES

3. Why did God save Noah and his family from the Flood?

pg. 58

15

H is for Hear Hear that great task that God said to do: Build a great boat — your family’s the crew.

Noah obeyed, he loved God so much, He didn’t complain or make any fuss.

16

Let’s Read: I is for Insane Insane is the word that some may have used; “Old Noah’s stupid,” some may have accused. Noah must’ve been sad ‘cause he knew what God said. It wouldn’t be long and these people would be dead.

ºº Noah would have found a place for every one of the creatures that were needed, including the dinosaur kinds. ºº All the ark needed to do was float, so it didn’t have sails or propellers. ºº Everything the people and creatures needed to live for that yearlong Flood would have fit in the gigantic ark.

The Starting Point:

Let’s Talk!

Noah listened to God and began to build the ark, which likely took a number of years to complete. (Noah wasn’t told to build the ark until his three sons were born and old enough to be married — Genesis 6:13–18.) What a job! After it was completed, God brought each kind of land-dwelling creature on the earth two by two so they could be saved from the Flood (seven of the clean animals — Genesis 7:2).

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

Read Genesis 6:18–22:

ºº How long did it take Noah to build the ark?

“But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark — you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 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. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº The ark would have been a very large ship, big enough for Noah’s family, the creatures, and food enough for all of them. It was longer than a football field and was three stories tall! ºº Noah listened to God and did just what He said.

ºº Who listened to God and did what He said: Adam or Noah? ºº What exactly is an ark? ºº How big was the ark?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) Noah listened to God, and God blessed Noah. He told Noah how to build an ark to save his family and each kind of land animal on the earth from the Flood. God still looks for people who listen to Him today.

Stuff to Do: Play a listening game. Whisper ideas first, but have the child shout loudly so he or she can’t understand what you’re whispering. Then whisper clear suggestions (like, “Go pick up that book and bring it to me”) and have the child listen quietly. Let the child know how it encouraged you when he or she did what you said. This is how it was for Noah. He listened for God’s clear voice, and then he followed it, while the others didn’t want to hear God’s voice because they didn’t want to obey God.

Quick Review: 1. What is an ark?

I-NOTES pg. 59

2. Did Noah honor God by building the ark like God asked? 3. Why did God send the animals to be put into the ark?

17

I is for Insane Insane is the word that some may have used; “Old Noah’s stupid,” some may have accused. Noah must’ve been sad ‘cause he knew what God said. It wouldn’t be long and these people would be dead.

18

Let’s Read: J is for Judgment Judgment by water, God revealed His plan,

Let’s Talk!

A global Flood would destroy the land.

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

That’s why Noah a big ship had to make,

ºº Tell me what you see in the picture.

It was called an ark, with a barge-like shape.

The Starting Point: God was going to send a Flood as a judgment on mankind. So Noah obeyed God and built the ark. But what did the ark look like? Well, the ark would have been shaped like a great cargo ship. It was very large and had enough room to carry all the land animal kinds, food, and everything else Noah and his family would have needed during the Flood. Read Genesis 6:17: And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº The ark was not a tiny boat. It was a huge ship that was designed to float and survive the conditions caused by the Flood. ºº The ark was made of gopher wood (we don’t know what kind of wood that was). ºº The ark had plenty of rooms inside for the animals and for Noah and his family — the ark was longer than a football field! ºº The ark had a door on the side, and it was three stories tall. ºº Everything the people and creatures needed to live for that yearlong Flood would have fit in the gigantic ark.

ºº What kind of wood was Noah’s ark made of? ºº How long was the ark? ºº Was there enough room for all the creatures and Noah’s family? ºº How tall was the ark?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) Noah trusted God and followed His instructions for building the ark. The ark was big enough to carry many creatures as well as Noah and his family. We can trust what God tells us in His Word.

Stuff to Do: Take your child to a park or another open space with plenty of room. Using a tape measure and some sort of markers (flags, cones, soccer balls, etc.), have your child hold one end of the tape measure and begin measuring out the approximate length of the ark (450 feet). Place a marker at each end. Measure the width of the ark next (75 feet). Place markers at each point, and roughly map out the rest of the ark. Explain to your child that the ark was approximately 45 feet high. But because the length of a cubit varied in the surrounding cultures, we are not totally certain whether the measurements Noah used were based on an 18-inch cubit or a 20.7-inch cubit (or perhaps some other variation). The size of the ark was immense, and it was a long time before man built ships as big or bigger than the ark.

Quick Review: 1. How big was the ark?

J-NOTES

2. What happened to the people and animals during the Flood?

pg. 59

19

J is for Judgment Judgment by water, God revealed His plan, A global Flood would destroy the land. That’s why Noah a big ship had to make, It was called an ark, with a barge-like shape.

20

Let’s Read: K is for Kept Kept safe on the ark, only eight people went on board, With each kind of land animal and food that was stored. For seven days the ark stood with the door open wide, Noah must have pleaded, “Please, people, please come inside.”

The Starting Point: God commanded Noah to take his family and the representatives of all the land animal kinds God sent to the ark so that they would survive the Flood. Dinosaurs are land animals, too, so God sent two of each kind of these to go on the ark, also. (There were only about 50 dinosaur families, which means only about 50 kinds of dinosaurs were needed on the ark.) And Noah didn’t have to go looking for the animals — God brought them to him! Noah was righteous before God and trusted Him, so God told Noah and his family to go through the door to board the ark and survive the Flood. Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº Noah was righteous before God. ºº God told Noah and his family to board the ark. They were kept safe during the Flood.

pg. 60

ºº Noah trusted God and did everything God commanded.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Tell me what you see in the picture. ºº Why did God decide to save Noah and his family? ºº How many unclean animals did Noah take on the ark? ºº How many clean animals did Noah take on the ark? ºº Did Noah take dinosaurs? How did the dinosaurs fit? ºº Did Noah trust God? Is it important that we trust God, too?

Always Remember:

Read Genesis 7:1–5:

K-NOTES

ºº Most dinosaurs were the size of a sheep (or even smaller), so they would fit on the ark. And for the few dinosaurs that grew large, it would make sense that God may have sent smaller young adults — but actually, there was plenty of room even for the few large ones.

ºº God commanded Noah to take pairs of every animal, seven of the clean animals, two of the unclean, and seven of the birds. ºº Dinosaurs are land animals, so Noah took dinosaurs on the ark, too.

(The child needs to repeat this back to you.) Noah obeyed God’s commands and walked with God. God wants to be there for you and with you, too, in every part of your life. Like Noah, you have nothing to fear when you trust God.

Stuff to Do: Find a large tree in your yard or in a park. Have a child try to place his or her arms around the trunk. Let them know that this would have been about the size of the behemoth’s leg (behemoth was a large animal described in Job 40 — and the description fits something like a sauropod dinosaur), and it would have stood taller than most houses! Explain that even though behemoth was very tall, most dinosaurs were actually quite small, and that there would have been plenty of room on the ark for the dinosaurs and all the other animals God sent to survive the Flood.

Quick Review: 1. Did Noah trust God? 2. Did Noah take dinosaurs on the ark? 3. How did the dinosaurs fit?

21

K is for Kept Kept safe on the ark, only eight people went on board, With each kind of land animal and food that was stored. For seven days the ark stood with the door open wide, Noah must have pleaded, “Please, people, please come inside.”

22

Let’s Read: L is for Laughing Laughing and scoffing Noah must have been hearing

Let’s Talk!

As he pleaded with people, “God’s judgment you be fearing.

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

My family and each kind of land animal is inside. There’s still plenty of room and the door’s open wide.”

The Starting Point: When God gave Noah the instructions for building the ark, He told Noah to “set the door of the ark in its side” (Genesis 6:16). The ark had one door to enter in order to escape God’s terrible judgment. Noah and his family had faith in God. They went through the door by faith, trusting God’s Word, and entered the ark. God shut the door. So the ark is a picture of salvation in Christ — we have to enter by the door, and Jesus is the door. Read 2 Peter 2:5: . . . and [God] did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº God told Noah to place the door on the side of the ark. ºº Noah was a “preacher of righteousness.” ºº Noah and his family were the only humans who entered the ark and survived the Flood. ºº The ark was a picture of salvation. Anyone who passed through the door of the ark would be saved from the coming Flood. In the same way, Jesus is the door through which we must enter to be saved. ºº The ark was big enough for other people to be saved, but they refused to listen to God.

ºº What is Noah doing in the illustration? ºº Why did Noah and his family survive the Flood? ºº What is going to happen to all the people who did not board the ark? ºº What does it mean that the ark was a picture of salvation?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God made a way of salvation for Noah and his family. They passed through the door of the ark, and they were saved from the judgment of the Flood. Jesus Christ has provided a way of salvation for us, if we believe that He is Lord and that He rose from the dead.

Stuff to Do: Read Genesis 7 and make a list of what is happening. Using your child’s toys, re-enact the events of Genesis 7. Be sure to explain how the animals got to the ark and have the child count the animals and explain what an animal kind is (e.g., dog kind, cat kind, elephant kind — mostly at the family level of classification). An older child may want to read Genesis 7 and 8 and make a mini time line of the Flood, starting with God giving Noah the plans for the ark and ending with Noah’s family and the animals coming off of the ark.

Quick Review: 1. What was Noah a preacher of? 2. What was the ark a picture of?

L-NOTES pg. 61

23

L is for Laughing Laughing and scoffing Noah must have been hearing As he pleaded with people, “God’s judgment you be fearing. My family and each kind of land animal’s inside. There’s still plenty of room and the door’s open wide.”

24

Let’s Read: M is for Mighty Mighty must’ve been the bang when God closed the door, As the land did shake and the heavens did roar, Great fountains of water broke through the ground And rain came down with a deafening sound.

