YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

Have you ever known a kid who couldn't stay out of trouble? No matter how many good things his parents showered upon him, he went from bad to worse. Unfortunately, this seems to be the story of man. God created this beautiful world, gave man every thing he needed for survival and more, yet he seems bent on doing the opposite from what God tells him to do. Man seems to always choose things that aren't in his best interest.

A population explosion took place on planet Earth as people began having children. The crime rate was rising rapidly across the earth.The world was rotten to the core! According to Usher's chronology, man had only been on this earth about 1500 years when the entire population was in deep trouble. People didn't seem to realize how corrupt they had become. Maybe they didn't care, or they liked their world. But God didn’t!

"When the Lord God saw the extent of human wickedness, and that the trend and direction of men's lives were only towards evil, he was sorry he had made them. It broke his heart.

"And he said, ‘I will blot out from the face of the earth all mankind that I created. Yes, and the animals too, and the reptiles and the birds. For I am sorry I made them’” (Genesis 6:5-7 TLB).

How tragic! The crown of creation had become so vile, evil, corrupt, vicious, and depraved that God was sorry He had ever made man. It broke His heart to see such disobedience, lack of appreciation, and total rejection of Him and His way.

There was only one truly righteous man on the entire earth at that time and his name was Noah - a preacher of righteousness. He tried to live according to God’s will. What was Noah's life like? All of his peers must have pressured him to be like they were. He was certainly the odd man on the . .. earth. Noah found grace in God's eyes. He took notice of Noah's lifestyle and liked what He saw. He told Noah to build a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high because He was going to destroy all mankind with a flood. He promised to keep Noah, his wife, sons, and their wives safe.

God instructed Noah to "Bring a pair of every animal - a male and a female- into the boat with you, to keep them alive through the flood. Bring a pair of each kind of bird and animal and reptile. Store away in the boat all the food that they and you will need. And Noah did everything as God commanded him." He was also to take seven pairs of every clean bird and animal into the boat for eating and sacrificing.

Noah was almost 500 years old when God told him to build the Ark. God said that He would give man 120 years to mend his ways. Noah must have been preaching to people as he built the Ark. Friends and passers-by probably thought Noah was nutty. They may have even nicknamed him Nutty Noah. Such jeers as this must have been nonstop: "This old man won't live long enough to finish this boat."

God gave Noah his marching orders and Noah promptly proceeded to do exactly as he was told. He didn't argue with God. He just went to work building the Ark. When it was finished "He boarded the boat with his wife and sons and their wives, to escape the flood. With him were all the various kinds of animals. . . "Then a week after Noah was 600 years, two months, and 17 days old, this torrential rain began coming down in unbelievable sheets. In addition to this, the subterranean waters burst forth on the earth. It was too late for all the other people, animals, and birds that were not safely on the Ark. Instant chaos ensued. People rushed to the highest hill, then climbed the tallest tree to save their lives. But it was too late! Noah warned them, but they failed to heed his warning. They failed to mend their ways. The ark's door was closed.

The water began rising. It was deep enough for the boat to begin to float. For 40 days the floods roared and the water rose higher and higher above the ground. All living things on the earth died! The water covered the earth for 150 days. But God never forgot Noah and everyone and everything in the Ark. He sent wind to blow and the water began to subside.

After 40 days Noah opened a porthole and let a raven out. It flew back and forth until the earth was dry. He sent out a dove to see if it could find dry land. It couldn't and returned to the boat. Seven days later Noah released the dove again. This time the dove returned with an olive leaf in her beak. Noah knew the water was almost gone. A week later he released the dove again, and this time she didn't come back. Noah waited 29 days before he opened the door to look out. After eight more days the earth was dry and God told Noah that they could leave the Ark.

Noah built an altar and sacrificed an animal to God. Then God made a covenant with Noah and put a rainbow in the sky as a perpetual reminder that He would never destroy the earth again with water. "As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night" (Genesis 8:22 TLB). Noah learned that it pays to obey God. What about you? Will you obey Him?