The Starting Point: You might wonder sometimes why, even though there are so many fossils from the past — why don’t we see many fossils forming today? Well, the Flood that covered the whole earth stirred up lots of mud that concealed the animals that drowned — forming fossils! Have a child read aloud Genesis 7:6–12. Read Genesis 7:13–16: On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark — they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº All Noah’s family and the animals God sent, including dinosaurs, entered the ark. They were kept safe and dry inside. ºº The fountains of the great deep burst forth. This breaking up of the earth caused the oceans to heat up and ash and dust to fill the air. ºº The water came from below the earth and from above the earth. ºº Those that did not enter the ark died. Many were covered by the water and mud/sediment. ºº During the time of the Flood, massive amounts of plants and millions of animals that had died would have been covered in mud and layers of the floating M-NOTES debris that would settle.

pg. 61

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Do you think it would be scary to get into a big boat with a huge storm all around? ºº Where did the floodwaters come from? ºº What happened to all the creatures that didn’t enter the ark? ºº What happened to the dinosaur bones when they were covered with all the mud and sediment?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) What we find in the world confirms what God’s Word says. For nearly all the fossils of dinosaurs and other creatures to be found all over the world, and for sea fossils to be found on the tops of mountains, the Flood of Noah’s day is the only event that explains it all so well.

Stuff to Do: Messy alert! Take a small toy boat, flour, a deep pan, small rocks to represent animals, and a gallon of water. Fill the base of the pan with flour and place the boat and animals on the flour. Slowly pour in the water, letting it stir up the flour and start to raise the boat. Talk about how during the Flood the water even rose over the mountains of those days (the mountains we have today formed during or after the Flood!). Once the water has been poured, let everything settle, then come back to see how the flour has covered over the animals, yet the boat is still floating above the water. This is a simplistic way to see how God saved Noah, his family, and the animals, yet all else would have been covered in water and mud (the flour), eventually forming fossils all over the earth.

Quick Review: 1. What happened to all the animals outside the ark when the floodwaters came? 2. How could such creatures become fossils? 3. Were Noah and his family on the ark for very long?

25

M is for Mighty Mighty must’ve been the bang when God closed the door, As the land did shake and the heavens did roar, Great fountains of water broke through the ground And rain came down with a deafening sound.

26

Let’s Read: N is for Noah Noah, now he’s a man that sure stood out As he trusted God’s Word, without any doubt. What a great man of God Noah must have been; He believed God’s Word about things unseen.

The Starting Point: God’s Word is true, and we can trust it just like Noah did. When God told Noah to build an ark, Noah believed God and did what He commanded. Noah had faith in God, and so should we. Faith does not mean believing in God without any good reasons. Faith is the act of believing in something unseen for which we do have a good reason — the evidence of God’s goodness and the way He keeps His promises and His Word. Read Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Read Hebrews 11:7: By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº Noah had faith that what God said was true, and he did what God commanded. ºº Faith in God means believing in what we cannot see, based on good reasons.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº What is happening in the illustration? ºº Why did Noah build the ark and load the animals on it? ºº What is faith? ºº Do we have good reasons for our faith in God? What are some of them?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) Faith in God means believing in what we cannot see, based on good reasons because of God’s Word. God loves us and He keeps His promises, so we can trust that His Word is true.

Stuff to Do: Noah had faith in God, and he was obedient to God in building the ark and in doing what God asked of him. We also need to have faith in God and obey Him. But how do we learn why we can be faithful? How do we know what God expects of us? We have to spend time with God. Think about a good friend. Talk about how you got to know that good friend. God’s Word says to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and to “be diligent to present yourself approved” before God (2 Timothy 2:15). We can get to know God by reading our Bibles and by praying. In fact, we should do these things every day. Encourage the children to read their Bibles daily. Take time to pray, asking each child to take a turn.

ºº God has never broken His promises and He loves His children.

Quick Review:

ºº We have faith that God’s Word is true.

1. What is faith?

N-NOTES

2. How did Noah show his faith in God?

pg. 62

27

N is for Noah Noah, now he’s a man that sure stood out As he trusted God’s Word, without any doubt.

What a great man of God Noah must have been; He believed God’s Word about things unseen. 28

Let’s Read:

ºº All the people outside the ark died.

O is for Over Over all the earth the water flowed fast; For many, many months this judgment would last. People outside the ark would have died; Too late they realized that God had not lied.

The Starting Point: When the floodwaters came, the Bible says the entire earth was covered — even the mountains of that time! Now some people will try to say that the Flood covered only one small part of the earth. But that doesn’t make sense. Otherwise, why did Noah build an ark? He could have just moved. No, God’s Word tells us that the whole earth was covered (“the high hills under the whole heaven” — Genesis 7:19) and no people survived except those eight on the ark. Read 2 Peter 3:6: . . . by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. Read Genesis 7:17–20, 24: Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. . . . And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº The torrential rains lasted for 40 days and 40 nights until the ark rose up in the water — and continued until the windows of heaven were stopped.

O-NOTES pg. 62

ºº The floodwaters began to recede after 150 days. Noah’s family was on the ark for over a year!

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº What’s happening in the illustration? ºº How much of the earth did the Flood cover? ºº Who survived the Flood? Why? ºº How many days were the floodwaters on the earth?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God’s plans always work. Noah’s ark saved the animals and Noah’s family — even though the whole earth was covered with water.

Stuff to Do: Take a plastic dishpan or a large bowl and put two small cups of sand in the middle. Place plastic animals or small figures in and around the sand. Then take a bucket of water and pour it quickly on one side of the bowl. Talk about how the waters of the Flood washed away people, buildings, and everything else on earth. Remind the children of how Adam disobeyed God’s commandment and so sin entered the world. We see the sad effects of sin in Cain’s sinful attitude, and then we read in the Bible of other sad consequences of sin. Adam’s punishment for sin was being removed from the Garden of Eden and having to work hard to survive — and death now entering the world. Cain’s punishment was a mark and having to go far away. Later, God’s judgment on man was the Flood of Noah’s day because so many people were doing bad things and not obeying God’s rules.

ºº T he floodwaters covered the entire earth — even the mountains of that time.

Quick Review:

 ow, before the Flood, the mountains weren’t ºº N so high. The mountains today were formed towards the end of and after the Flood.

2. How big was the Flood?

1. Why did God send the Flood? 3. Who survived the Flood?

29

O is for Over Over all of the earth the water flowed fast; People outside the ark would have died; For many, many months this judgment would last. Too late they realized that God had not lied.

30

Let’s Read: P is for Pleasure Pleasure is not how God viewed this great Flood. He must have been sad to see people die in the mud. They could have gone through the door to be saved; A way of salvation for them God had paved.

The Starting Point: Earlier we talked about how Noah’s ark was a picture of salvation, because in order to be saved, people had to enter through the door of the ark. God has made a way for us to be saved today, too. The Bible tells us that God so loved the world that He sent His Son Jesus Christ so that we might be saved. Jesus Christ is the “door” we have to pass through to be saved today. All those who trust God and repent of their sin will be saved and will go to be with Him in heaven. (See Romans 10:9 below.) Read 2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Read Romans 10:9: . . . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº Noah’s ark was a picture of salvation. Anyone who boarded the ark would be saved from God’s judgment.

ºº One day, Jesus will take those who are saved and trust God, like Noah did, and bring them to be with Him forever.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº What was Noah’s ark a picture of? ºº What happened to all the people who didn’t board Noah’s ark? ºº How has God made a way of salvation for us? ºº How do we enter that “door”? (Hint: Romans 10:9) ºº What happens to those who are saved and trust God?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) You can get hurt from falling down or getting a cut or having someone say something mean to you. Imagine a place where there is no pain, no crying, and no death. That will be what heaven is like, and God wants to take us there someday.

Stuff to Do: Talk about heaven and how it is beautiful, perfect, and good, like the Garden of Eden once was, but even better. Let a child draw what he or she thinks heaven might be like: a place of peace and joy, with no pain or tears or death; everything that is wonderful without anything bad. Give praise to God for making such a magnificent home and for inviting us to live with Him there.

Quick Review:

ºº God has made a way for us to be saved from His coming judgment.

1. Has God made a way for us to be saved?

ºº He sent Jesus Christ to die on the Cross as payment for our sin. He raised Christ from the dead after three days.

2. How can we be saved? 3. Where will those who are saved and trust God go one day?

ºº If we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.

P-NOTES pg. 63

31

P is for Pleasure Pleasure is not how God viewed this great Flood. He must have been sad to see people die in the mud. They could have gone through the door to be saved; A way of salvation for them God had paved.

32

Let’s Read: Q is for Quiet Quiet must have been Noah and his family

Let’s Talk!

When all of the destruction outside they did see.

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

But then they must have praised God out loud;

ºº Tell me what is happening in the illustration.

No doubt they humbly prayed with heads bowed.

ºº Who survived the Flood?

The Starting Point:

ºº What did Noah and his family likely do during the Flood?

Can you imagine seeing the earth covered in water? All the people and land animals that were not on the ark would have died in the Flood. But Noah and his family would have been thankful that God saved them from it. And they likely prayed to God and praised Him for His goodness over and over again.

Always Remember:

Read Genesis 7:13: On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark. Read Genesis 7:22–23: All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.

Bible Bits:

ºº What’s the greatest gift Christians can be thankful for? (Hint: We learned about it in the last lesson.)

(The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God has made a way of salvation for us through Jesus Christ. We should be thankful and praise God because of His provision every day.

Stuff to Do: Explain that 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Have the children write down or name out loud three things they are thankful for (for example, salvation, family, etc.). Ask them to explain why they are thankful for those things. As a group, pray together, having each child thank God in turn. Have the children memorize 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and recite it together.

(Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.)

Quick Review:

ºº When the Flood came, only Noah, his family, and the land animals on the ark survived.

1. What happened to all the animals outside the ark when the floodwaters came?

ºº Noah and his family must have been thankful to be safe on the ark.

2. What’s the greatest gift Christians can be thankful for?

ºº They likely spent time praying and praising God for His goodness to them. ºº We should also spend time thanking God for the ways He blesses us and for who He is.

Q-NOTES pg. 64

33

Q is for Quiet Quiet must have been Noah and his family When all of the destruction outside they did see.

But then they must have praised God out loud; No doubt they humbly prayed with heads bowed.

34

Let’s Read:

Let’s Talk!

R is for Raven Raven was the first bird Noah sent from the boat, Now that the ark no longer did float. God caused the water to drain off the land And dried up the earth using wind like a fan.

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº God originally made the world to be a perfect place. It was more beautiful than we can imagine.

The Starting Point:

ºº The Flood dramatically changed the surface of the earth. Over time, deserts formed. It was no longer the beautiful world God originally created.

The floodwaters covered the entire earth. Noah sent out a raven, which flew back and forth until there was dry land. Read Genesis 8:6–7:

ºº After the Flood, ash in the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions and warm water in the oceans were part of what eventually brought on the Ice Age.

So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. Now, during and after the Flood, things around the world changed. Because of all the water, volcanoes, storms, and more, a few hundred years after the Flood, heavy snows and ice swept over much of the earth and caused the Ice Age. This may well have killed off many of the dinosaurs as well as other kinds of animals. Read Job 38:29–30: From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? The waters harden like stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº Noah’s ark no longer floated on the water because it landed on the mountains of Ararat. ºº The land wasn’t dry enough for the people and animals to safely leave the ark. ºº Noah chose a raven to send out and see if enough water was gone from the earth. ºº The raven was not able to find anything to show it was safe to live outside the ark. ºº Remember, our world was very different before and after the Flood. ºº There were dramatic climate changes after the Flood. ºº It would take time for the land to dry out and for plants grow so the animals and people could live.

R-NOTES

ºº Because the world was so different, over time, various animals became extinct.

ºº During the Ice Age, plants and animals close to the ice and snow would have found it difficult to survive—some became extinct. ºº There is a word for groups of animals like dinosaurs that have died out over time. The word is extinct.

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) During and after a powerful event like the Flood of Noah’s day, many things happened that changed the world. But no matter what, God is always there. When you have questions, always begin with the answers you can find in the Bible. God shared the truth with us about Noah and the global Flood in the Bible, and like Noah, we need to trust God’s Word.

Stuff to Do: Have your young learner draw a picture of the people and animals in the ark, with the rain and stormy weather outside. Take the opportunity to see how the animals and people are presented in the picture. Are they happy and smiling? Or sad and scared? Depending on the image drawn, take a few minutes to talk with your child about how God takes care of all of us. Reinforce and reassure them that the animals and people in the ark would not have been scared because they knew that God was taking care of them. Noah and his family obeyed God, and they were saved from the Flood by doing what God told them to do.

Quick Review: 1. What are some of the events in the world that can destroy creatures? 2. Could the creatures called “dragons” really have been dinosaurs? 3. What was the Ice Age?

pg. 64

35

R is for Raven Raven was the first bird Noah sent from the boat, God caused the water to drain off the land Now that the ark no longer did float. And dried up the earth using wind like a fan. 36

Let’s Read: S is for Sent Sent from the ark, the raven did fly To and fro across the sky. So Noah sent out a dove as a test, But it came back so it could rest.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Tell me about the illustration. ºº What kind of bird did Noah send out first?

The Starting Point:

ºº What kind of bird did Noah send out second?

As the waters were receding, Noah sent out a dove to find dry land. But the dove came back to Noah, because she couldn’t find anywhere to land. Now, during this time on the ark, Noah and his family had to be very patient. Not only that, but they had to keep caring for all the animals. This was probably hard work sometimes! But we can trust that God prepared Noah’s family for this, too.

ºº Where did the dove go?

Read Genesis 8:8–9:

Noah and his family had to wait very patiently for the floodwaters to recede. God commands us to be patient when we have to wait as well.

He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº The floodwaters started to recede on day 150. ºº After Noah sent the raven, he sent out a dove. ºº The dove could not find a place to land, so she came back to Noah. ºº Noah and his family had to keep caring for all the animals on the ark while they waited for the floodwaters to recede.

ºº How do you think Noah and his family cared for the animals? Did they have lots of food on the ark?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.)

Stuff to Do: Tell the children that the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines patience as “bearing pains or trials without complaint.” That could mean sticking with someone else during pain and trials in their life, too. Ask the students if they can think of times when they have had to be patient. Read James 5:7: “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.” Discuss with the children how long it takes for farmer’s crops to grow, and how farmers must patiently water and care for the crops until the harvest. You may wish to try to grow flowers or vegetables with the children to bring the illustration to life for them.

Quick Review: 1. What kind of bird did Noah send out after the raven?

S-NOTES

2. Did the dove find a place to land?

pg. 65

37

S is for Sent Sent from the ark, the raven did fly To and fro across the sky. So Noah sent out a dove as a test, But it came back so it could rest.

38

Let’s Read: T is for Twice Twice, Noah chose the dove to fly about To see if from the ark they could finally go out. When the dove came back with a leaf from a tree Noah knew now soon the earth he would see.

The Starting Point: Seven days after Noah sent out the dove the first time, he sent her out again to find dry land. This time, she came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth. It wouldn’t be long and Noah’s family would be able to leave the ark. Read Genesis 8:10–11: And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº Noah sent out the dove to find dry land twice. ºº The second time, the dove returned with an olive leaf in her mouth. ºº All the water from the Flood was receding. ºº The Bible tells us that God formed the ocean basins, raising the land out of the water, so the floodwaters would return to a safe place. ºº Today, we can find most of the water from the Flood in the oceans!

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Tell me about the illustration. ºº What did the dove bring back to Noah? ºº Do you think Noah was happy that they would be able to leave the ark soon? ºº Where did all the water from the Flood go?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God kept Noah and his family safe through the Flood, and He made a safe place for the floodwaters to go.

Stuff to Do: Have the children pretend they are Noah keeping a diary during his time on the ark. Have them call it “The Ark Log.” For younger children, ask them to draw 2 or 3 pictures of what Noah and his family may have been doing on different days on the ark. Ask them to share their pictures and explain them. For older students, ask them to choose five days (from the beginning, middle, and end of the voyage), and write an entry for each day from Noah’s perspective.

Quick Review: 1. What did the dove bring back to Noah? 2. Where did the floodwaters go?

T-NOTES pg. 65

39

T is for Twice Twice, Noah chose the dove to fly about To see if from the ark they could finally go out. When the dove came back with a leaf from a tree Noah knew now soon the earth he would see. 40

Let’s Read: U is for Usher “Usher out of the ark,” God to Noah did tell,

Let’s Talk!

“Your family and each of the animals as well.” Noah obeyed, as he always had.

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

To get out of the ark, he must have been glad.

ºº What’s happening in the illustration?

The Starting Point:

ºº What day did the ark land on the mountains of Ararat?

Once the ark was floating, Noah, his family, and all the creatures on the ark drifted on the waters of the Flood until the 150th day. After that, the ark came to rest on the top of the mountains of Ararat. But Noah had to wait until the 370th day to come out of the ark. What an amazing sight that would have been!

ºº What day did Noah, his family, and the animals come off the ark?

Read Genesis 8:15–19:

God was able to save Noah, his family, and all the animals of the world through the Flood. He did this by giving Noah a warning to build the ark and by showing him how to prepare for what was to come. God has given anyone who will listen His plan for eternal life and how to be saved through Jesus His Son.

Then God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº For about a year, the ark had been home to Noah, his family, and all the creatures that filled its space. ºº Now the time had come for them to come out and fill the earth. ºº The ground was now dry, and seeds would be sprouting for all to eat of the plants, and some saplings may have also taken root.

ºº Were there dinosaurs on the ark?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.)

Stuff to Do: Download dinosaur coloring pages from AnswersinGenesis.org/kids/ activities. Have your child color the pages and talk about the different kinds of dinosaurs that God made. After nearly a year on a boat, most of us would want to run out and play!

Quick Review: 1. What happened after the ark landed on top of the mountains? 2. What kinds of creatures came out of the ark when the doors opened?

ºº Animals would disperse from this great ship and wander away in their groups of like kind.

U-NOTES pg. 66

41

U is for Usher “Usher out of the ark,” God to Noah did tell, “Your family and each of the animals as well.” Noah obeyed, as he always had. To get out of the ark, he must have been glad.

42

Let’s Read: V is for Very Very thankful was Noah, he was full of praise. So to thank the Lord, an altar he raised. He made a great sacrifice, the best he could do, For God saved Noah, His Word is so true.

The Starting Point: After Noah got off the ark, the first thing he did was sacrifice one of every clean animal. Noah was thankful that God had saved him and his family from the Flood. God was pleased with Noah’s offering. Read Genesis 8:20–22: Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”

ºº God promised to bring continuous seasons to the earth as long as it remained, which would remind people always of His faithfulness to Noah and to us.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Tell me about the illustration. ºº What did Noah do when he got off the ark? ºº How did man’s relationship with animals change after the Flood? ºº What are the seasons a reminder of?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) When Noah and the animals left the ark, the world had changed because of the Flood, and man’s relationship with the animals changed.

Bible Bits:

Stuff to Do:

(Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.)

Draw a picture of an animal fossil (or copy one out of a book). As you look at it, write down or think about all the things you have learned about the earth’s past and future from the Bible and this book (for example, death after sin; no death in the future; past judgment; no evolution; and so on). How can you tell someone about sin and salvation using the Flood, a fossil, and the Bible?

ºº Noah was thankful that God had saved him and his family from the Flood. ºº Noah built an altar and sacrificed one of every clean animal (seven of each clean kind were on board Noah’s ark). ºº God was pleased with Noah’s sacrifice. ºº After the Flood, man’s relationship with animals changed. Animals began to fear man. ºº God allowed man to eat animals after the Flood.

Quick Review: 1. Was God pleased with Noah’s sacrifice? 2. How did man’s relationship with the animals change after the Flood?

V-NOTES pg. 67

43

V is for Very Very thankful was Noah, he was full of praise. So to thank the Lord, an altar he raised. He made a great sacrifice, the best he could do, For God saved Noah, His Word is so true.

44

Let’s Read:

ºº However, God will destroy the heavens and the earth by fire one day (2 Peter 3) and make a new heavens and earth.

W is for Wonderful Wonderful, magnificent, and beautiful was the sign When the colors of the rainbow overhead did shine. It was God’s promise that there will never be Another global Flood like this catastrophe.

The Starting Point: God keeps His promises. He promised that the seasons would continue as a sign of His faithfulness. After the Flood, God promised to never send another Flood to destroy the earth. The rainbow represents God’s promise to not send another Flood. There have been many local floods since, but never another global one. Read Genesis 9:11–17: “Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Bible Bits:

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Tell me about the illustration. ºº What did God promise Noah? ºº What does the rainbow represent? ºº How will God judge the earth in the future?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God promised that He would never send another Flood to destroy the earth, and the rainbow represents that promise. But God will destroy the earth with fire one day.

Stuff to Do: Have the children write down the seven major colors of the rainbow (or write it for them): red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Using the word rainbow as an acrostic, have the children put a color of the rainbow (beginning with red) beside each letter. Then opposite the color, have them write a word for each letter. The words should tell some of what they have learned in this book. For example: Ready — Be ready for Jesus when He comes back. Answers — The Bible has the answers about life. Into — Dinosaurs went into the ark. No — No people outside the ark survived the Flood.

(Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.)

Behemoth — A dinosaur (behemoth) that lived beside Job.

ºº When Noah got off the ark, he sacrificed one of every clean animal to God.

Out — Out of the ark dinosaurs came.

 od promised that He would never again ºº G destroy the earth with a global Flood.

W-NOTES pg. 67

ºº T he rainbow represents God’s promise not to send another global Flood.

Water — Water covered the whole earth during the Flood.

Quick Review: 1. What does the rainbow represent? 2. How will God judge the earth in the future?

45

W is for Wonderful Wonderful, magnificent, and beautiful was the sign When the colors of the rainbow overhead did shine.

It was God’s promise that there will never be Another global Flood like this catastrophe.

46

Let’s Read: X is in eXtensive eXtensive, a word that describes evidence of the Flood, Fossils over the world that were buried in mud. What a warning to remind me and you To be like Noah, believe God’s Word is true.

ºº They may have died from lack of proper vegetation, from the Ice Age, from being hunted, from diseases, or from other catastrophic events (just as has happened to many other animals).

The Starting Point:

Let’s Talk!

Dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes. But there were likely around 50 different dinosaur kinds (because there are about 50 families of dinosaurs). That is, many were simply variations of a brachiosaurus or diplodocus, which are part of the sauropod kind, or variations of the ceratopsian kind, like the triceratops. We find dinosaur fossils because, when the Flood came, many of the dinosaurs (that were not on the ark) would have been covered in mud from the floodwaters. That quick burial would have preserved them as fossils.

(Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.)

Read Genesis 7:23: So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.)

ºº Can you think of some funny dinosaur names you know? ºº Pronounce these names: iguanodon (ig-WAN-oh-don), diplodocus (dih-PLOD-uh-kuss), brachiosaurus (BRACK-ee-uh-SAWR-us), and tyrannosaurus (tye-RAN-uh-SAWR-us). ºº If there were so many dinosaurs on the ark, what do you think has happened to them? ºº What event gives us a clue about what happened to the dinosaurs?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) There’s evidence of the Flood all over the world, and it confirms the truth of God’s Word. It also reminds us that we can trust the history of the earth in the Bible.

ºº The Flood gives us a clue about what happened to the dinosaurs.

Stuff to Do:

ºº The dinosaurs that died in the Flood were rapidly buried in mud, preserving them as fossils.

Pull out a dinosaur book (or look at a dinosaur website that is child friendly) to look over the images of the types of dinosaurs that would have been on the ark. Look over the names and try to pronounce as many as possible.

ºº There were likely around 50 dinosaur kinds, so about 100 dinosaurs were carried on the ark, males and females. ºº What happened to the dinosaurs that came off the ark is not known for sure.

Quick Review: 1. Can you name some of the dinosaurs that came off the ark?

X-NOTES

2. About how many types of dinosaur kinds were there?

pg. 68

47

X is in eXtensive eXtensive, a word that describes evidence of the Flood, Fossils over the world that were buried in mud. What a warning to remind me and you To be like Noah, believe God’s Word is true. 48

Let’s Read: Y is for Years Years, about four thousand three hundred are there, Since the worldwide Flood made the earth so bare. And another judgment’s coming, from God’s Word we learn, When the whole of the universe from fire will burn.

The Starting Point: After the Flood, God told Noah that He would never destroy the world with water again. Later in the Bible, He tells us that Jesus will return for those who follow Him, and that He will destroy the present heavens and the earth with fire. We can have peace, though, knowing He loves us! Read 2 Peter 3:6–14: . . . by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº In the Bible, God tells us that Jesus will return one day to take His people to heaven. ºº God judged sin in Noah’s day with a Flood. ºº In the future, God will judge sin with fire. ºº We can watch with hopefulness for His return because we know He loves us. ºº The Flood was real and we can still see its marks all over the world.

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº What does the Bible tell us about Jesus? (Hint: death, Resurrection, etc.) ºº Will God ever send another global Flood? ºº How will God judge the world in the future? ºº What should believers be watching for with hopefulness?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) One day, God will judge this sin-cursed world with fire. Jesus is going to come back for His people who are waiting for Him.

Stuff to Do: Take a favorite stuffed animal and a blanket, and play a bit of hide and seek. Cover the stuffed animal with the blanket and hide it in the house. Ask a child if the stuffed animal is still around. Use this simple lesson to teach them that though we can’t always see something or someone, that doesn’t mean they are gone. Jesus is with us, though we can’t see Him, and He will return to take us to be with Him because of His great love.

Quick Review: Y-NOTES pg. 68

1. How will God judge this sin-cursed world one day? 2. What does the Bible teach us about watching?

49

Y is for Years Years, about four thousand three hundred are there, Since the worldwide Flood made the earth so bare. And another judgment’s coming, from God’s Word we learn, When the whole of the universe from fire will burn. 50

Let’s Read: Z is for Zealous Zealous, all of us need to be To tell of God’s ark for you and for me. Jesus, God’s Son, did die for our sin. He is the ark door — make sure you go in.

The Starting Point: God has always wanted to be part of our lives. From the time of Adam and Noah, God has wanted to save people from sin. In Noah’s day, God provided the ark — people only had to come through its door to be saved. Now, God has provided salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the door we must pass through to be saved. Read John 10:7–9: Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” Read Romans 10:9: . . . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Bible Bits: (Share one at a time, and have the child repeat what you say.) ºº God sent His Son Jesus to save us, and we should share that good news with others. ºº Jesus never sinned and always did what God wanted Him to. ºº He sacrificed Himself to save us by dying on the Cross, and He rose again three days later. ºº Jesus wants us to receive Him into our hearts.

Z-NOTES pg. 69

ºº When we do this, our name is written in a special book, the Lamb’s Book of Life. ºº That means we have been saved and when we die, we will be able to be with God and Jesus forever.!

Let’s Talk! (Be sure that the child responds to each point and signals his or her understanding with an answer.) ºº Tell me about the illustration. ºº Who is the “door” that saves us now? ºº According to Romans 10:9, what must we do to be saved? ºº Why is it important that our names be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? ºº Why should we share this with others?

Always Remember: (The child needs to repeat this back to you.) God wants to be part of your life. He wants you to obey Him and live a good life. He loves you and everyone so much He sent His Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for our sin.

Stuff to Do: Zeal is a word in Scripture that means a strong passion for God and the things of God. For children, this can be a little hard to understand. Talk about emotions and those things that fill us with joy, or sadness, or anger. We can have a zeal for God no matter what our emotions are, because loving God is something we can commit to doing every day. Pray that you can have that passion for the things of God more every day.

Quick Review: 1. Why does God want to be part of our lives? 2. Who did God send to die for us on the Cross so we could be saved? 3. Why should we tell others this good news?

51

Z is for Zealous Zealous, all of us need to be To tell of God’s ark for you and for me.

Jesus, God’s Son, did die for our sin. He is the ark door — make sure you go in. 52

“A is for Ark” Overview:

Core Truth Takeaway:

Read 2 Timothy 3:16–17 to the children, and tell them about how God’s Word is a book of history, and that it has the true answers to our questions about life. Read to them Romans 3:23 and explain that the Bible tells us we all sin and deserve judgment. But because of sin, the One who created the world (Colossians 1:16) came to earth and died on a Cross, and was raised from the dead so we can spend eternity with God, and thus live with Him in a perfect place.

Tell them that the Bible is the Word of God — the God who has always been there, and who knows everything. We can know what is right about the history of this world, about who we are, why we are here, and where we are going.

Directed Discussion:

2. Why did God send a Flood?

Reinforce the fact that when we start with the Word of God — the God who knows everything because He was always there — we can know how the world began and where sin came from. The Bible also tells us about ourselves and the trouble we’re in because of sin (Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Isaiah 64:6; John 3:3–5). As we read the history of Noah and the ark, we’ll learn more about God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.

3. Do we sin?

Quick Review: 1. Is the Bible just a book of “stories”?

“B is for Back” Overview: Read Genesis 2:16–3:5 to the children. Explain that God made many trees and told Adam and Eve that there was only one — just one — that they couldn’t eat from. God made it easy for Adam and Eve to show that they wanted to love and obey their Creator. In fact, God really made it hard for them to disobey. He put so many trees around them that must have had lovely fruit and were “pleasant to look at,” that Adam and Eve would have had to go out of their way to eat from the one tree they were told to avoid. Look back at the Bible passage at the beginning of this section. God told Adam that if he ate the forbidden fruit he would “die.” Because we see death all around us in this present world, even without reading the rest of the account in Genesis, we should be able to guess that Adam did eat the forbidden fruit.

Some people say that because the world before sin did not have any death (of animals or man), that Adam would not have known what God meant when He warned, “You shall surely die.” However, remember that when God made Adam, He put into his brain all the information for him to have a language. If God hadn’t, Adam would not have been able to talk to God about anything. Even though he had not seen animals or humans die, he knew exactly what God meant as he had a perfect language right from the start. The forbidden fruit was located on the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Since the penalty for eating this fruit was to be death, we could really call this the “tree of death.” The other special tree that God talked about was called the “tree of life.” Notice that God did not tell them they could not eat from this tree. Its fruit was freely available to Adam and Eve. While they had access to this tree, it meant that they could live forever.

53

Directed Discussion:

Core Truth Takeaway:

It is important to explain to the children that there was really nothing “magical” about these trees. The fruit would not have necessarily made Adam die or live forever. However, God had said that one was the “tree of life,” and as long as God let Adam and Eve have the fruit from this tree, He would enable them to live forever. If Adam ate of the other special tree, the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” then God had determined that this was really the “tree of death.” This meant that if Adam and Eve ate from this tree, God would cause their bodies to die. To accomplish this, they had to be banished from the garden so they could not access the “tree of life.”

Have the children look up Genesis 2:16. Ask them, “Who was given the command not to eat the forbidden fruit: Adam or Eve?” This is very important, because, as we will learn when we get to “C,” it is Adam who gets the blame. He was the one who was given the responsibility to ensure that the forbidden fruit was not eaten.

Note that these two trees were in the special garden God had made (Genesis 2:8). Ask the children, “What would God have to do if Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit?” This would mean that God, who cannot go back on His word, would have to make Adam and Eve die. This would also mean that they would no longer eat from the tree of life.

1. If God wouldn’t allow Adam to eat from this one tree, what else could he have eaten?

Notice in the illustration that the forbidden fruit is not an apple. The Bible does not tell us what kind of fruit it was, so our illustrator made it look different from any fruit we know of today.

Quick Review Activity: 2. What is sin? 3. Does God make a difference between little sins and big ones?

“C is for Called” Overview:

Directed Discussion:

Read Genesis 3:6–23 to the children. Explain that because Adam and Eve sinned by eating fruit from the one tree God had told them not to, everything changed. Death and suffering entered the world, and Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden. Adam was told he would have to work very hard to get food. In the garden, God had provided food for Adam while he looked after the plants; now, sin had changed things and obtaining food would be very hard work.

Tell the children that in this beautiful Garden, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate some fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil because the devil tempted Eve. Then Adam ate as a result (Genesis 3:1–7). Explain how wrong it was to yield to that temptation and disobey God. Because of this rebellion — not obeying God’s rules — sin came into the world (Romans 5:12). Clearly define sin to them. It is disobedience or rebellion against God’s rules. Explain to them that all of us have the problem of wanting to disobey God because of our sin nature, and that this is why we often don’t want to obey our teachers, or our parents, or our employers and supervisors. Teach them that because of this rebellion, God placed a Curse on the world — in fact, on the whole universe (Genesis 3:14– 19).

It is hard work to produce food. Farmers have to plow the ground, fertilize it, water it, keep the pests away, keep the weeds out, harvest, and process it. It would have never been like this except for sin. The world was no longer a perfect place. God was no longer sustaining the world perfectly, and things had started to run down. The point is that because of sin, the whole of creation was affected, as we’ll see when we get to “E.”

54

Core Truth Takeaway: Romans 5:12 states that human death came into the world because of Adam’s sin. As a direct result of human sin, the first animals died (Genesis 3:21). There is a relationship between human sin and animal death. The fact that we see animals eating other animals today, or even that some of the dinosaurs ate other animals, was not a part of the original creation before sin, because the animals originally ate only plants. However, because of sin, death came into the world; therefore, some of the animals would have started eating other animals, and perhaps even people. It is also important to understand that there would not have been dead dinosaurs (bones of dinosaurs — fossils) before Adam sinned. This is one major reason why Christians can’t consistently believe in evolution and millions of years and try to mix that with the Bible in Genesis. You can use this section to emphasize to the children how awful sin is, and that all the terrible things we see in the world — the death

and suffering — are because of the sin which we inherited from our great-great-great . . . granddaddy, Adam. Explain that God had to judge sin because God is holy and perfect. The very reason God used death is so that once again we will be able to live in a perfect world after our bodies die, or when Jesus comes again. Tell them that without death, because we are sinners, we would not be able to go to live with God; we would always be separated from God. How terrible this would be!

Quick Review Activity: List all the things you can think of that you eat now, that man would not have been able to eat if he had been obedient to God (e.g., sausage, bacon, ham, burgers, hot dogs, any animal product).

“D is for Dreadful” Overview: Genesis 3:21 states: “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” God now made clothes for Adam and Eve — clothes of animal skins. This means at least one animal had to be killed so its skin could be used.

“. . . not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous” (1 John 3:12).

Directed Discussion:

This is the first time an animal died. Obviously, for an animal to be killed and skinned, blood would be shed. God sacrificed an animal because of Adam’s sin. This ties in beautifully with Hebrews 9:22, which says, “. . . and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” For the remission of sin, blood has to be shed.

In Genesis 9:6, after the Flood, God brought in the death penalty for anyone who was a murderer. God certainly punished Cain. He gave some sort of sign in regard to Cain as a warning to others (Genesis 4:15). God also told Cain that the earth would not produce for him as it would for others. There was an extra curse on the ground associated with Cain.

By the way, this also means that there could not have been the shedding of blood millions of years before the first man sinned — this would undermine the meaning of bloodshed in relation to sin. We can assume that God explained to Adam and Eve the significance of this event. He would have told them that because of sin, an offering had to be made to atone for sin.

After Cain killed Abel, the Bible tells us that Cain went to the land of Nod (or “wandering”) (Genesis 4:16). Some people read the Bible incorrectly here and think it says Cain found his wife in the land of Nod. However, he could easily have been married before he went to the land of Nod. The Bible tells us that Cain “knew” (had sexual relations with) his wife when he was in the land of Nod.

Cain did not like that God rejected his offering. It would seem from other passages of Scripture that Cain had a rebellion problem:

55

Core Truth Takeaway:

Quick Review Activity:

One of the things to point out to children is that sin is such a terrible thing that in just one generation after Adam and Eve, a person became a murderer. There have now been about six thousand years of sin with the Curse operating on this earth. Sin is a terrible “disease.”

1. What is a sacrifice? 2. What did God do to punish Cain? 3. Was there a special curse put on Cain?

“E is for Earth” Overview: Genesis 3:17–18 states, “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it”: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.’ ” Again, the children need to understand that big changes occurred in this once-perfect world. From that time on, the ground would not be as good as it was originally. It would be harder to get plants to grow. Thorns and thistles would start to grow. God may have changed some of the plants so they would not be very nice. They would have thorns and cause lots of work for Adam to clear them away.

Directed Discussion: We all know that if we do not take special care of our gardens and lawns, they will soon be full of weeds. In fact, we pay a lot of money for poisons to try to stop the weeds (like “thorns and thistles”) from growing. Ask any farmer how hard it is to grow crops, and he will tell you that he spends a lot of time and money trying to keep the weeds out. God has certainly cursed the ground — and it really does cause us lots of “sorrow.” Now you know why it is that “thorns and thistles” will grow much more easily than our nice flowers or vegetables. Every time we weed the garden, spray poisons for weeds, or watch a farmer getting weeds out of his field, we should be reminded of the Curse that was placed on the world because of our sin. This is a continual reminder that we are sinful people. We live in rebellion against God and need to repent of our sin.

Therefore, thorns and thistles (weeds) should remind us of the following: 1. There was once a perfect world without thorns and thistles. 2. The first man Adam sinned, and sin spoiled the perfect world. 3. God had to judge sin. As part of that judgment, He cursed the ground and caused thorns and thistles to grow. He made it harder for humans to grow plants in the ground. 4. One day in the future there will be a new earth and the Curse will be removed (Revelation 22:3). There will be no thorns and thistles in the new earth!

Core Truth Takeaway: Something else that is very interesting to consider concerns what happened when Jesus was arrested and crucified. When Jesus died on the Cross, He took our sin and paid the penalty of death so we could be redeemed (brought back to God — thus mending the broken relationship). Because of sin, death entered the world and God cursed the earth and brought forth thorns and thistles. Consider: 1. Adam ate from the “tree of death,” which is why death came into the world. When Jesus was crucified, He died on a tree (the Cross). The wood from which the Cross was made came from a tree that was a descendant of one of the trees God had made in the perfect world. Jesus suffered the very same curse of death He placed upon the world so we could live with Him forever. 2. Matthew 27:29 states, “When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’

56

Thorns were a result of the Curse. When they crucified our Lord, they put thorns on His head — big thorns that dug into His scalp and hurt more than we can imagine. The thorns we sometimes see in our gardens or yards are nothing compared to the thorns placed on Jesus’ head. He allowed Himself to suffer the horrible effects of the Curse — the terrible thorns, as He died for our sins. Really, He has not asked us to suffer anything more than He suffered Himself. How great is our God!

Quick Review Activity: 1. Is there a connection between Adam’s disobedience and the Crucifixion of Christ? 2. How did sin change the world? 3. What was God’s plan to save the world once Adam had disobeyed?

“F is for Fruitful” Overview: The famous Jewish historian Josephus records that according to Jewish tradition, Adam and Eve had 33 sons and 23 daughters. The Bible doesn’t tell us the exact number, it just says they had “sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:4). Since Adam lived for 930 years (Genesis 5:5), there was plenty of time to have lots of children.

Directed Discussion: The most-asked question concerning Genesis is probably the following: “Where did Cain find his wife?” Some people believe there had to be other people created in addition to Adam and Eve so Cain could have a wife. However, we have already shown in the notes for “D” that this cannot be so. Now consider the following: 1 Corinthians 15:45 tells us that Adam was the “first man.” Genesis 3:20 states that Eve was “the mother of all living.” Acts 17:26 tells us that all people are of “one blood,” and therefore all people are related. Thus, if there was only one man and one woman and all people are related in the first generation, brothers had to marry sisters back at the beginning. There was no problem with this originally, because the law that close relations could not marry did not come into being until the time of Moses. We read about this in Leviticus 18 (remember, Abraham was married to his half-sister). As long as marriage is one man for one woman for life, as discussed earlier, there was no problem

with a brother and sister marrying — originally. Because of sin and accumulated mistakes in our genes over the years, if brothers married sisters today, these mistakes in their genes would cause big problems in their children. That is why, in this fallen world, it is best to marry someone further away in relationship from you. Actually, when you think about it — you do marry your relation. Adam and Eve were the grandparents of us all. If they were not, then the whole gospel message becomes meaningless.

Core Truth Takeaway: Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Jesus is called the “last Adam.” You see, the first Adam brought death into the world. He was the representative head of the entire human race. Thus, all his descendants would suffer the problem of sin and death. We sin in Adam. We die in Adam. Therefore, there was needed a new Adam to be a new representative head. But he would have to be a perfect man — and it would have to be someone of the same blood (that is — related to all people). This person would have to pay the penalty for sin, which is death. He would have to be raised from the dead, thus conquering death. But He could not be any one of us since we are all sinners. God’s solution was to provide another Adam. Jesus Christ, the Creator and the Son of God, became a man (the last Adam) — a descendant of Adam (born of a virgin), but 100 percent God. He had two natures — God and man — but He was one person. Our Creator became our relative, so He could die for all His relations. This is why Paul states, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

57

“G is for Grave” Overview: By Noah’s day, it had only been about 1,600 years since God created Adam and Eve in a state of perfection. But Adam rebelled against God, and his children and their descendants had also, to varying degrees. Now the rejection of God was everywhere, being lived out in all sorts of horrible ways. But Noah had found grace in God’s eyes, because he loved God and followed His rules. God had a plan to save Noah and his family from the Flood. The Flood would cover the whole world, and all the people and animals that were not on the ark would die.

Directed Discussion: Read Psalm 1. God chose to spare Noah because he loved God and followed His rules. God made a way of salvation for Noah, just like He has made a way of salvation for us. Psalm 1 says that when we do what is right, we are blessed. It also says that we should meditate on God’s Word day and night. When we do, we are like trees planted by rivers of water. Ask the children, “Why do you think it says we will be like a tree?” (Answers should have to do with the Bible making us spiritually strong.)

Psalm 1 also says that the ungodly will perish. When God sent the Flood over the whole earth, everyone except the eight people on the ark died. God had to judge the world because the whole world was wicked and ungodly. It’s important to remember that God put a rainbow in the sky after the Flood as a sign that He would never send such a Flood again (Genesis 9:13–17). Noah’s Flood warns us that there will be a future judgment by fire (Matthew 24; 2 Peter 3). The future judgment will be a global judgment — just like the past judgment.

Core Truth Takeaway: God made a way of salvation for Noah through the ark, and He has made a way of salvation for us through His Son, Jesus. God has promised not to send another Flood, but He has warned us that there will be a future judgment by fire.

Quick Review Activity: 1. What was the promise associated with the rainbow? 2. How will God judge the earth in the future?

“H is for Hear” Overview:

Quick Review Activity:

Read to the children the passage from Genesis 6:12–13, which states that all flesh had become corrupt (violent). Again, explain that this was because sin had entered the world, and so God judged the world.

Have the students pretend they are newspaper reporters at the time of Noah. Ask them to write a short article on what they saw happening in the world and how wicked it had become. Have them make up a headline for this article.

Directed Discussion: Because the Bible says “all” flesh had become violent, you can tell them that it wasn’t just people who became violent, but animals, also. Thus, dinosaurs, as well as other animals, probably became violent, and started killing each other and maybe even killed people.

Using a poster board, or something similar, make up the front page of a newspaper and call it The Daily Curse. Paste a number of the students’ articles on this page and put the poster up on the wall as a reminder of how wicked the world was in Noah’s day. You may want to develop several newspapers and give them different names.

Core Truth Takeaway: God must have been very sad to see how violent His beautiful world had become. Remember how it once was? Now it had become a very terrible place in which to live.

58

“I is for Insane” Overview: Read Genesis 6:14–17, where God gives Noah instructions on how to build the ark. Explain that God specified the dimensions of the ark in “cubits.” This was the most common ancient unit of length, defined by the distance from elbow to fingertip. Like the foot, it became standardized. Different civilizations after the Flood adopted different cubit lengths, and it was not uncommon for a given culture to use two different cubits, a longer royal cubit and a shorter common cubit. Most large projects used royal cubits. For example, the Royal Egyptian cubit was 20.7 inches long, and it was used for building the pyramids.

Directed Discussion: Explain to the students that more than one cubit length seems to be used in the Bible. Though Moses refers to cubits repeatedly, he refers to a different “cubit of a man” in Deuteronomy 3:1. Solomon built the temple using the “cubit after the first measure.” In Ezekiel’s vision, an angel was taking measurements with a cubit which was a “cubit and a hand breadth,” a hint that God might use a longer cubit.

In Genesis 6:15, God tells Noah, “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits.” The scale of the ark is dramatic, and as demonstrated by the ancient Greeks and 15th-century Chinese shipbuilders, the ark is extremely close to the limits of wooden technology. With no need for tall masts or a streamlined hull, the hull (bottom, sides, and deck) of the ark could be made incredibly strong using ordinary wood and simple tools. We read in Genesis 4:22 that Zillah “also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor [forger] of every craftsman in bronze and iron.” Generations before Noah, Tubal-Cain began to work with metals, including iron. So Noah could have had access to bronze and iron tools. He may have used some metal fasteners in the construction of the ark.

Core Truth Takeaway: Many people express doubt that Noah could really have managed to build the ark. But all the evidence we have confirms what the Bible says — that Noah very easily could have built the ark with the tools available to him at the time. Noah was a brilliant man, and he clearly understood shipbuilding. We can trust what God’s Word tells us about Noah and the ark!

How long was the ark? Based on the royal Egyptian cubit, the ark was 517.5 feet long. If God used the shorter cubit, the ark was 450 feet long.

“J is for Judgment” Overview: Explain to the students that the Bible does not tell us that Noah and his sons built the ark by themselves. Noah could have hired skilled laborers or had relatives, such as Methuselah and Lamech, help build the vessel. However, nothing indicates that they could not — or that they did not — build the ark themselves in the time allotted. The physical strength and mental processes of men in Noah’s day was at least as great (quite likely, even superior) to our own. They

certainly would have had efficient means for harvesting and cutting timber, as well as for shaping, transporting, and erecting the massive beams and boards required.

Directed Discussion: Ask the students, “What shape was the ark?” Explain that while many biblical creationists have depicted the ark as a rectangular box, the Bible does not say that it must be that shape. The instructions we

59

have in Genesis say that the ark was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. Scripture does not tell us anything more about the shape of Noah’s ark beyond the ark’s length, breadth, and depth. Ships have long been described like this without implying a blockshaped hull. The Bible also does not give many clues about the specific details of the ark. But based on the designs of ancient ships, biblical creationists believe that the ark likely had some sort of obstruction on the bow. The obstruction would have helped the ark catch wind and navigate the waves. The ark likely also had a stern extension that would have assisted in turning the ark to point with the wind. Additional details would be ramps inside the ark to walk from one story to another, a covering along the deck, and possibly the use of an ancient shipbuilding technique known as planking in the ark’s construction.

ark had the proportions of a seagoing vessel built for waves (Genesis 6:15) and it moved about on the surface of the waters (Genesis 7:18). There would have been waves during the Flood — a global Flood high enough to cover even the mountains of that time would not have been calm. Not to mention, Genesis 8:1 says that God made a wind to pass over the earth.

Core Truth Takeaway: Overall, we can conclude that the ark was designed to withstand the conditions of the Flood. But we don’t know for certain whether it was shaped like a rectangular box or had more of a ship-like shape. In the end, God intended to keep the ark afloat and keep Noah, his family, and the creatures on board alive by His hand, no matter how the ark was designed.

Take this time to walk the students through the scriptural clues about what the ark was like and what the Flood conditions were like. The

“K is for Kept” Overview: If dinosaurs went on the ark, and came off the ark, and were created by God on day six, then are they mentioned in the Bible?

Directed Discussion: Read Job 40:15–18. The Book of Job refers to the behemoth, an enormous creature many think was a dinosaur, like the great brachiosaurus. No living beast quite fits the description of this one that had a tail that moved like a cedar tree. Read Job 40:19–23. From Job in the Bible to the account of Saint George and the dragon, it is highly possible that some dinosaurs lived quite a while after the Flood. Perhaps what people have said were just myths and stories about dragons just might be fact!

Core Truth Takeaway: The description above says this animal had a tail that moved like a cedar tree. Show them that a description like this does not fit an elephant or a hippopotamus, but that it does fit a sauropod

dinosaur. Actually, there is a special Hebrew word for elephant and also for hippopotamus. The word behemoth literally means “great quadruped.” This means it was a great animal on four legs. Tell them that in the passage from Job, God is talking to Job about this creature — and the words describe it as the largest land animal God made. The largest land animal we know of is a sauropod dinosaur. Job was a man who lived after the Flood, and obviously knew about dinosaurs. The Bible thus tells us that dinosaurs lived after the Flood, and that once again they lived at the same time as people. The word dinosaur was not invented until 1841, so no one would have called these creatures dinosaurs when they were living. It’s also important to realize that not every single species of dinosaur was present on the ark. Genesis 7:14–15 says that it was pairs from the animal “kinds” that went on the ark. Now, dinosaurs are divided into only about 50 families, which means there would only have been around 50 dinosaur kinds on the ark. This would have left plenty of room for Noah, his family, and all the other land animal kinds (including birds) on the ark.

60

“L is for Laughing” Overview: There are far fewer created kinds of animals than there are varieties. Thus, when God sent pairs of every land animal (seven of some, two of others) on board the ark, there were not as many animals as people think. Creation scientists estimate that there were likely around 1,000 animal kinds present on the ark.

Directed Discussion:

the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matthew 7:13). John 3:19 states that “men loved darkness rather than light.” Just as Noah and his family made sure they were safe in the ark, each one of us needs to make sure we are safe in Jesus, and that we have trusted in Him to save us from the future judgment. The beginning of Genesis 8 is a wonderful statement: “Then God remembered Noah. . . .” When you think of how violent the Flood waters must have been, how could Noah, his family, and the animals survive? Well, God tells us that He specially looked after Noah. Noah, his family, and the animals were not out of God’s thoughts for one moment.

Genesis 7:7 tells us that only eight people went into the ark. I am sure that in the last seven days while the ark was being loaded and the door was still open, Noah was warning people, “Come into the ark and be saved — the judgment by water is coming.” Sadly, only his sons and their wives went on board with him.

Core Truth Takeaway:

In a similar way today, we should be preaching a message like this: “Come to the Lord Jesus and be saved — the judgment by fire is coming.”

You know, just as God “remembered Noah” in the midst of such a horrible catastrophe, He remembers each one of us, moment by moment. Isn’t that a comforting thought!

Point out to the children that even though people today might say that the majority of scientists don’t believe the Bible and don’t believe in past or future judgment, the majority in Noah’s day did not believe it either. What happened to the majority of people in Noah’s day? They drowned! Just because the majority believe (or don’t believe) something does not mean they are right. The Bible tells us, “Wide is

Quick Review Activity: 1. Why was the ark built bigger than what the animals or Noah’s family would need? 2. How is the ark an example of how we can trust in God?

“M is for Mighty” Overview:

Core Truth Takeaway:

Because of the effect of the Flood, we find plants and animals buried in mud all over the earth. At the end of the Flood, these mud layers eventually hardened and turned to stone. The preserved remains of animals and plants found in these rocks are called fossils.

Explain that if we add up the dates in the Bible, the Flood occurred only about 4,300 years ago, which would mean that most of the fossils, including dinosaur fossils, would be no more than about 4,300 years of age.

Directed Discussion:

Quick Review Activity:

Explain that most of the fossils on the earth’s surface would have been formed because of the effect of this worldwide Flood. There have been local disasters, like volcanoes, which have laid down rock layers since then — but most fossils were formed during the Flood of Noah’s day.

Take a glass bottle and half fill it with dirt. Then fill the rest of the bottle with water and shake it furiously (after putting a lid on the bottle). Put the bottle down and let the water and mud settle. Have the children observe that as the mud settles, it forms different layers. Have them draw a diagram of these layers.

61

Show them a picture of Grand Canyon. Ask them to draw a picture of the Grand Canyon layers on a large piece of paper. Then write the following caption on their picture: Billions of dead things buried in rock layers

Have the children memorize the caption. Explain to them that if the little bit of water and dirt in their bottle formed into layers after mixing it up, you would expect to find lots of layers all over the earth because the Flood of Noah’s day mixed up lots of mud.

Laid down by water all over the earth.

“N is for Noah” Overview:

Core Truth Takeaway:

Read Genesis 6:8 and share with the children the fact that there was only one righteous man in the whole world that God reveals to us — Noah. He was the only man (along with his family) who loved God and had not turned against Him. Because the world had become so wicked, God warned this righteous man, Noah, that He was going to send a Flood to destroy the world.

You can also point out to them that the majority of people (in fact, nearly everyone in the world) were wrong because they rejected God’s Word. Today, because most scientists don’t believe in creation, people say they must be right. However, the majority may not always be right. In Noah’s day, the majority was wrong.

Directed Discussion: Tell them how faithful Noah was. He did everything God commanded him to do (Genesis 6:22). Because Noah was such a good man and loved God, God promised to save him, his three sons, and their wives from this Flood that was going to cover the whole earth, and which would destroy all the wicked people and violent animals.

Quick Review Activity: Have the students pretend they are Noah, before the Flood. Have them make up a one-minute sermon that Noah might have preached to warn the people about the impending Flood and to be righteous. They can write out this sermon and then stand up in front of the other students (pretend they are the wicked people) and preach the sermon to them.

“O is for Over” Overview: Read Genesis 6:14, where God tells Noah to build an ark to save his family and representatives of all the kinds of air-breathing land animals from the Flood. This great ship was to be made of wood, and God would send pairs of land animals of each kind on this ark (two in some cases, seven in others).

Directed Discussion: Ask the children, “What happened to the animals that didn’t go on the ark?” If the world was covered in water, obviously they drowned. If Noah’s Flood did occur, we would expect to find billions of dead

things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. Ask, “What do we find in rock layers?” We find fossils! Because of Noah’s Flood, there would have been lots of mud all over the earth, and it would have buried many of the animals and plants. We find their remains in these layers all over the earth. This fits with the fact that animals could die only after Adam sinned. These fossils of animals could not have formed until after the Fall. For fossils to form, there needs to be lots of water and mud. Thus, the Flood provided an excellent mechanism for forming literally millions or more fossils after Adam sinned.

62

Core Truth Takeaway: Read Genesis 7:2–3. Here God said He would send pairs of every kind of air-breathing land animal on board the ark. Genesis 6:19 tells us that God would send a male and female of each kind. (There were to be seven of each of the clean beasts and fowls, and two each of the unclean animals.) If God sent every kind of land animal on the ark, this would have included dinosaurs. God made no exceptions;

therefore, dinosaurs must have gone on the ark as well (most were small and there were only about 50 kinds of dinosaurs).

Quick Review Activity: On a poster, write down the caption, “Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.” The students can then illustrate this caption on the poster. Have them memorize and recite the caption.

“P is for Pleasure” Overview: At the Creation Museum (located in the Greater Cincinnati area), we use a Walk Through History based on what we call the 7 C’s of History. The 7 C’s consist of a perfect creation that is corrupted by sin and will be restored by Jesus Christ. That history is divided into seven periods: Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation.

Directed Discussion: Let’s define each of the 7 C’s. 1. Creation: God created in six normal-length days around 6,000 years ago. He called His finished creation “very good.” Life was perfect. 2. Corruption: God told Adam that he could eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and Adam’s sin brought death, sickness, and sorrow into the once-perfect creation. God pronounced a Curse on the world, changing it completely. 3. Catastrophe: As people multiplied and filled the earth, they began to disobey God more and more. Their wickedness was great. God told Noah to build an ark, and to take his family and representatives of each kind of land animal and birds onto the ark. God judged the world with a catastrophic Flood. 4. Confusion: After the Flood, Noah’s descendants disobeyed God’s command to fill the earth. They built a tower — probably to worship the heavens (instead of the God who made the heavens) — which they hoped would keep them together. God brought a confusion of languages in place of the common language people shared, causing them to spread out over the earth.

5. Christ: Our salvation comes through Christ, the Creator God who became a man who would do what the first Adam did not — live a perfect life in obedience to the Father. 6. Cross: Jesus Christ was the Redeemer promised 4,000 years earlier (first promised in Genesis 3:15). He came to save the world from sin by dying on the Cross and rising three days later. He paid the death penalty so that those who believe would have eternal life with Him. 7. Consummation: Those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, confessing He is Lord and believing in His Resurrection, look forward to the consummation of all things. The Curse will be removed and God will provide a new heavens and a new earth for His children. There will be no death, mourning, pain, or crying.

Core Truth Takeaway: The Bible tells us that God knows everything. He has all knowledge. This means that the Bible is the Word of someone who knows everything there is to know about the past, the present, and the future. We can trust the history God’s Word gives us, as well as what it says about our future!

Quick Review Activity: On a poster or individually, have the students write out each of the 7 C’s (Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, etc). Then have them draw pictures with each of the C’s that represent them (for example, students could draw an ark and a Flood to go with Catastrophe). Ask the students to explain the pictures they chose and how they fit with each of the C’s. Have the students memorize and recite the 7 C’s of history.

63

“Q is for Quiet” Overview: Just as God provided a solution for Noah and his family to be saved from the Flood, He has also provided a solution to us to save us from the punishment for sin and its consequence of eternal separation from God.

Directed Discussion: God is so holy and so pure that any sinful human could not be in His presence. When God made Adam, this first man was perfect. He had a perfect relationship with God. However, because Adam rebelled against his Creator, he could no longer live in the presence of God. He really forfeited his right to live. God caused Adam and Eve, and subsequently all their descendants, to die physically. This was a righteous punishment because the first man had totally rebelled against His Creator. But even though all humans would die physically, their souls would live forever. Unfortunately, they could never live with God because they were sinners. (Animals do not have immortal souls, so in the fallen world because of death, it seems most likely they cease to exist.) But God provided a solution for Adam and Eve and their descendants. Because Adam, the representative head of the entire

“R is for Raven” Overview: Explain that dinosaurs would have laid eggs and produced more dinosaurs, so there would have been an increasing number of dinosaurs after the Flood.

Directed Discussion: After the Flood, the world would have deteriorated greatly. There would have been local floods, droughts, and snow, and people probably would have become violent again, because all human beings suffer from the same problem that Adam brought into the world — sin.

human race (all humans are descendants of Adam and Eve), brought sin and death into the world, there needed to be a new Adam. This Adam would be the new representative head of the human race that would pay the penalty for sin.

Core Truth Takeaway: This is where we discover the most wonderful message of all. God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things, to be a perfect man. In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul calls Jesus the “last Adam.” In other words, God provided another Adam. This perfect Adam suffered the curse of death on the Cross, paying for all our sins. He then rose from the dead, conquering death, so those who love and trust Him as their Savior can live forever with God instead of separated from Him. Did you realize that God Himself suffered the same judgment He placed on the world? He really must love us! Thank Him daily for His love.

Quick Review Activity: 1. What was God’s plan to save mankind? 2. What changed with Adam’s sin? 3. Why must we be punished for our sin?

Core Truth Takeaway: Review again what led up to the Ice Age. Explain that the colder temperatures of the Ice Age would probably have been enough to kill off many of the dinosaurs affected by it. Because dinosaurs were most likely reptiles, they may not have coped very well in a cold climate, so this also may have contributed to killing them off or at least reducing their numbers.

Quick Review Activity: 1. What was happening to the world after the Flood? 2. What likely killed off many of the dinosaurs?

64

“S is for Sent” Overview: During the Flood, Noah and his family had to care for all the animals, including the dinosaurs, on the ark. Just as God brought the animals to Noah by some form of supernatural means, He surely also prepared them for this amazing event.

Directed Discussion: Creation scientists think that God may have given some of the animals on the ark the ability to hibernate, as we see in many animals today. Most animals react to natural disasters, like the Flood of Noah’s day, in ways that were designed to help them survive. It’s very possible many animals did hibernate, perhaps even supernaturally intensified by God. Whether God caused the hibernation or if it was just a normal response to the darkness and confinement of the ark, the fact that God told Noah to build rooms (qen — literally in Hebrew “nests”) in Genesis 6:14 tells us that the animals were subdued or nesting. God also told Noah to take food for them (Genesis 6:21), which tells us that they were not hibernating for the entire time on the ark either. If we could walk through the ark as it was being built, we would probably be amazed at the ingenious systems on board for water, food storage, and distribution. As John Woodmorappe explains in Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study, a small group of farmers today can raise thousands of cattle and other animals in a very small space. We

could easily imagine all kinds of devices on the ark that would have enabled a small number of people to feed and care for the animals, from watering to waste removal. Noah and his family would not have needed any special devices to care for all the animals. But if there were special devices, how would they be powered? There are all sorts of possibilities. How about a plumbing system for gravity-fed drinking water, a ventilation system driven by wind or wave motion, or hoppers that dispense grain as the animals eat it? None of these require higher technology than what we know existed in ancient cultures, and yet such cultures probably lacked the skill and capability of Noah and the pre-Flood world.

Core Truth Takeaway: Many of the animals on the ark likely hibernated. God told Noah and his family to bring food for the animals. Noah’s family probably had all sorts of ingenious methods to care for them. Noah was probably much more intelligent than we are and could have built some amazing things.

Quick Review Activity: 1. Could Noah and his family have cared for the animals without special devices? 2. What kinds of things do you think Noah could have invented for the ark?

“T is for Twice” Overview: If dinosaurs went on the ark, then they must have come out of the ark after the Flood. This would mean that dinosaurs lived in the world after the Flood.

Directed Discussion: Review with the children the fact that dinosaurs were created on the same day as Adam. It’s unlikely that dinosaurs or any animals had died out before the Flood.

Ask the students if they have ever heard any dragon legends. There are many legends around the world that say there used to be dragons, and that people killed them. Ask them for descriptions of what these dragons were like. Show them that many of these descriptions could actually fit many of the dinosaurs. Land dragons (possibly dinosaurs) and sea dragons (e.g., leviathan in Job 41) are even mentioned in the Bible! Suggest to the children that perhaps these dragon legends are based on real encounters with animals that people called dragons, but

65

which were actually dinosaurs. People may have embellished these stories over the years. There is evidence from all over the earth that dinosaurs/dragons lived in different parts of the world, alongside people. These creatures lived at the same time as Noah; they went into the ark, and they came off the ark after the Flood. Explain that even the largest dinosaur (probably a sauropod) was small when it hatched out of an egg. It may have taken a long time, perhaps hundreds of years, for these dinosaurs to reach their enormous sizes.

Core Truth Takeaway: Remind the children that Noah’s ark rested on a mountain for a number of months before the animals came out, so there was plenty of time for the mud to harden and for plants to grow, which would have provided food and shelter for the dinosaurs and other animals after this terrible event.

Quick Review Activity: Write a 20-word message about sighting a big animal. Have the children sit down together. Whisper the message to the first person, and have them whisper it to the next person, and so on. Then have the last person say out loud the message that they received. It will most likely have some similarities to the original message, but it will also have many differences. Explain how stories can change when handed down by word of mouth — people forget some things, and add other things. Thus, the dragon legends could be variations of true stories with some elements of the original versions, but now containing many differences, also. Also remind them that God’s Word has not changed as God specially watched over it.

“U is for Usher” On the 150th day of the Flood, the ark landed on the mountains of Ararat. On the 370th day, Noah, his family, and the animals (including dinosaurs) came out of the ark.

around the world, often taking their favorite animals with them. Thus, animals would have spread around the world. Each kind would end up forming different varieties within a kind as they separated and went in other directions. This explains why we have different varieties of animals like bears, elephants, horses, and so on.

Directed Discussion:

Core Truth Takeaway:

The ark landed in the area we now know as the Middle East. Therefore, this means that every type of land animal (including kangaroos, elephants, dinosaurs, etc.) once lived in the Middle East. These animals would have started to breed and move around the earth. After the Flood, there would have been much evaporation because the oceans were warmer (remember, most of the water came from under the ground). This would have produced great storms with snow and ice and ultimately caused the Ice Age.

Wouldn’t you think that this Flood would have left such an impression around the world and in the minds of the people on board that as the population grew after the Flood they would not disobey God? Due to their sinful nature, the people very quickly forgot the judgment of God.

Overview:

As water left the oceans and was turned into snow and ice, the ocean levels would have dropped, forming land bridges around the world. The animals would move to other continents over these land bridges. Also, ever since the time of Noah, people have built boats and sailed

Quick Review Activity: 1. Where did the ark land? 2. How did the animals spread across the world? 3. What is an animal kind?

66

“V is for Very” Overview: Noah, his family, and the animals (including dinosaurs) came out of the ark. What was the first thing Noah did? He sacrificed one of every clean animal (Genesis 8:20). This would have been one of the greatest sacrifices ever! Noah was thankful to God for saving him. He recognized that God was sending the Flood because He is a righteous judge.

Directed Discussion: Noah knew that the judgment came because of sin and that blood had to be shed for sin. Even though Noah was saved on the ark, he recognized that he was still a sinner and had to make sacrifices for sin.

God’s words to Noah suggest that several things familiar to us in the present were different before the Flood. For example, murder was apparently not punishable by death, and animals were not afraid of man. Also, while fossils of animals buried in the Flood show that some animals were already eating other animals, God waited until after the Flood to allow man to eat animals.

Core Truth Takeaway: The ark is a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ. Noah had to go through a door to be saved, and so must we go through a door (Jesus Christ — John 10:9) to be saved. The ark saved Noah from the judgment and Jesus will save us from the fiery judgment of hell if we put our faith and trust in Him.

Quick Review Activity:

Because of sin, death entered the world. After the Flood, God declared that a person’s blood (in other words, their death) would be required as a consequence for murder (Genesis 9:6). He also said that animals would now fear man (Genesis 9:3) and that man could start eating animals.

1. What changed after the Flood?

“W is for Wonderful”

Directed Discussion:

Overview: When the floodwaters receded, God made a safe place for man (and animals) to go. He promised that He would never again send another Flood to destroy the earth. Read Psalm 104:5–9: You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever, You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. They went up over the mountains; they went down into the valleys, to the place which You founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. Explain that the people who did not heed God’s Word were destroyed at the time of the Flood, but that those who did trust God’s Word were saved on the ark (Genesis 7:23).

2. Who is the “door” we must go through for salvation today?

Read the following passages to the children: Acts 1:9–11; Revelation 1:7; and 1 Thessalonians 4:16–18. These passages tell us that Jesus Christ, who came to earth to die for our sin, is coming back some day. Explain that this world was judged once by water, but that next time it is going to be judged by fire (2 Peter 3:10). Also, at this time, remind them of the account of the rainbow. In Genesis 9:12–13, God tells us that He put a rainbow in the sky as a sign that He will never again send a worldwide Flood. Tell them that the next time they see a rainbow it should remind them that God once judged the whole world with water, but that He will never do it again. This should be a warning that He will next judge the world by fire, but that if we are trusting in Him, as did Noah, we will be saved from this judgment of fire in our ark of salvation (Jesus), just as Noah was saved from the judgment of the Flood in the ark God told him to build.

67

Core Truth Takeaway: Share with the children the wonderful fact that if they trust God’s Word today, the Lord Jesus will save them from the judgment which is coming on this earth. Tell them how much we need to be like Noah, who trusted God’s Word. If we do this, God will save us from the judgment to come.

Quick Review Activity: 1. How is the rainbow a reminder of God’s goodness? 2. What is the rainbow a warning of? 3. How can we be saved from the coming judgment?

“X is in eXtensive” Overview: Obviously, if dinosaurs came off the ark, they must have lived in the world after the Flood. However, we don’t see any today, so they must have died out — or what may be left are hiding really well — after all, some were the size of chickens! If there were around 50 kinds of dinosaurs represented on the ark, then presumably around 50 kinds of dinosaurs lived after the Flood.

Directed Discussion: Explain that sometimes big names can seem overwhelming. Ask the children to listen as you pronounce dinosaur names. Have them speak the names back to you so they can build confidence in their pronunciations.

One of the things you can do here is obtain Dinosaurs for Kids by Ken Ham. This is a popular book on dinosaurs written from the biblical viewpoint. Either read the book to them or select a number of different dinosaur names and teach the children to pronounce them.

Core Truth Takeaway: Suggest to the children that these dinosaurs would have been living in the present world after the Flood.

Quick Review Activity: Have each of the students learn ten of their favorite dinosaur names. Then see how fast they can say all ten names. Perhaps you could have a competition, and time each person as they say the ten names. It can be fun learning dinosaur names and how to pronounce them.

“Y is for Years” Read Genesis 1:26–31. Explain how we can often look at someone and guess his or her age. This can also be fun to try if we’re looking at old toys, or cars, or buildings. But it gets harder, the older the things are. For the earth, the Bible makes it clear it’s no more than about 6,000 years old.

Tell them that there are many scientists who do not believe in evolution and millions of years. They are called creation scientists, and they work in many research laboratories around the world. Some of them work at Answers in Genesis, universities, national laboratories, and other places. Explain that they are highly qualified scientists who have done a lot of research to show clearly that the world is only thousands of years old, just as the Bible tells us.

Directed Discussion:

Core Truth Takeaway:

Emphasize to the children that when we add up all the dates in the Bible, from the first day of creation through the Flood, and right up to Christ, we get about 4,000 years. From Christ until the present time, it amounts to only about 2,000 years, for a total of 6,000 years.

Share with the children that evolutionary scientists will try and tell them that the earth is millions or billions of years old. Remind them that no scientist was there, but God has always been there. The Bible shows that from Adam to Jesus, only a few thousand years went by.

Overview:

68

Quick Review Activity: Lay 60 crayons, pencils, or popsicle sticks end on end (in a hallway or on a sidewalk). Tell a child that each one represents 100 years — very

few people live longer than 100! With this they can get a visual idea of how many years ago it was that God created the earth, the time back to Noah, and other big events in history. It wasn’t really that long ago!

“Z is for Zealous” Overview: Read Revelation 20–22. Take particular note of the following passages: Revelation 20:12–15 Revelation 21:1–8

Now that the children have all the background information, go through the plan of salvation from beginning to end using the information and Scriptures in the above notes. Use other Scriptures as well (e.g., 1 John 1:9; Romans 3:23) to help them understand they need to repent of their sin.

Revelation 22:12–14

This can be a special time to challenge each child to make a commitment to Christ. Write and tell us when commitments are made. We would love to hear from you! You may write to Answers in Genesis, P.O. Box 510, Hebron, KY 41048 or email: correspondence@ answersingenesis.org.

Directed Discussion:

Core Truth Takeaway:

Explain to the children that all those who love the Lord Jesus and have asked Him into their hearts, believing and acknowledging that He is their savior, will have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Share Luke 15:10: “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Revelation 21:27 Revelation 22:3

However, the Bible clearly teaches that those who have not trusted the Lord Jesus will be judged and sent to a place of torment forever and ever! This should make every one of us want to ensure that we are saved, and tell everyone about this message. This final section presents an opportunity to lead children to Christ if they have not made that commitment. It also is a great opportunity to pray for unsaved friends and loved ones. Take this opportunity to bring the truth of Christ to them!

69

I hereby decla re that I am going to live with Jesus forever beca use of my sin, whic h I inher ited from Adam and conti nue to do perso

I have repented

nally. I also

decla re that I love and trust the Lord Jesus with all my heart and

soul and believe

in Him. I know this is true beca use Jesus died for my sin, and conq uered

death

beca use He rose from the dead . I know this beca use the Bible tells me. I decla re that I am a Christian. Name Date

70

71